KENNEWICK, Wash. — It was a gift from her great grandmother Billie, that helped change the course of Taeler Horak’s life.
“Sat down at it and I said I have to make my great grandmother proud so I taught myself how to sew from Google and YouTube,” she said.
In 2015, when Taeler was a new mom to her daughter Emma, who spent eight weeks in the NICU, Taeler spent hours researching – like most parents.
“She was born with her intestines outside of her body, and with that comes complications, and she could have developed an issue which would’ve lead to a colostomy bag, so I was already searching for clothing that would’ve helped with that and I literally couldn’t find anything,” she said.
But remember, Taeler was becoming a self-taught seamstress.
“Buttons are made from somebody who’s never had kids. Cut out a swaddle blanket in the shape of a romper and I put a zipper in the in seam and that was my first prototype,” Taeler described the beginning of her company Zipease.
Soon enough in 2017, word of mouth spread about these buttonless rompers, and Taeler founded Zipease.
“I’m overwhelmed in the best way, it’s really fun,” she laughed.
Luckily, Taeler’s daughter didn’t need a colostomy bag, but seeing the lack of products available inspired Taeler to add a gastronomy tube accessible romper to her line of products.
“I love providing rompers that are accommodating to their children’s needs and any time a brand new g-tube mom finds me they’re like oh my gosh I’m buying every single one in the size that my kid needs now,” she said.
And now, Taeler wants to switch to a more sustainable fabric: bamboo lyocell.
She’s opened up a Kickstarter online, and even though the money will assist her businesses transition, there’s two donation tiers on the Kickstarter that will provide families with g-tube rompers for free.
“I qualify for a Kickstarter campaign because I am transitioning into bamboo. So right now I have about 150 families who’ve applied to get a free romper from me and I am so thankful for the customers and the new people who’ve come in and believed in my Kickstarter and really have supported me in that way so I can in turn, give back to families in need,” she said.
Taeler runs Zipease out of her home office, where she also sews the rompers, but she has big plans to scale in the future, like expanding into a warehouse.
For now, she has this advice for aspiring business owners who have an idea.
“The internet is free you can do all of the research you can get all of the information you need without having to pay for it and that’s exactly how I started sewing. That’s all you have to do is have an idea, one idea can turn into a six figure business.”
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