OUR EVOLUTION | From Office Monkeys to Dress Monkeys
The story of how we started a clothing company with 20,000 dollars, a year and a half, and
little more than a whim.
Oct 30th,2005 | The Birth Of An Idea
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DressMonkey (without its official name at the time) is born with a basic idea in mind: to provide young professionals with a convenient and low cost way of designing custom-made threads that look and fit the way they want. |
Nov 12th, 2005 | Eureka, We Have A “DressMonkey”
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On a lazy Sunday afternoon, while sitting on their couch watching a movie, Coley and Jeff try and come up with a name for their business. Coley likes “Trendsetter,” but Jeff says, “it’s ok, but sounds too contrived. I think it’s taken too. What about Dress (fill-in-the-blank)?” DressUp? Too girly. DressYourself? Lame. DressMonkey? Nah… DressCity? Uh, what? DressNation? Even worse. CustomDress? Too generic.
An hour goes by shouting out possible names. “What did we say before, DressMonkey?” “Dress Monkey… I like it. I think we have it.” |
Dec 17th, 2005 | The Monkeys First Step
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Jeff purchases the dressmonkey.com domain from Yahoo! “Now what?” Coley says. “Uh, now we find someone to build us an ass-spankin nice webpage.” |
Jan 10th, 2006 | Just A Formality
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DressMonkey receives its business license from the State of Nevada Department of Taxation. DressMonkey officially becomes DressMonkey LLC. |
Feb 2nd, 2006 | Jeff’s Big Move
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Jeff quits his job as business development manager at a Chinese logistics and transportation company and devotes his full time to DressMonkey. “It was a difficult choice, but the right one” said Jeff, referring to the decision to give up the food coupons that his company provided to their employees. Forced to fend for himself, Jeff takes a part-time English teaching position during the early days of establishing the business. Goodbye office monkey. Hello DressMonkey. |
Mar 10th, 2006 | It’s Getting Serious
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Jeff is the first of the two to throw down paid-in capital amounting to $10,000. Pissed off because he hasn’t matched his capital contribution, Jeff challenges Coley to a jello-wrestling match on the rooftop of a friend’s apartment. The fight was a draw, but nonetheless, two weeks later, Coley - feeling the heat – matches Jeff’s contribution amount. |
April 14th, 2006 | Our First Business Expense
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Coley gets so excited about using his new business card for the first time that he rushes out of his apartment just to expense a $1 plate of fried noodles. Luckily, Jeff is able to wheedle him away from that idea by offering to treat him to lunch. The next day Coley gets his wish. DressMonkey pays a graphic artist in Boston, (thanks for the referral Uncle Tom) for creating their logo. “Throwing down DressMonkey plastic for the first time was an amazing feeling,” says Coley. Jeff would have to agree. |
May 14th, 2006 | Party At DressMonkey HQ
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One of the many costume parties at Casa de DressMonkey, the theme was Cowboys and Indians. Of course, Jeff and Coley, in true DM fashion, dress as Indians from the Sub-Continent. Their costumes are made of fabric from local suppliers at Shanghai’s fabric market. In a way, the idea to start a clothing company that allows customers the freedom to design custom clothing is due in large part to parties such as this one thrown by DressMonkey’s founders. |
June 5th, 2006 | Journey Into The Unknown
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Jeff ventures out into the muddy backwaters of China on recommendation by a local trade agent that he meet expert tailors in the area and search for fabric suppliers. He foolishly turns down the customary Chinese offer of drinking local rice wine (baijiu) at lunch, offending all those at the table. “I don’t care how much you all can drink,” Jeff says. “All I came to do was find out if you and your factory can meet America’s customization requirements.” Jeff never finds a business partner, but does make his trip out to the boondocks worthwhile, he stumbles across one of the many awfully translated public signs that China is famous for. |
June 27th, 2006 | The Monk Straddles The Pond
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DressMonkey suffers a painful separation when Jeff leaves China and moves back to California, but not before his friends, who throw him a huge rooftop party, send him off with a bang. |
July 9th, 2006 | Coley’s Big Move
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Coley quits his job after working nearly two years as an IT consultant for a Fortune 500 company, where he spent 12 hours a day behind a computer punching in numbers for field data queries with machine-like efficiency and eating fast food at his desk everyday for lunch. “There is something repulsive and at the same time fulfilling about donning a monkey suit every morning while you grab your Caramel Macchiato and hit the cubicle,” says Coley. “Goodbye corporate culture, hello entrepreneurship!” |
July 16th, 2006 | The First DressMonkey Blazer Is Produced
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Jeff and Coley officially decide to work out as many kinks as possible in the DressMonkey concept – aspects such as the ordering and production process, quality control inspection, and importing and exporting procedures. Friends and family participate in a pre-launch test run that the two call “Operation, Meet My Monkey.” Though they expected to hit a home run with their yet-untested ordering system, fate lands them a pop-fly, as a few blazers don’t make the cut. Back to the drawing boards, in anticpation for Meet My Monkey 2. |
July 18th, 2006 | Calling All Girlfriends
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In their quest to measure America, DressMonkey calls on their secret weapon: the girlfriend. Coley’s friend Emma coins the term “It’s a Pleasure To Measure,” and Jeff later incorporates the idea into their online measuring video. |
Sept. 1st, 2006 | Monkey Abandonment
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DressMonkey’s web developer/graphic designer bails out on the agreement signed between the two parties. Coley is beside himself as his baby (the half-finished retail website) is in jeopardy, and in a moment of chaos, reaches for his last year’s stash of Chinese firecrackers. He sends Jeff a text message in California, ‘They’re walkin out on us. We’re screwed…’ |
Sept. 17th, 2006 | Word Spreads In The U.S.
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As Coley quickly finds potential replacement developers, Jeff spends is first days back in America driving around spreading the DressMonkey idea to those who would listen: family, friends, neighbors, book clubs, little leaguers, soccer moms, even local church groups can’t wait to get their hands on a DressMonkey. |
Oct. 1st, 2006 | The Monk Does Brands
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Coley pours his heart out. Not over a woman, but this time over what led him to create the DressMonkey idea in the first place. “It will not happen overnight, it will not even happen this decade, but eventually, the world will come to its senses. We see the rise of DressMonkey as the fall in consumer brainwashing. It is possible to get a good product at a decent price, and we'll prove that the second we are up and running (which may be sooner than we think. Be patient my monkeys...)” |
Oct. 16th, 2006 | From Monkeys to Models
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With a tested product, DressMonkey hires esteemed photographer and good friend Charlie Xia for the inaugural photo shoot of its flagship product, the men’s blazer. The shoot is a big success’. |
Nov. 13th, 2006 | Sales That Grow Tails
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Michelle, of Irvine, CA, becomes the first official DressMonkey customer when she purchases two beige linen jackets for her fiancé and brother at 8:31 a.m. Her order sets a trend for the following days – DressMonkey will sell 20 more orders by the end of the week during its third and final installment of Meet My Monkey. |
Dec. 14th, 2006 | Showered With Praise
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Testimonials from happy Dress Monkeys flood into DressMonkey HQ, in perfect time for this summer’s launch party. Among them, our favorite from Chris Wiggin: “This jacket is so sick. The coolest piece of clothing i own by far. I will be ordering again from you in the near future and if you ever need any type of promotional help with anything. I would love to help out, just let me know.” |
Jan-Jun, 2007 | Busy Monkeys
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Armed with a successful Meet My Monkey campaign, Coley and Jeff set out to finish the retail site and launch DressMonkey officially. But before that could happen, Coley and Jeff managed to find a new factory, exporter, devise a marketing plan (or so Jeff says), and slowly but surely inch closer to the launch of their business. dressmonkey.com (the retail site) launched in June, 2007 and if you’d like to read more about our story, or about what we are up to at the moment, please visit our blog. |
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© DressMonkey, LLC. 2007