Today, we’d like to introduce you to Amanda Chine.
Hi Amanda, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Hi! I’m Amanda, and I started MandaBees Headbands in 2012 after teaching my first yoga class wearing a super popular & pricey headband that I ended up hating.
I accidentally started a business!
Backtrack. What I was looking for that didn’t exist was a headband that kept my hair back, kept sweat off my face, looked cute and didn’t give me a headache. I looked everywhere. Seriously, everywhere. From Walmart™ to Etsy™, sporting goods stores to high end yoga brands; if they sold headbands, I put them to the rigorous test. A lot were terrible. Some were ok, but none were amazing.
I found myself looking at this massive headband drawer with “nothing to wear” every morning teaching 2 or 3 fitness classes every day at The Classroom and training clients in between, I didn’t always have time to shower and fix my hair after every workout.
But I couldn’t continue to be a hot mess in public. It was out of any own personal dire need that MandaBees was born.
For months, I researched and experimented with technical fabrics and athletic spandex blends. With my best friend’s sewing machine and my grandma’s help, I made MY perfect headband.
It. Was. Perfect.
I mean, put a fresh one on after each workout, perfect. Like, I needed 100 of these, perfect.
It was everything I desperately needed and then some. No slip. No headaches. No sweat running down my face. (Bonus, no one will be able to tell if you wear mascara to hot yoga!)
Everyone at the fitness studio wanted them.
Everyone who knew someone at the fitness studio wanted one.
I had “orders,” and I hadn’t even realized I had a business yet.
So, I got to sewing!!! I hand-drew a logo— a bumble bee— and named the “company” MandaBees after my nickname, Manda B. from grade school, and pinned a little tag on each order before I handed them out at the studio.
I was slowly realizing that I had created something that didn’t exist yet, and everyone wanted it.
And so, the MandaBees Yoga headband was born.
Fast forward, I have built a small local team of other moms that hand-sew all of our headbands and help me with pop-up shops and events. We have five different headband styles in addition to our original signature Yoga style. Our Etsy™ store has a 5-star rating and 33,000+ sales. We’re proud to say we’ve sponsored several local and national teams, and we ran the MandaBees Headband Boutique in downtown Warren, Ohio, for a year, then adventured all over the US selling headbands at fairs, music festivals, pop-ups, malls, and farmers markets, organically building our following by making connections with people who need our product as bad as I did in 2012.
Today, I’m a mom of a wonderful five-year-old; I’m still teaching yoga training clients and packaging headband orders every day. My team and I are constantly working to provide the absolute highest quality hair accessories you can find.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
No, I wouldn’t say it’s been smooth, haha. I think not having a business background or a real plan or idea of where this journey was going to take me when I accidentally started this business really created obstacles for me. When I started out, I never took any loans or anything, so I worked my other jobs to buy a sewing machine and fabrics. Because of this, I grew my business very gradually (which, at some times, felt like a snail’s pace). I never outsourced any of the work, and I taught myself what I needed to learn. I have no business background. I spent a few years traveling, staying in Airbnb so I could host pop-up events in different states, which always came with its own challenges (I lost a bunch of inventory to a near-tornado at Summerfest in Milwaukee in 2018, and I once checked into my Airbnb to find the previous guests were still sleeping there lol! Traveling always comes with unique challenges, some larger than others). A personal challenge I experienced very early on was that I lost my mom during my very first pop-up event. At the time, I was my only employee, so I had to keep working or quit. It’s hard for me to even remember, really. She was a crafter herself, and I knew she would not have wanted me to give up, so I kept working on the event.
I have over-ordered things that didn’t sell well and under-planned on big events. I’m also pretty terrible at delegating tasks, so I end up taking on too much sometimes.
As you know, we’re big fans of MandaBees Headbands. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
My brand hand-makes non-slip headbands designed for in and out of the gym. Our original Yoga Headband was made to solve the problems other headbands create. As a yoga instructor, I had tried all of the different options, from high-end to drugstore brands, and they all left something to be desired. The Yoga Headband was the first of its kind. It is a single layer, it doesn’t slip off, it doesn’t cause headaches or hair damage, and it’s so lightweight it feels like a second skin. I get migraines, so it was huge to have something that didn’t give me a headache if I wore it all day. The Yoga Headband is still our best-seller, but we have also added other styles (like our Twist Headwraps and Top Knots) that function like a gym headband but look cute enough to wear with a dress.
What sets my business apart from others?
It wasn’t my intention to start a business when I made this headband. I made it because I needed it. There was a need that wasn’t being met by other brands, so I filled the need. I didn’t start making something because someone else had success making it.
Our product design is REALLY intentional. My team and I obsess over details. We test them in the most intense situations. We only make something if it’s better than what’s out there (because otherwise, we’d just buy the thing we like, you know?)
So, before we go, how can our readers or others connect or collaborate with you? How can they support you?
Sharing goes a long way; Telling a friend about us or sharing a post on social media is the biggest form of support. Nobody wants to be sold anything, so I find it to be difficult to sell to people unless I’m putting it in their hands. Online things can feel so gimmicky and “sales-y” sometimes, but you trust your friends if they say they like something, you know?
We work with content creators to model or style our headbands and with freelance artists who design our fabrics. We also offer consignment options for partnering with other small businesses. One of my favorite things we do though are our customized yoga headbands; we make these for a lot of sports teams, restaurants, and special events like bridal parties.
Yoga Collection $9-$15
• Twist Headwraps $15
• Top Knots $15
• Braided Headbands $15-$29
• Baby Headbands / Mommy & Mini Sets: $9-$25
Contact Info:
- Website: www.mandabees.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mandabees_headbands/
- Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/mandabeesheadbands/
