6 years in business

6 years in business means that we have pivoted many, many times in order to be here. I am not going to lie, there were days when I was ready to close our doors. Even this year, the idea of being a full-time mom and running MIGA seemed daunting and outright impossible to do. But here we are. 

There have been many iterations of MIGA. First there was MIGA, which was custom-made to our volunteers and condition-specific. That was our first collection, inspired by burn survivors that we funded through our 2018 Kickstarter. Second, we had the collection where I worked closely with 5 women who all had very different diagnoses, from ulcerative colitis to acne inversa, to tell their stories through design and in the canvas bags that come with each suit. For this collection, we produced upwards of 800 units which were ready by the time we were in COVID. You can imagine how difficult it was as a small business to finally be in stock when the whole world was shut down with no vacation insight. 

Last year, we did the ally collection, a push to create swimsuits that appealed to a greater audience as a way to continue to raise awareness about the disability community while combating ableism. If we weren’t so steadfast to our mission we would not be here. 

What I have learned is that a good product will sell. A product has to appeal to the customer through the eye first, our bright neon pink Ally bikini top comes to mind. Then, everything else falls into place. One of our biggest pivots was when we realized our brand needed to target the mass market in order to fulfill our mission to combat ableism. I do not need to tell members of the disability community about the horrors of ableism, they know them too well. I need to engage with those that do not know how inaccessible our world is in order to fulfill our mission. 

I never thought I would move away from a direct to consumer model to working with retailers like Target and Macy’s. I thought that in order to have a big impact I could do it all by myself and I was wrong. As a small business it is nearly impossible to get eye balls for a reasonable price, Google and Facebook are cost prohibitive, especially during the pandemic. So here we are working with two partners that we believe Can and will take our business to the next level. My therapist recently said that we are in expansion mode. And although I still cannot believe it, that is where we are today.