The Making of Our Hero Product

I was reading one of those “how to’s” on LinkedIn about launching a DTC fashion business in 2026 and it said that when starting out, you should choose one product and ‘hero’ it, in other words market the s*** out of it, and the rest will follow.

We did that for Baker Miller Pink. Out of 13 styles and nine colours, we chose the cashmere sweatshirt in our signature hubba-bubba pink to 100% represent our brand. I can remember wondering if we should go for something more classic or unisex, but that particular jumper meant more to me.

Choosing our own shade of pink was a no-brainer. Also, the science bit around the colour Baker Miller Pink is that it reduces anxiety and makes you happy. If I’d known, I’d have got rose-coloured spectacles for the past twenty years.

But the sweatshirt shape was not an obvious choice.

A sweatshirt in Grade A cashmere actually came about because of Marc Jacobs, not just a name drop but CLANG. I interviewed him years ago for the Guardian and he talked a lot about how much he enjoys elevating things that aren’t valued. His collection that year had included Converse boots made out of Duchess satin and $5000 dresses with their hems hacked off worn with Birkenstocks. At the time it was seen as rebellious. But he said that he was inspired by Elsa Perretti who had designed a crystal glass tumbler for Tiffany in the shape of one of those two-cent disposable Dixie cups. He said he liked the discord of embracing the banal and giving it new status.

I’m not saying sweatshirts are banal, but they’re not exactly riveting. They are known for being comfortable and snuggly and easy and COTTON. To turn them into something desirable and extravagant – an ostensibly bog-standard practical garment in the world’s best cashmere seemed like a cute idea. But not an easy one, as it turned out.

We found a 1930s traditional sweatshirt in a vintage store. So far so good. The trouble came with the overlocked crossover stitching under the neckline. (because it’s not a sweatshirt without it, right?) If you’ve been a fashion student you’ll know that overlockers are the devil’s work. It’s like flying a jet up your seams. So much speed requires so much tension – which requires strong thread ie Polyester. Our principles for Baker Miller Pink exclude the use of Polyester thread because it renders jumpers unrecyclable, so we insisted the knitters overlock with cashmere thread.

 
They said no.
We said yes.
They said can’t.
We said can.

 
They thought we were idiots.
We started to think so too.

 
Five attempts later, we had a brilliantly overlocked neckline and some very pleased-with-themselves knitters.

The amount of heart-ache over the overlocking has given me a soft spot for that sweatshirt. So it became our hero product and we sent it out to all the world. It got picked up by the press. The Guardian featured it and ran a little story all about it and us.

So guess which jumper sold out first.
The LinkedIn ‘how to’ was 100% right.