What's in a name?

Hello  Heartbreakers! It's Mandie Bee here.

I have some news that may come as a bit of a surprise.  A few weeks ago, we (Heartbreaker Fashion) received a letter from a retail company operating under the name, Heartbreaker, in Minnesota. Receiving this letter was kind of a bummer because they have the official trademark for the word heartbreaker since 1984, and they don't want us to use our name, Heartbreaker Fashion. 

However, I am not moaning on the floor in tears thinking that my employees and I are completely doomed.  In fact, I'm feeling rather renewed and ready to embrace a change in our little company. I started and named my line, Heartbreaker, in 2004 when I was a broke college kid trying to make extra money by selling my handmade dresses on eBay (I'm 28 now in case you were curious).  I joined forces with my talented and business savvy mother within a matter of months. I just really needed her help sewing in the zippers....

Within our first year, she and I worked out of her back patio cutting every single dress and processing orders each week. All on top of her teacher's schedule and my college craziness.  We did it with the legal dba Heartbreaker Fashion and began using the domain name, which is also legally ours, heartbreakerfashion.com.

At the time, we never thought our name would be a problem. For one thing, the word "Heart Breaker" is common language. How many times have you seen a t-shirt with those very words screen printed on it?  I didn't think you could really trademark such a common word. Apparently,  this retailer in Minnesota did, though we never knew it until now.  This other Heartbreaker business has been operating longer than our 8 years in the biz and legally, they have the rights to the word.  By their demand, they don't want the word 'heartbreaker' to show up anywhere on our garments or hang tags.

HOLD THE PHONE.....SO WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?!?!?!  Stop. Breathe. It's gonna be okay. We are NOT going out of business.  We're really not going to change anything. The dresses will be the same. The quality. The service. The only thing that's changing is what you see on the label of your dress.  The name. Ah! Suddenly your original Heartbreaker labeled dresses are worth hanging on to... You will see some changes in the upcoming months. The first change being a replacement name for our main brand line, Heartbreaker.
Secondly, HeartbreakerFashion.com will become strictly a site for our stockists. Yes, all of those lovely shops around the world that carry our line will still carry the same product as before. As for our wonderful individual customers? Don't you worry about a thing. You will still be able to order our product directly from us just as always. The difference will be found in a new retail website, which we will officially launch in the New Year.

I anticipate for this transition to be smooth and promising. I have a plan!!!! With the change, we can see things in a new light and we expect to continue growing for the betterment of this company and your closets!

 

The most important aspects of keeping this company alive are such:
  • Providing a safe and enjoyable place for our employees to work
  • Providing quality products and service to customers around the world
  • Creating jobs in our local community- not overseas!
  • The ability to interact, inspire, and be inspired by the customers in our social networking communities. (Yes, that's you! You're important, too!)

Thank you Heartbreakers!  And you will forever be graceful, sassy, fashionable, sexy, lovely, vivacious, yet unobtainable Heartbreakers.

 

With Love & No Regrets,
Mandie Bee
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