Women Wednesdays Series | Marshay Clarke
Photo by Jordan Bradley
Our Women Wednesdays series features women in business, non-profit, or volunteer positions. These women hale from diverse backgrounds and industries, but all have one thing in common, they are shining, helping others, and following their dreams! The goal of this Women Wednesdays series is to encourage, honor, and promote these women and the notable work they are doing!
Our February 2021 spotlight is on Marshay Clarke, Founder & CEO of Buzzoms.
A company that creates custom, braless and supportive clothing for ladies with full boobs -yes, clothing made with your boobs in mind! Buzzoms (isn’t that the best biz name ever?) provides trendy, everyday wear that is cut, styled and designed for women with full cups. So you no longer have to sacrifice fashion for support. With Buzzoms, you have both. Support your boobs, go braless, and honor your curves? Yep, we can get on board with that. Our convo with Marshay, like every single one throughout the past year, revealed her heartfelt, problem solving, generous spirit that shows in each piece of her product line.
Photo by Jordan Bradley
Tell us about what you do, who you serve, and your favorite part of it all.
I'm the Founder and CEO of Buzzoms, we create custom, braless and supportive clothing for ladies with full boobs. My favorite part is envisioning all of the cool places the brand can go in the future and getting to exercise some of my creative muscles in the design process.
“It’s not just clothes that we’re making. It’s about creating clothes in a way that makes people feel like they were thought of as it was being made. It’s about waking up and tossing on something comfortable or getting dressed to go out with friends and loving what you put on because you feel good in it.”
What started you on your business journey?
I come from a family of entrepreneurs, my dad has three small businesses of his own. I've always valued his rigor, his appetite for risk. I went to Columbia Business School to get my MBA, and in school I studied Entrepreneurship. I knew I wanted to start a business of my own, but didn't necessarily know how. I spent time thinking through the problems I wanted to solve, studying different business models, and during a trip after having a casual conversation with my classmates about our bodies and boobs —we’d all found that we were choosing clothing to make our chest less pronounced and were wearing clothing we didn’t love in order to feel more professional and covered up for school and work —it was then that the idea of Buzzoms clicked for me!
I don’t have a retail background so it has been a learning curve -but it didn’t stop me because I was so focused on solving a problem vs making an intricate garment. Buzzoms in the beginning was about solving this issue. It didn’t matter if I had a retail experience or not, but more that I was a woman with a full chest who wanted to create clothing that women with a full chest could wear and wear braless.
How did you take the idea and turn it into a real life, thriving business?
I talked to friends and friends of friends and got referrals for customer interviews, doing research, discovering how people were talking about this and found out there was a market for it. So I confirmed there was a need and then in parallel, I had to figure out how to make a shirt. At first I was doing wholesale - I was selling a product that was already produced and then I realized, no, these items still weren’t working and decided I had to make something that worked.
“Buzzoms in the beginning was about solving this issue. It didn’t matter if I had a retail experience or not but more that I was a woman with a full chest who wanted to create clothing that women with a full chest could wear and wear braless.”
Photography by Jordan Bradley
How long have you been in business and what have you learned along the way?
We recently launched at the end of January (yay!) but I have been working on the business for about one year. I've learned to be comfortable knowing what I don't know. I've spent a lot of time brushing up on fashion development, but my strong suite is business. I've found really solid people to help fill the gaps in areas that I lack. Your team is important - from your immediate team to your suppliers. I've also learned this business is unpredictable! You have to take things one day at a time and keep building and building not always knowing what your outcomes will be.
How was the launch process? What did you expect? How did you approach it?
It went good I think! We’ve nearly reached our launch sales goal in this first two weeks- you never know if people will really buy until the shop goes live, so that was a relief! Hmmm..what did I expect from launch? Well, I asked people who have been there before and they all said, you just have to do it. At some point, you just have to bite the bullet and say, it’s time. And it’s true! No matter how prepared you are, be prepared for the unexpected. It’s new, you’ve never done it before, and now you’re jumping in -we were so prepared but still, it’s new and it’s a learning process for sure.
And how do you feel on the other side of it?!
How do I feel? .. [takes a deep breath and a big exhale!] It’s a real thing now. It’s a weight lifted, now it’s really about growing the business and learning about peoples’ responses and it’s about running a good business. Something I’m realizing throughout this process is that I’m very customer experience driven, -answering all of the DMs on Instagram and responding to emails -that’s me. Especially with our first customers, we want them to feel that and then to keep that mentality and provide the same level of care to all our customers so that everyone feels that throughout.
“...now it’s really about growing the business and learning about people’s responses and it’s about running a good business. Something I’m realizing throughout this process is that I’m very customer experience driven...”
Photography by Jordan Bradley
What are your current business and branding goals?
I want our brand to feel welcoming, authentic, like I love when women come across Buzzoms and feel they can interact with me. I want people to see us a brand for real women. I'm focused on making our customers as delighted as possible with their experience with us. I want the business to launch at least 2 more collections by the end of the year and if we can sell out the remaining of our first collection in the next 30 days, that will give me a good feeling about where we can go next.
What has been your biggest business hurdle and what did you learn/how did you grow from it?
Getting through the manufacturing process, especially with COVID19. From finding the right manufacturers, to trying over 16 samples to get to the right fit, to our factory shutting down days before our launch, the production process can be unpredictable. Supply chain sounds a little dull, but once you get it right it's the key to running a smooth business.
What is your ultimate business goal?
When Buzzoms is the standard. When women, especially curvy women, don't expect that they'll have to wear bras anymore, that will be a dream. It means that we were able to shape a new space in a well established industry, and we'll be able to say we lead the charge.
“When women, especially curvy women, don’t expect that they’ll have to wear bras anymore, that will be a dream. It means that we were able to shape a new space in a well established industry, and we’ll be able to say we lead the charge.”
Photo by Jordan Bradley
What has been the most rewarding part of your business?
We’re touching people, not just creating clothes. I’m so deep in the weeds of Buzzoms but it really hits me when I hear from women - this is what I needed to keep going today.
Did you expect such an emotional response from people?
I did expect people to be excited because there’s not really anything out there like this right now but the emotional part I did not expect -like getting DMs that ‘I was thinking of getting a breast reduction and now I see there are clothes for me.’ Messages like that really hit me and make me realize it’s not just a shirt that we’re making it really is about creating things that people feel celebrated and thought of as it was being made - waking up and throwing on something comfortable or getting dressed to go out with friends and loving what you put on and being able to wear it and feel good in it.
What would be your biggest tip/takeaway/piece of advice to anyone starting their own business?
Wow...it's so simple to say "just do it". Take that a little bit further and if you have an idea of what you want to do, start with doing at least one thing each day to bring it to fruition. Call another founder and speak to them about their journey, interview a friend or a potential customer about your idea, begin researching funding options. It will help knock that "what do I do next?" wall down.
“...if you have an idea of what you want to do, start with doing at least one thing each day to bring it to fruition.”
Photo by Jordan Bradley
Marshay, we love your approach to your business, the clothing you’re creating and the impact it’s having on your customers’ everyday lives. And it’s awesome to know that you are thinking about giving back and thinking of how you can do the best as a company both now and in the future as you grow.
How is Buzzoms planning education, sustainability, and giving back?
We are a black-owned company with a woman-led supply chain. Our design, sketches, and prototypes/samples - all our pre production process is done in NY. Our mass production is done in Columbia from a woman led factory and supply chain. I’m really happy for that because the owner let me know about the gaps the process can have - her factory works with a lot of small businesses and the woman who owns it lives in Rhinebeck and has been doing this for over 15yr. Having someone with that experience and breadth of knowledge who is looking out for us in itself helps reduce the waste - and it’s so great to have a woman who first-hand understands why we’re creating what we’re creating! She totally understood our concept and it was a natural fit.
From a sustainability standpoint, right now our best seller, the lift tank is made of 78% recycled nylon - for the clothes that we’re making, the recycled materials work really well with the products that we’re creating fit and material wise. We want to make sure everything is happening with a purpose and that we make the best use of everything. We even give away our prototypes to friends and followers and make sure there is a positive reuse for it.
As far as education, we want to focus during breast cancer awareness month, highlighting stories and sharing for a sense of community around them. Whatever it is that we are engaging, I always want it to be more than a donation, I want us to be integrated into a cause. I don’t have a definite answer of what that is going to be, but that is something on my mind all the time -asking how we can do that with the limited resources we have right now and grow into it more in the future?
What’s in the works for Buzzoms?
Now that we’ve launched, we have to get into this rhythm of the fashion calendar. We’re currently drawing up concepts for the spring and next winter. We don’t want to get ahead of ourselves by producing too much inventory but we also need to make sure we have our designs ready to go. We’re shooting for May for the spring/summer collection and plan to have a collection for every season and establish new products or colors for each season. We see and want to be part of this movement where people don’t want waste, so we’re creating staple pieces based on what people are asking for but I don’t ever see us going down the route of huge 50 piece lines, we want to make sure our clothes are responding to a need.
Looking for the perfect braless wardrobe?
Find Buzzoms here:
Website: buzzoms.com
Instagram: @buzzoms
Facebook: @buzzoms
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