“Why? What is it?? Surely It can’t be active wear. I am so confused. Aren’t you supposed to do something in fitness?”
Well, Probably. The logical progression of being a ‘fitness influencer’ is to one day end up slapping your name on some gym wear and use your marketing advantages to make some serious cash for yourself and your established business partner...Not sitting at the dinner table with your brother devising a way to make the world’s most comfortable pyjama pants. However, after twenty months, the latter has led us to Slouch Potato. Which is probably not what you
expected.
The WHY is actually pretty simple; for as long as I can remember, My brother Joel and I have always cherished and valued comfort. New PJs, slippers, blankets, sedatives; whatever it was that allowed us to relax and unwind- we loved it (kidding about the sedatives, just seeing if you’re paying attention). In a nut shell we knew what we wanted. Extreme comfort with a good fit, practical features and fun original designs. The problem was; we didn’t have a single clue where to start.( In hindsight, I placed a lot of confidence on Joel’s fascination with fashion and an almost superhuman-ability to notice trends before I ever did. But sadly none of these powers could save us from the villain of The Cut and sew clothing industry or it’s sidekick ‘The Alibaba F***Around’.
Check out the first prototype ever after 4 Weeks: We measured our legs and had the first pair made online. This was when we had to reevaluate what the plan was.
Our strategy naturally evolved from outsourcing to Quality. We would make everything here in Melbourne using only the best fabrics and our own original designs with our in house local young designer and good mate. We would learn the process and have an active role every step of the way. Sadly we had to forget about the finances in doing so. We knew that to create the perfect,
premium and sustainable Australian product it wouldn’t be cheap. However cliche aside, our brand values became more important than profit margins (admittedly easier to say before you actually start making sales but it still holds strong today).
After months of slowly chipping away at it, things slowly started to come together. I remember the first sample we got back using our new garment maker here in Melbourne, Joel and I literally couldn’t stop smiling. Our vision of what we kind of thought was impossible was suddenly well and truly alive. And we were wearing it.
Our goals are to create something brand new that blends luxury with fun. We want to provide as many people with the same feeling of comfort that we loved and combine it with the weirdness to be yourself and embrace the crazy side that everyone has but occasionally is hidden.
“So basically they’re pyjamas?”
Yes and no. House pants, loungewear, pyjamas, semantic pants- whatever you want to call it. To us, Pyjamas were synonymous with our ‘comfiest clothes’. So we’d wear them after a day of work or training when you’ve had a shower and just want to completely relax. So I guess SlouchwearTM is the more appropriate term here. But if you do want to wear it to bed, our tencel fabrics work like
magic (you will not sweat in these so they’re perfect to sleep in).
Every time we told family and friends about our business idea we were always met with a little reservation or caution usually in the form of“ Wow that’s so cool, But I don’t wear pyjamas”. We’d then follow that up by asking what they would wear on a typical evening from the hours of say 5pm-11pm?
To our joy, “Trackies and a a T Shirt” was the typical response. In which case we’d retort by pitching them our idea once again and ask them if we could provide something 10x more comfortable and slightly crazy looking to replace their old, thick unloved sweatpants... would they be interested then. We literally have had that exact conversation nearly 100 times.
To us, this has been such a fun, all consuming passion project and it feels weird that we can finally share it with you now. We have waited to launch the brand until the product was as close to perfect as we could get, so if you want to support us on our mission to bring the world some fun and comfort then we’d be honoured to have you as part of our family!
Not what you expected right?
Yours in Comfort,
Zac and Joel Perna
