Happy first birthday to us
This time last year we were getting ready for our first-ever event and the launch of Harbour Hounds at Cowes Week on the Isle of Wight.. Gosh, where has that year gone? And what a journey we’ve been on.
We remember the excitement (which actually hasn’t gone away) of setting up our pop-up shop and the wonderful feedback from our first customers on our infant canine and coastal-loving brand; our delight at seeing doggies trying on our Beach Dog Drying Robes on the promenade and parading around wearing our stylish bandanas. After many months of hard work, Harbour Hounds had finally arrived.
Following on was Southampton Boat Show and then several Christmas markets where yet more pooches and their humans visited our shop.
Collaborations and partnerships started to form with other canine loving companies, We joined forces with Canine Cottages on their advent calendar competition, which was a huge success and fun to be involved with.
The Doggo Style Alpine Christmas Market in London Bridge was one of our favourite events of the year. Sooo many of our 4-legged friends in festive Christmas jumpers, some matching their owners and gorgeous canine brands to buy all your Christmas goodies. It was such a warm, merry atmosphere and a great, fun market to be at.
We were incredibly happy that Crufts was able to go ahead in March 2020, as this really has put us on the ‘brand to watch’ map. So many great conversations have led us to new opportunities. One was with our friends at The Golden Paste Company, who we collaborated with on a social media competition.
To our delight Radio 2 presenter Rev Kate Botley, who was visiting Crufts, gave our dog drying robes a mention on her Sunday morning show, which followed with pics of our stand on her Instagram. Wow - we were very proud of that.
Our Beach Dog Drying Robes went international with customers from all over the world taking them home with them and our EM Tick-Off Necklaces became our best seller, which followed with a product endorsement from CAM4animals.
And then the pandemic hit. Like everyone else, 2020 has been a challenging year for us, especially not being able to get out, meet people and their dogs at events and introduce them to Harbour Hounds. It has been a blow but we have stayed safe and zoomed with many of our new friends, which recently resulted in us joining forces with Sea-Changers. This charity fundraises for marine conservation, something so close to our hearts that we designed a Limited Edition EM Tick-off Necklace to help fundraise for their projects.
We’ve met so many wonderful people and gorgeous pooches, and received so much enthusiasm and love for our new brand. We’ve had ups, we’ve had downs. We’ve dealt with a lockdown (and we thought Brexit was going to be challenging…) but we wouldn’t change a thing (ok, maybe the pandemic if we could). Thank you to everyone who has supported us - here’s the next year and seeing you all again at events when it is safe to do so.