Creating and running an online business can be challenging but also a lot of fun, and I wanted to take you guys with me on the journey and give you more of a “behind the scenes” insight. Most of you probably don’t know, but I do run this brand completely on my own, everything you see or read, every comment, photo, video, product or new website design. Other than that, I'm still working a regular 9-5 job in the Marketing Team of a big corporate Group, so running MisFitted as a side hustle.

It has now been over two years since MisFitted was established, and I wanted to start off this Blog Series with taking you back to 2017, the year where it all started. 

SUMMER 2017

It was during summer 2017 where I first got in touch with selling random stickers that a couple of friends and I just printed for fun. Back in those days, we were a group of stancebois, all living close to each other that spent most days together working on cars, taking photos of them or just hanging out at and having a good time. We liked to call ourselves “Scheinii”, a luxembourgish word for someone that is pretty. By no surprise, “Scheinii” quickly came a word that was used by more and more people from our local car scene in Luxembourg.

That is when the idea struck me that it would be fun to print a few stickers and sell them on a Friday night at our local gas station meetup, in Leudelange.

Crazy enough, after posting a photo of the stickers on my personal Facebook page, the 50 stickers were sold out in about 20 minutes. It was just a crazy feeling, that people would like to purchase something that I created myself. I always wanted to run my own business one day, but I never knew what kind of business and never really wanted to risk starting one since so many people tell you starting your own business is always a big risk and it is safer to just get a regular 9-5 job, like everyone else does too.

Over the next few months, I started getting a website up and running and printed the very first 3 stickers that would be released!
Finally the day had come, on the 12th of January 2018, the website was ready and I clicked on the “GO LIVE”  button, after asking myself for days if it would still be a good idea to go online, what if people don't like the idea, the products... Two years later I can confirm that launching this website was probably one of my best decisions ever.

WHY MISFITTED?

I often get asked why the brand is called MisFitted, and there are actually two reasons why:

The first and most obvious, is the actual meaning of the word. Like I said earlier, it is safer to get a normal 9-5 job, make a living but never find full fulfillment in life. A misfitted person, for me, is someone that thinks outside of the box.
On the other hand however, there is more to the word “MisFitted”.
Back in 2017, being in love with stanced cars, I was on a mission with my Mazda Miata NA to achieve a so called “perfect fitment”. Ordered a set of wheels that took 4 months to be delivered, and was almost 100% certain that I would soon be an owner of a well fitted stance vehicle.

As it turned out later (and since I wasn’t able to get my air ride suspension, different story) my wheels didn’t fit at all. It was at that moment that I said to myself, “well now my fitment is quite misfitted”. That’s where I decided that “MisFitted” would be the perfect name for the brand that I would soon be launching.

LOOKING BACK

What helped me a lot in the beginning, since launching a brand and getting it out there is NOT easy, was that over the years before MisFitted I was able to build a decent following on my personal Instagram account (@crisseh95). I remember back in the days people were making fun of me, asking me if I had nothing better to do with my life than constantly post car related stuff... but I guess if I hadn’t been documenting the Miata Build, the MisFitted brand wouldn’t be where it is today. 

So if I can give one advice to someone that would like to go the same route and start his/her own brand, remember that people will always, out of fear or jealousy, tell you that you should stick to a normal, safer life and that you can not make a living on the internet. 
But do not let someone else tell you how to live your life, if you always wanted to create your own kind of business, DO IT. If it doesn’t work out in the end, at least you tried and every failure brings a lot of knowledge to your life.
E-Commerce in my opinion is still in its early ages and will bring a lot more possibilities and opportunities in the upcoming years. You see more and more physical retail stores close their doors since they can't keep up with paying their rent and found something called the Internet where they can reach an unlimited amount of customers, for much cheaper.

A lot has changed since launching the website back in 2018 and today, but that story will be for a second blog post!

Let me know what you think of this type of content, even though I already share a lot of Behind the Scenes on the Instagram or TikTok page, I still think that there is a lot more stuff that I can show and maybe teach you guys throughout this blog.

See you in the next one and thanks for taking part of this, a journey that wouldn’t be possible without your support. Thank you

Much love,
Criss