In the beginning ...

Day 1
I've just become a participant in the underwear business: I had an idea, I bought a domain and then I left it for almost a year. In this time I spoke to everyone I know about my idea, I visited an underwear factory and met with the founder of a local lingerie chain.

The overall professional consensus was that it was a cute idea. It seems that everyone has a slogan they want on underwear but very few people thought I should actually go ahead and do it. I have a friend who said think small, start with pilot, make a few pairs and take it from there. This is exactly what I decided to do. 1,000 pairs of underwear, two slogans and one style later -jewButt™ is born - thank you Michael.

Day 2
My sister has a brand too, hers is real brand - my brand is like the illegitimate half sibbling with somewhat questionable lineage ... I have been involved with her brand since it's inception, so I know that the key to building a brand is, well, having a brand. That means having an aesthetic that clearly defines your product, your audience and who you are.

I went to the best branding people I know and told them about my idea. They got it straight away, they even thought it was funny which was reassuring and I love what they came up with. In fact almost everyone loves what they came up with.

Think about it before telling me you don't love it, remember I put slogans on underwear in my spare time.

Day 3
I chose a style and I bought 1,000 pairs of underwear wholesale (well more like retail without VAT) and I then drove around with 1,000 pairs of underwear in my car for a good couple of weeks as we set up the printing.

[Funny side story - I have a day job, we have a summer intern at my day job. I pick him up to drive him to work on his very first day, we have a slight miscommunication about the location I'm to meet him at, so he runs up and down the hill at the entrance/exit to Jerusalem on a very hot day, he finally gets into the car and we zoom off to work. I notice a strange clanking noise, he says "Ah sounds like you have a flat tire", I say "You know how to change a tire, right?" We pull over and he changes the tire but not before we shuffle 1,000 pairs of underwear out of the trunk and onto the back seat. The funniest bit was that he didn't even ask me why I had 1,000 pairs of underwear in my trunk.]

Finally the underwear reaches the printers and they are just glad my first run is on bikini briefs and not thongs (too little fabric). I also spend half a day supervising the printing of my packaging. Little pink and gold boxes - they are beautiful.

Day 4
I FREAK OUT. This is a little incorrect, in fact I freak out every day at every step of the process. This is how a freak out goes: What am I thinking? Who the hell is going to buy this underwear? Where am I going to sell the underwear? Why am I doing this again?

The hardest part was probably signing off on the production orders, I'm very good a building budgets and managing production processes it's my day job but it all takes on an entirely new level of seriousness when the money to pay for the work comes out of my very own, personal, bank account.

Day 5
I contact my friend who works at the Jerusalem Rape Crisis Center to see if I can link the brand to the center and give them some of my profits in return. Whenever I tell people about this they knowingly nod, yes social action is important. I'm a feminist, I like goldfish to ride bicycles and jewButt is a feminist brand. It is not my intention to sell undies using cute visuals of women's bums.

Unfortunately sexual abuse is often directed at my gender and I like the Jerusalem Rape Crisis Center because it supports the entire Jerusalem community regardless of gender, nationality or religion and they need money. I hope to make money. Seems like a win-win to me.

Day 6
I have my first sale at a friends house. About 40 people show up (mainly friends but they count too) and I sell about 30 pairs. So pretty much everyone bought a pair and some of the friends that came were boys, so they were entirely there in the role of moral support.

Houston we have lift off.

It's early days, people like the product, they think it's funny, it makes them laugh, they want more, everyone wants thongs - I'll have to warn the printers. I'm getting good feedback. Only one friend has told me that he's had to remove me from his facebook friend list because he can't associate himself with my logo - hmmm well at least he noticed I changed my profile picture.

Day 7
I start this blog.
I look forward to resting, it's Shabbat tonight.