Today we’d like to introduce you to Shannon Whitaker Tinisha Welsh.
Hi Shannon Whitaker, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
Tinisha and I started this adventure kind of by accident, we are both just busy moms who worked with the rec leagues and sporting teams of our children. Tinisha did a lot of our apparel ordering for our teams, and I typically handled the paperwork and logistics pieces. Tinisha ended up working for a local small printing business in our area, and when they shut down we realized really quickly that there was a big need for an apparel business, so I convinced her that with her knowledge and eye for detail and me handling the office side we could make this work and so out of that Deep River Apparel was born and we have not looked back or slowed down since.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
It has definitely been a learning curve for me, with zero experience in the industry, I have had to learn so much just to be able to have a conversation with someone about what they are wanting and to understand the process. Tinisha will still correct me on my terminology, lol but I am getting better, I try to stay in my lane with what I am good at, and she does amazing at her part of making the product look perfect for the customers but sometimes it gets to be a lot for both of us to handle especially when we are asked to do something new that we have not done before, we never want to disappoint! It has also been a balancing act because we are involved in so much outside of the business, from our kids’ activities to community involvement and volunteering our day to day is pretty full!!
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
We really pride ourselves on being creative, having a great product and going a little above what other companies are doing. Everyone is busy and sometimes just picking up an order can be a lot for people to do, so one of the things we will offer our local customers is we will deliver their product to them for no extra charge within our local service area. We are all over the place during the week for one reason or another, so dropping off apparel for a local rec team or small business is just an added perk we like to add that shows how far we are willing to go to show them we appreciate their business.
Our niche is sporting apparel; we love to help local teams look their very best and have multiple spirit wear options available. We work closely with what the team or director is looking for, then Tinisha will pull together the best products for what they wanting whether it is hoodies, joggers and everything in between, then we create an online store option within our website where players and parents can go online and purchase products. It is so much easier than the old paper and pen option and it does away with coaches or directors having to keep tab of money and who’s paid and who hasn’t. It is also so much easier on our end because we have a printed order sitting in front of us to follow, and if we have a question, we can contact the buyer directly and not go through a middle person to get an answer. Fall and Spring are our busy times for our team stores, it has been a great addition to our portfolio of services we offer our customers.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.deepriverapparel.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/deepriverapparel
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/deepriverapparel
