From Knitting Needles to a National Brand

Crafting her own success.

Pursuing your passion into a successful full-time business is a dream of many people. Christina Fagan has done just that (and more) with her brand selling hand-knit accessories.

In 2015, Christina launched Sh*t That I Knit (STIK) into a full-time brand, a complete 180 from its 2012 beginning as a blog she kept up during college to chronicle her passion for knitting. Pom-topped beanies were the first product line that launched the company after selling them at a local Boston winter market in 2014.

Throughout the next three years, she'd experience immense growth with the company - punctuated by pinnacle moments with celebrities such as Katie Couric and Kristin Cavallari sporting her high-quality beanies. By 2018, Christina was preparing for her brand's first pop-up shops in Boston and New York. A physical retail experience would be a major turning point for a company that got much of its traction from social media and e-commerce.

Christina found us while looking to make a next-level impact at her limited run shops. The idea: create a giant inflatable replica of her iconic beanie. "When I came up with the idea for an inflatable hat tent, I figured it would be either impossible or insanely expensive to create," she told us of her initial planning stages. "The resources to my various inquiries to inflatable companies proved that assumption - many didn't understand what I wanted and said it simply wasn't possible. That was not the case when I reached out to MVP Visuals - your team got right back to me with enthusiasm and an open mind." 

Designing a dream.

Our Art & Display team connected with Christina's vision right away. With a capability to create virtually any 3D shape in giant inflatable form, we worked with her every step of the way to bring her vision to life. Not only would the inflatable hat be a major display piece, it would be functional, too. Christina would be using it as a tent and de-facto mobile store well beyond her initial pop up shops.

The project began with planning out 2D concept sketches to visualize the major parts of the structure  - from the entrance, logo placement, background pattern and even the location of the air blowers - so Christina would feel like she knew exactly what she was getting well before the finished product arrived on her doorstep.

After the creative designs had been finalized, our production team printed, hand-sewed, tested, and shipped out the 16' tall inflatable beanie to Christina in just under 3 weeks. When she received it, she blew it up in her backyard and sent us excited photos. "From the start, you were able to take my half-baked idea and understand exactly what I was envisioning," she joked. "The final product blew the sketches out of the water."

Staying a-head of the game.

While Christina's main goal at her Boston pop-up shop was to cover heads, she certainly turned them, too. The giant inflatable beanie made itself known on a very busy Newbury Street, the home of several major Boston stores, and helped draw in a ton of curious foot traffic.

She didn't just use the custom inflatable hat tent at her temporary shop, either. Later, she took it along on STIK's "mobile tour" around Boston, catching attention with a custom trailer and the beanie popped up right next to it. After that, it made its way up to a snowy mountaintop ski event in Killington, Vermont to advertise the shop and to house members of the US Ski Team signing autographs! 

Christina has loved the unique element that a custom branded inflatable brought to her growing brand. "Our hat tent has been the envy of every other vendor at events we attended last winter," she told us. "Not only is it eye-catching and on-brand, but it inflates in just a few short minutes - much easier than a traditional pop up tent!"

Images courtesy of STIK.

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We help brands across the country create a next-level impact with custom shape inflatables for any occasion. Browse our selection and reach out to us for your next project!