Waves of anticipation radiated off my limbs, making me tingle with excitement. Today I was going to see my first professionally sewn sample of Inizio.
With the squeal of tires only slightly louder than the music pouring out of my windows, I whipped into a parking place and rushed into Ron’s office. Holding Inizio felt like hugging an old friend. She was perfect. Visually, she didn’t look much different than what I had sewn myself, but instead of days, Ron’s sewers only took hours to create her. Bam! Time to take her to the streets and wear test her again.
Over the next few months I put Inizio through the ringer. She went anywhere and everywhere with me. The cork wore well, and cleaning was a breeze. Inizio’s design was still turning heads and the more I wore her the more I fell in love with how easy she was to use. Eeeek! I was so close to putting her into mass production….BUT, there was one request. Did Inizio have a brunette twin or was she only available in blond?
I ordered another yard of cork, this time in dark brown. Ron created another sample in the new color and I took her out for a wear test. FAIL. Like trip and fall in front of your ex, kind of fail. The cork wore off the fabric backing within weeks. This was NOT what I was going for. I was perplexed at why it would wear well in one color but not another. Knowing that quality should be consistent no matter the hue, I gave the cork supplier the boot and dug back into to researching the cork forests of Portugal.
I’ve heard it said that FAIL means the First Attempt in Learning. Heck yeah! The relief I felt at having tested it out overwrote any frustration I felt with backtracking to find a new supplier. I was learning more and more about quality cork, and you can be damn sure that my next sample would wear well in every color!
Want to read my story form the beginning? Click here!