6 months after first beginning to consider names and I have only just finally agreed on something...
When first thinking of a name I was fixed on MADE or MAKE... I then however was introduced to the world where everything is branded and almost every name you can think of has already been taken. Even more impossible than that is finding a web address that has not been taken, or more annoyingly has not been bought by a web hosting site who then tries to sell the web address back to you at 50 times the price it should be!
I then decided I wanted a really cool wacky name and looked at things like 'Spirit' and 'Teabag'. But again with out meaning to I'd come up with a name which everyone sniggered at like immature school boys, and after several day's of introducing the idea of Teabag to a few people, one such person finally had the decency to make me aware of the sexual act known as Teabagging! It was then my turn to giggle nervously and instantly turn bright red in embarrassment at the idea that I had even considered to call my business Teabag! My god.. I've just looked back at a list of name ideas and I've even written down 'teabag.me' !!! I now however feel like I have finally hit puberty after being given a lesson about the 'real' mysteries of sex.
After the whole Teabag incident the idea of using a jazzy name was suddenly very unappealing and I had managed to scare myself enough to start looking at names suggested by my father. The names he suggested he first put to me at the beginning of this process, however I wrote them all off as boring and reflective of my father's age! After coming close to confusing people that my business was in fact a porn site or something of a similar nature these 'boring' names suddenly became a lot more plausible.
After another month of searching and not really coming up with anything better (I even considered BAD MAN - for British Apparel Design and MANufacture) I finally crumbled and agreed to the unexciting but very practical name of Connect Apparel. This did however grow on me as it is a name that says exactly what's on the tin!
Surprise, surprise though, nothing is ever simple and through all the stress and tears both my dad and I had to face the horrible fact that Connect Apparel was never going to work. Frustratingly there is no business called Connect Apparel however the websites have been taken and the first five pages of Google are taken up by a company called Connected Apparel, so realistically Connect Apparel was going to cause me more problems than it was worth.
At this point I felt like banging my head against a brick wall as I found myself in exactly the same situation as I was 6 months earlier with no idea for a name.
It is then that a good friend of mine came to the rescue and offered to help me out. James Huyton is a branding man who I have previously worked with and mentioned in an earlier blog. I owe James a lot of favours as he has spent several weeks now branding my business. Also, exactly a week ago James very patiently sat down with me for the whole day and we made it our mission to decide on a name for the business...
Map-parel
Interparel
Manuparel
Jungener (latin for 'to join')
Refacture
Fused Apparel
Compass Creative
Compass Connect
Apparel Connection
Together Apparel
Reel Connections
Reel Apparel
Reel Solutions
Reel Designs
Reel Sourcing
Reel Mapping
Bridging Reels
Bridge Connections
Bridge Apparel
Reel Development
Sew Reel
Sourcing Reel
Bridge Solutions
Draw Connections
Draw Apparel
Reel Pick Apparel
Reel Network
Drawbridge Apparel
Pick Solutions
Four Quarters
The Network
The Reel Network
The Reel Map
Mapping Connections
Sourcing Reel Network
Reel Apparel Network
Apparel Fusion
Connect Apparel Network (CAN)
Connect Apparel Manufacturing (CAM)
Mapped Apparel
Mapping Apparel
We then started looking at rock climbing and the support systems that are in place to help climbers:
Belay Apparel
Palomar
Bowline
Hitch
Prusik
Carabiner
We drifted off from this...
Needle in a Haystack
Bundle
Time for a break and a game of shithead. I promise you this is a card game and not another sexual act... I hope not anyway! It was now 4pm and my boyfriends suggestion of 'Button's and Shit' was suddenly becoming very appealing! Unbeknown to him though this did change our thought pattern to looking at using two words with an 'and'.
Stitch and Loop
Connect and Network
Stitch and Bundle
Bundle and Compass
Bundle and Jump
Bridge and Compass
Stitch and Bridge
We'd now had enough, James and I were both going insane from thinking all day long so we put to the public vote (facebook) our favourite suggestions and waited for the response. The choices were:
Stitch and Bundle
Stitch and Bridge
Connect Apparel Network
Connect Apparel Manufacture
By the morning Stitch and Bridge was in the lead, just, and James gave me the deadline of that evening to finally decide on a name. We ended up discussing it throughout the day and although we liked Stitch and Bridge we then found out that years ago old grannies used to get together to knit and gossip. This got nicknamed 'Stitch and Bitch' - obviously we don't want any confusion about the name so by the end of the evening the decision had been made.
May I introduce to you my business:
Hold tight for all of James' branding and soon, very soon I will have a finished logo and fully branded and fully functioning business!! It is very exciting and I can not thank James enough for all his help!!
BIG LOVE
cycles and spoons
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