About Santorini Brand
Founded in late October 2023, Santorini Brand is my passion project that has grown into a thriving creative endeavor, with a following of over 75k across platforms. I pour my energy into crafting unique designs and managing the brand from a business perspective. Santorini Brand reflects my dedication to creativity, entrepreneurship, and continuous growth, and it’s a journey I enjoy every step of the way.
The Story
My whole young adult life, I have been captivated by the idea of working for myself, becoming a business owner, and making money doing the things I enjoy. About a year ago, in the fall of 2023, I saw my opportunity. I noticed how many new clothing brands were popping up with the main advertising modeled around social media. This was something I was interested in because I love making designs and I had also recently grown a big following on social media so I had experience in that as well.
I realized, however, that the fashion industry—especially graphic T-shirts and hoodies—was really oversaturated, with only a few brands doing well. So I thought to myself, What’s something nobody else is doing? I knew I wanted to do something based around cars and luxury car brands like Porsche, Ferrari, etc. Eventually, after a lot of thought, I came to the idea of putting my designs on phone cases. It took many different iterations before I got to one I liked and thought others would like. I created a website using Shopify, and after about a month of hard work, I was ready to launch.
In the beginning, it started off slow, and I wasn’t really making any sales, but then I started getting the hang of advertisements on TikTok. Soon, I realized I needed help with marketing, so I brought in my friend whom I trusted and knew would be good at brand advertising and marketing. His job was to make short videos of the cases and advertisements for the brand. We worked together making new designs and gaining a following, as well as having a steady income.
It was all smooth sailing until I got a text from a friend. He sent me a screenshot and said, “Isn’t this your brand?” It was a picture of my exact designs and my own ads but with a different brand name. Someone was stealing my designs and scamming people. Even worse, their video had over 100k likes. This was a big problem because they were taking all of my sales, which was frustrating. I had to stop them somehow. I decided to directly message them and report their posts to TikTok as fraudulent. It worked. They backed off and probably went to steal someone else’s designs. To make sure that didn’t happen again, I made a logo to put on every design so nobody could steal them again.
When I launched my cell phone case product line in early 2023, I could never have imagined such explosive growth or such complicated challenges. Currently, I still have the business and am still making money from it. I am dedicated to improving the quality and looks of my products, and I am very excited for the future. Especially with another holiday season ahead!