CanvasRebel Interview
Alright, Elijah, thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. One of the things we most admire about small businesses is their ability to diverge from the corporate/industry standard. Is there something that you or your brand do that differs from the industry standard? We’d love to hear about it as well as any stories you might have that illustrate how or why this difference matters.
The textile & fashion industries are riddled with problematic (& a lack of) standards, many of which have only been broadcasted to the public in the last 5-10 years. Amidst its own issues, social media has provided a medium for education on the heartbreaking repercussions of fast fashion. Videos circulate showcasing rows & rows of factory workers & ocean shorelines piled high with clothes. Textile waste, water usage, child labor, labor wages, factory conditions, farming conditions & polyester's lack of decomposition are all newer concerns to consumers. This is not to even mention the social & emotional effects of runway & campaigns' recent inclusions towards people of color, people with various abilities & the plus size community.
While there are front runner clothing companies in textile sustainability, I wanted to see how far I could take it & create a golden standard in fashion–a business I could be truly proud of. The main areas of focus are the following:
Local:
Developing a local small business brings interest & investment to my immediate community, a small village called Suttons Bay in Northern Michigan. Instead of sourcing fabrics online, I am committed to finding pre-loved textiles from thrift stores, garage sales & consignment shops in the Leelanau Peninsula. This gives quilts, blankets, remnants & salvages a chance to live another life with a new purpose, hopefully as a new family heirloom. It also provides a new home for local donations that might otherwise end up in landfills.
Ethics:
Sourcing secondhand fabrics means my business does not contribute to the global demand for virgin textiles, both natural & synthetic. Natural fibers are frequently grown through unethical farming practices & wages. Synthetic materials decompose at alarming rates; some will never disintegrate. As demand for textiles rise, so do both of these concerns. I also price my unique clothing pieces in a way that compensates my time, artistry & passion ethically. Clothes that I design & sew are meant to be investment pieces. They are statements & not meant to fill a person's closet for just a season.
Sustainability:
Four years ago, I sewed a pouf made from black jeans. Via access from a zipper, it holds every unusable scrap of fabric from every project in these past four years. Soon, it can be sold with the excitement that tens of pounds of textile waste was saved from landfills. That being said, my apparel designs shift with the least amount of scraps in mind. Patterns pivot to make space for a tote bag to be included. Sizes of clothes depends entirely on the size of the textile.
Size inclusivity:
While my fashion caters not specifically to any gender, I am hyper aware of the fashion industry's history with women who are plus size. There are pieces that a person who typically buys in size 0 petite could feel comfortable in, but typically those are not my pursued customers. Someone recently reminded me, "Big girls have money & they wanna spend it." So many people are content walking immediately out of retail stores if they do not quickly see their body represented or considered. All people are welcome here; it is imperative that the plus size community sees quality, creative, one of a kind pieces designed & sewn with their beautiful bodies in mind.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
At age eight, my mom taught me how to sew. It opened a door for Beanie Baby fashion that the world was simply not ready for but during the pandemic, I realized my underlying desire to learn garment construction. The blessing & curse that we all know as YouTube & TikTok played the part of Zoom instructor & I was the frequently flustered & frustrated student squinting at the screen. Sleeves flipped with the wrong sides out & collars shifted all askew. Needles dulled & patterns baffled & seams were ripped then sewn then ripped again. It all became quite clear quite quickly: sewing clothes is not for the faint of heart & honestly, maybe not even for the strong of heart. To my own chagrin, I persevered.
I practiced on old sheets. No lingering textile in the home was safe from my pinking shears (it would be another three years before I invested in a dreamboat of a serger). When thrift stores reopened, I snapped on a mask & spent hours sorting through blankets & sheets & remnant bundles – anything to practice on. Once the actual construction started to make sense & the machine seemed to work with me instead of against me, it felt like magic began happening. I would hold my breath for the entirety of a neckline stitch & finally breathe with excitement when nothing went wrong.
Simple batwing tops brought the most amount of accomplishment for the least amount of headache. Shoulders bamboozled me & just forget about armhole seams. My desire for oversized, flowy coats with front chore pockets pushed me into uncharted territory. Not long after, I was lining coats with crisp cotton from the newest sheets at the thrift stores. The birth of house coats, dusters, robes, chore coats & villager coats laid the foundation for the baby that is now my full time passion & occupation.
In 2022, I sewed two collections. A local store picked up "COLLECTION 001 / baby florals" to sell for a generous consignment percentage. In January of 2023, I opened up the books for "nykamping – a tent for your body" with a beautiful, modern website & curated Instagram feed. In February, I sought out SCORE & two lovely business mentors began guiding me through my side hustle venture. In May, a cute & affordable commercial space opened in downtown Suttons Bay, Michigan, two blocks away from my apartment. With absolute shock, I signed the lease & immediately pulled down the drop ceiling tiles. After some drywall lessons & two layers of limewash, the space was perfect. It has my working space with sewing machines at the back; the clothing racks are at the front by the entrance.
It is now November. Suttons Bay gets sleepy, like the Hallmark movie beach town that it is. The sales & connections from the busy tourist summer is something worth being proud of but so is sticking out the winter. "Are you going to close down?" everyone asks. "Nope, I live here! I'll be sewing here & open with the same hours," I always respond. Artists up here use the winter to rest, but also to dream, prepare, plan & create with the next busy summer in mind.
I like to think of myself as an artist. All fashion is wearable art. We all know some art is better than others. I like to create outerwear the best – pieces that are statements, beautifully draping off shoulders & enveloping bodies. Pieces that wow. Pieces that not only look comfy but are comfy.
I am proud of my vision, my cohesive brand, my investment of energy & time. I am proud of my customers who feel like friends, who buy into my dream & truly get it. To go nykamping is to embrace the tent for your body & to treasure a piece of me, Elijah Nykamp.
What else should we know about how you took your side hustle and scaled it up into what it is today?
I started reselling thrifted clothes on Instagram. They were quality pieces made of linen or denim or cotton & I sold them at affordable prices, just trying to make $10 or so off each one. Then I had this novel idea to start cropping mens shirts & sewing new hemlines. The minimal effort could make me a little more money because it was a less accessible style at that time.
Sewing new hemlines transitioned into self-drafting & designing & sewing from scratch. Instagram still plays a big part in my business but more to direct customers to my website or storefront. The brick & mortar space was a complete gamble. I did not scale up gradually; rather, I dove in head first. The first key milestone was being able to pay my apartment & storefront rent along with my other expenses. Another was my sixth collection–the first one completely designed & sewn in the new space while also running the store. Maneuvering both at the same time proved difficult but set the tone for what I envision my foreseeable future looking like.
Can you open up about how you funded your business?
The weekend before I signed the lease, I received a few thousand dollars from my grandparents’ passing. That money afforded me a cushion so that I didn’t dip entirely into savings & felt exciting to put their gift towards a passion important to me.
Decor in my shop was fully sourced from local consignment shops. The space is pretty simple & minimalist but the decor brings vintage summer camp elements to complement the themes of camping / nykamping / a tent for your body. Since I make all the clothing myself, there was no need for a line of credit or capital to purchase inventory. I opened the storefront with 66 pieces that fit into five collections. Those pieces were pivotal in introducing myself to tourists & locals on a strong note.
All of that is to say, I did not get a loan. My business funds my personal & professional expenses entirely & did so immediately upon opening. That was not the case with my online website. There were sporadic sales but developing my online presence is still an ongoing goal of mine.
