In January, Groundswell Capital awarded Thru LLC with a Rio Nuevo Impact Grant to invest into Held Gear. The award of $5,000 will be applied to several areas, with the core of the plan to develop an apparel line. When the Belt Farm tee and sweater was introduced at the end of 2022, that was the idea, but it’s very expensive and risky to give it a real go. Unlike a loan, the grant doesn’t get repaid, so the entirety can be risked, and all revenues can be reinvested.
Altogether, this is what I’m working on right now.
- Commission an original branded art series
- Curate and license more art for apparel prints
- Inventory investment, especially blank garments
- Printing fees and promotional materials
- Produce multimedia for promotional campaigns
- Tooling investment to improve products
- Mobile display investment for vendor events
- Vendor fees
- Advertising
As an owner-operated business, with no assistants, every bullet point is a hill to climb. I have to divide my attention between these points like several people coordinating their part of the project. I look forward to some day having assistants or business partners, but at least this budget allows me to pay for some help. That said, this project should be complete by the summer.
The goal is to have products ready to drive digital sales over the summer with a multimedia campaign, followed up with holiday season markets. Ending 2026 should record a major increase in sales volume, to put this brand on a path toward seasonal product drops.
Rio Nuevo is a special tax district in the City of Tucson and a portion of all sales tax within its lines go into this fund. It provides dozens of small businesses every year with crucial capital. And it is not limited to a single award, so if this goes well, I can develop the next expansion plan for 2027 and reapply.
Meanwhile, I look forward to rolling out the new apparel line. Keep up with my activities on the socials, especially Instagram. Maybe I’ll start doing TikTok. I don’t know. I’ve been threatening that for a while.
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