Today we’d like to introduce you to Jene Park. Them and their team share their story with us below:
After working for a high fashion rock and roll band for over a decade, Jene was asked to join RKB to design a new streetwear collection— especially tees and sweatshirts. From the first collection, it was a huge hit.
People loved the vintage-washed super-high quality soft tees and sweatshirts designed with a perfect mix of feminine and hard-edged rock and roll. We could not keep up with the sales. Less than a year after re-launching Recycled Karma, Jene became CEO of the brand.
With the continuing success, now in our 4th year, the company is growing nicely in every channel and expanding in domestic and international markets. We will add more production lines and divisions in the coming years.
After all, it is good karma to make people happy.
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?
The road to success has definitely not been a smooth one. Our team was working hard to steadily increase our sales, customer base, and brand awareness.
Our sales strategy was to attend various trade shows domestically and internationally. Then in 2020, COVID-19 forced us to quickly change our plans and find new ways to increase our sales. This led us to launch our eCommerce website.
The world of eCommerce was completely new to us. We had never built an eCommerce site before, and my team and I had to learn as we went along. However, we quickly saw an increase in sales as more people were staying at home and online shopping.
After looking back on the past two years, I am incredibly proud of the success we were able to achieve in such a short period of time.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
Born and raised in South Korea, Jene had a personal penchant for style as a little girl.
She immigrated to the U.S. with her sights laser-focused on a career in fashion. She graduated from FIDM in Los Angeles where she was a recipient of the Fred Hayman award and a sought-after scholarship from Maison Lesage where she had a chance to learn the business and techniques of the famous Parisian embroidery atelier.
There she honed her craft, while the house worked with many of the fashion world’s elite haute couture designers including Givenchy, Chanel, Balenciaga, and Dior. After completing her graduate studies, Jene began working with Max Azria, founder of BCBG, where she played a key role in the development of BCBG’s growth from $2 million in annual revenues to a $700 million global brand.
Ms. Park was instrumental in directing product development, sourcing fabrics, and establishing pre-production and end-production strategies for their portfolio of 12 brands in over 3,000 points of sale. Her aesthetic and experience caught the attention of the company, Thomas Wylde, and shortly thereafter joined the brand as the COO in 2006.
For nearly a decade, Jene oversaw the entire spectrum of the company operations with escalating responsibilities, which included taking oversight of design, product development, production, quality control, logistics, and sales and marketing.
In 2018, Jene Park joined Recycled Karma Brands as Creative Director and took over as CEO in 2019. Within a very short period of time, Jene has achieved unprecedented status, successfully positioning Recycled Karma as a global brand with a strong visual identity supported by quality, fit, and timeless design.
So, before we go, how can our readers or others connect or collaborate with you? How can they support you?
We are always open to new ideas and collaborations that fit with our brand image. We support sustainability and brands that are trying to make the world a better place.
We love hearing from our customers on social media and seeing all of the different ways they style our tees.
So if anyone is looking to support our brand, showing their love for our tees on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, etc, is the best way to do it.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://recycledkarmabrands.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/recycledkarmabrands/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RecycledKarmaBrands/?eid=ARCLwBpJEzvWUNEv5WnFIAyhwVghWqhumx8-OPBkSrtswmIR7z6fQ_I4fgsHLsunUr1Uf4_rR3HtTR6x
Image Credits:
Aldo Carrera and Natalie Lukaszewski
