Nov 29, 2019
It was in 2017, the year we launched the Konny Baby Carrier, that I decided I should make a carrier warmer myself, one that would go well with it. Let me tell you the story of how the Konny Carrier Warmer was born, a product I developed by (once again) throwing myself in headfirst with nothing to go on.
The first production run of the Konny Baby Carrier, which had been expected to sell for two months, sold out within two weeks of launch. No one had predicted it, and I was more bewildered than happy. It was shocking, too. Until then, I had never stopped doubting myself. Would customers listen to my story? Would they open their wallets for something I made? Could I really see this through to the end without giving up… I felt sorry toward myself for having doubted myself. Raising my baby myself through the intensive stage of child-rearing, I had felt at every moment, "Something like this seems like a must." That was my instinct as a mom and as a consumer, and from then on I wanted to trust it more. "It's okay to fail. If you learn something, you come away with something." I went back to my original resolve, burning with drive to make more of the things customers might truly need.
"The most inconvenient time while raising my child was…" One by one, I called up inconvenient memories from raising a child.
For me, one of the most inconvenient memories of raising my child was "going out in winter." I gave birth in September, and it was in December that I really started wanting to go out. But for a new mother whose body had not fully recovered, our winters here in Korea were far too harsh to go out in with a baby. In the cold, the baby and I both had to bundle up in layers, and on top of that, the bulk of what I had to pack to prepare for a cold wave was beyond anything I had imagined. Carrier warmer, padded one-piece suit, winter blanket… It was all cumbersome, and I never had enough hands, so going out in winter without my husband took courage I could not easily find. Then, on a day when the baby and I went out alone, on an outing that doubled as a vaccination visit, it was one fumble after another. If I went out in a carrier warmer, putting it on and taking it off while in full combat gear was a huge hassle. If I went out light with a blanket instead of a warmer, it kept falling off and I kept picking it up… Sweeping the street with it in the dead of winter, I thought, "What am I even doing…"
"Couldn't going out in midwinter be lighter and simpler?"
That was when I saw what needed improving: the carrier warmer. We launched the Konny Baby Carrier in September 2017, so for the first two to three weeks many photos of customers wearing it beautifully went up on Instagram. But from early October, as the gap between day and night temperatures widened, I started seeing photos of a gauze blanket draped over the Konny Baby Carrier, of a windbreaker warmer over it, of mom's or dad's lightweight padded jacket draped backward over it, and so on. No matter how light the carrier was, I realized, without a warmer that cut down the winter load, the word "ultralight" was little more than an empty label. It was the end of September when I settled on the warmer as the next item after the Konny Baby Carrier, and from early October I was once again starting to draw from scratch…
Now I know it made no sense to start from planning in early October, just as it was turning chilly, when there was barely enough time even to produce a winter product (one that did not exist anywhere in the world). But back then I didn't know. If I just plan the product diligently, it'll be out by the end of December! Korea's early-spring cold snaps last until April, so there will definitely be people who buy this warmer! That is what I naively thought back then… (My inexperience shows way too much here.)
I went around Dongdaemun, Seoul's wholesale fabric district, buying fabric. To make the samples myself, I drew with a pencil on unbleached cotton, cut the pieces out and stuck them together, and tested them over and over while holding a baby-sized doll (by then my child had grown quite a bit). At the same time, I started meeting with a production agency I had been introduced to. They would have more knowledge and experience than me, so I thought they could make up for what I lacked and save me time. We met several times a week, the fabric was decided, and the prototype sample was finished.
All that was left was to decide: go! But really strangely, something kept bothering me. It was a sample finished entirely on the basis of my own decisions, yet I wasn't happy with a prototype finished in a race against the schedule. Thinking as a consumer, would I gladly open my wallet for it? I wasn't confident. The moment the designer at the outsourcing company said, "You have to decide now. Otherwise you won't be able to sell it this time," I snapped to my senses. After agonizing over it, I said it: "I can't sell this product. I'm sorry."
Ah, thinking back to that time, it was really painful. I had the exact product I wanted to make in my head, so why was the finished product different from it… I needed time to accept that I had been wrong, that I had failed. But looking a little further ahead, it was a really, really good decision. If I hadn't stopped then, that product would have become Konny's biggest blemish.
Think about it: a carrier warmer is a must-have you wear every single time you go out, but you don't buy two or three of them, right? You might buy two or three carriers and use them side by side, but with a warmer, you pick just one to get you through the season. (Rather than buy two warmers, you'd usually buy the baby two coats… That's what moms are like, right?) That's why I felt a carrier warmer had to be a single garment that you truly love, that is comfortable, well made, good and reasonable. For that, it could not be released in a race against time, and it could not be a shoddy garment made by compromising on the fabric, the trims and the sewing quality.
"Only when time is on my side can I make a good decision." That's one of my mottos. I believe you only find something you truly love when you put in the legwork over a long time, go through trial and error, and above all are not chased by time. (A man, a newlywed home, clothes…) So I decided to take one more year to think it over thoroughly. I resolved to make more samples, go through the trial and error ahead of time, and put out a product done properly. As a seller, too, when you are truly confident in a product, selling it is fun and exciting; when the product has something to hide, or you are even a little unsure, you feel uneasy somehow and shrink back. Because what matters more than "speed to launch" is "the absolute quality of the product," I was proud of myself for stopping the warmer's development so I wouldn't be ashamed before myself. Of course, it wasn't easy to admit at the time. Haha
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