WHO IS AKIRI?

Akiri is more than just a brand. It is a mom’s dream.

Perhaps if I go back to when it all started, my younger self won’t believe me if I say that four years later, she’ll be selling customized bags. After all, I wasn’t really a fan of bags before. Some people may not know this about me, but I used to just get my mom’s hand-me-down bags.

All I wanted is to build a business and build a legacy for my daughter - Aki. I was ambitious (I still am), but back then I was naive, careless, and over confident. I thought all I needed is to have a dream, so I jumped right through it without planning nor thinking twice!

What planning did I have to make anyway? I was only going to sell Aki’s preloved items! That, of course, didn’t work.

Then I got hooked at editing photos on Lightroom, I saw some people selling Lightroom presets on Instagram. I thought, why not do it as well? There was nothing to lose. I didn’t need to invest any money - just pure effort and time! At some point I got stressed out spending too much time on something with little to no profit, I realized I wasn’t cut out for it. Just another failed story.

One day, during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, my friend and I were talking, we thought it’d be good to have our own line of clothing. At the back of my head, I already knew that was really what I wanted. But without enough money and not knowing the whole manufacturing process of clothes, we diverted our plan to just buying and selling baby clothes and accessories. But you know when I say plan, I didn’t really mean business plan, right? Just the plan in our heads! Obviously, what would happen when two people clueless about running a business decides to get into business? That’s right! Failed, yet again.

I’d say the funniest part of my journey was what I did after that. Because I got really frustrated in having my own line of clothing, I took out a loan and bought a sewing machine so I could self study how to sew. I’ve watched different sewing tutorials on YouTube, joined different sewing groups on Facebook, until I ended up selling the machine, because I really couldn’t get it!

So I went back to buying and selling - started with baby and children’s clothes, then went to adult clothes, and guess what? Just to fail again.

That’s when I thought maybe having a business just really wasn’t for me. I did so many different things, only to fail each and every time. So I gave up. Anyway, things got busy at work as well, so I thought, that’s okay.

Fast forward to mid-2023. I was juggling with the corporate world, being a Virtual Assistant, a wife, and a Mom - all at the same time, then it hit me! What do I really want to do? What do I really want to become.

Suddenly, I was back to where I was 4 years ago and remembered everything that happened afterwards. It became clear to me. I really wanted to have my own brand!

But I got scared. What if it’s just a phase? So I slept it on, waited to see if the idea will go away in days, weeks, and even months. But it didn’t. At some point, I just found myself researching about different products that I can focus on and enjoy selling - baby and mom clothes, accessories, bags, etc.

And that is when the concept of Akiri was born. It wasn’t a concept built overnight. It took me at least 6 months of fear and self-doubt before deciding that I was really going to do it.

That is the value that I want to bring to the community. Through Akiri bags, I want people to have the courage to speak what’s on their minds. I want them to overcome the fear of chasing for their dreams because they’re afraid of failure. I want to give them a voice! And of course, what’s a better way to do it than with style, right?