Well, we survived the pandemic... barely. Hillside struggled as orders and shows were cancelled. The hardest part was that the global supply chain was massively disrupted. This meant that we could not buy inventory at any price. As an emerging brand that just hit an exponential growth period in 2019, it was almost a death blow to have the rug pulled out from under us like that. This happened just as we were investing and leveraging our capital to take advantage of our popularity.
I also lost my mom to covid and that is something that I struggle with, along with so many others who lost loved ones. As we scaled down and sold through our inventory it was hard to know what to do next. As I regained my footing on life and came to terms with the series of hard adjustments to my family and business that covid brought, we decided to do the only thing that made sense. We dove into designing the best version of our bag possible.
We went to workshops, visited factories, talked to some very talented makers from around the world and recruited a bag genius. Mark Schatalow has been one our best partners in the industry. With his background in creating the most durable, usable and creative bags in the world, we were able to lay the backbone of our new bag series coming out this year!
You'll notice that we have also changed our Logo. With the help of Blake Ingram, who's designs have helped shaped brands like Van's, Harley Davidson and KISS, we refreshed our look and feel to match our passion to emerge from covid better than ever.
Stay tuned as we kickoff 2023 with new products and better features that continue to revolutionize how the world carries their things.