'We couldn't find clothes we liked for our son so we designed our own at home - now we sell them online from Shropshire'
When they struggled to find unique T-shirts for their young son that matched their personal style, Hollie and Jade Anderton-Schofield decided to try making their own.
At the time, they had no idea that their kitchen-table project would turn into a thriving kidswear brand.
They now run their small business, Beck and Co, from their home in Ellesmere alongside their day jobs and caring for their son, Beck.
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And in just under two years, Hollie, a secondary school teacher, and Jade, who works in adult social care, have built a loyal following for their soft, everyday clothing that aims to stand out from the crowd.
“It was a very happy accident but it was very much an accident,” says Hollie.
“We had our son via IVF in February 2024. I’ve always wanted to dress our little boy really cool and I found when we were looking for clothes that girls seemed to have a huge selection and boys didn’t.
“I’ve got a bit of a habit of saying ‘I can do that’ so I said to Jade ‘I’m going to try to make something, I wonder how easy it is to print a T-shirt?’.
“So I drew up a design and I printed it onto a little vest for our one-month-old son and people said it was good.
“I laughed it off and said ‘it was very me to have done it’ but people were like ‘these are actually really good though’.
“So I made some more and showed them to work friends and they bought them off us. And it just went from there,” she explains.
They began selling on Etsy before launching their own website and online shop.
All of the clothing is illustrated, designed and printed in-house from their box bedroom and the couple says their focus is on “comfort, quality and not charging parents a fortune for clothes that will not fit in six months’ time”.
“We started with babygrows and quickly realised that they are nigh-on impossible to print on so then we started working with T-shirts,” says Hollie.
“Then we branched out into sweatshirts and now we’ve got T-shirt and shorts sets, we’ve got some pyjamas in production at the moment, we do long-sleeve T-shirts, short sleeves, we did trousers as limited editions in the summer and we’ve got some samples ready for the next 12 months, which is super exciting."
Hollie is the illustrator behind all of the designs which are inspired by their own interests and are also family-driven.
“We are full millennials, Jade and I, so most of our T-shirt designs will take inspiration from a millennial song or a joke.
“We don’t like cringey slogans that you often find on kids’ clothes. With every collection, we think of things related to the season and try to fit millennial humour into them and make them look edgier than the stuff you usually see.
“We think of what parents like and the stuff that makes us laugh as parents and go from there,” she explains.
Although she doesn’t consider herself an artist, Hollie enjoys being creative and making designs that will make people smile.
“A few months before the start of each season, we do a mind-map of what we want to include, so we are working on spring at the moment,” she says,
“We decide on the types of products we want, whether it’s hoodies or sweats. We narrow down how many designs we want and some ideas for those designs.
“Then I’ll go ahead and draw them. Jade has a look at the colours and changes things if need be and we look at fabric swatches.”
All of the products are made to order and can be shipped nationwide. “We manufacture in China and the products arrive blank. We order the prints in the UK and we use direct-to-film printing. We print the design on each product and then it’s ready to be posted to the customer,” says Hollie.
Her favourite design is their ‘Matcha Made In Heaven’ sweatshirt.
“Matcha is kind of all the rage and we do a matching parent sweatshirt that goes with it,” she says.
“Jade’s favourite is our Jammie Dodger design, which coincidentally is our bestseller as well, we print so many.”
They made the most of social media to grow their business and spread the word about new collection launches.
“Our social media is where we hit our stride. We gained up to 27,500 followers on Instagram and another 14,000 on TikTok.
“We’ve met so many amazing people; families, mums, dads, those who take the time to share their thoughts with us about what they think of the business.
“We get messages all day, every day, from people saying ‘my order arrived, I love it, it’s amazing’.
“We’ve had people take the time to leave an official review: we’ve got 250 five-star reviews on Judge Me and two four-star reviews, and nothing below that which is cool.”
The couple are excited to see what the future holds for their small business.
“It’s just so different to anything either of us has ever done before, so it’s exciting.
“We love that we are building towards our son’s future. It’s all for him and there’s something really nice about that.
“It’s a legacy that he can take on from us,” says Hollie.
- For more information, visit beckandco.shop or www.instagram.com/beck.andco/.