We are approaching the end of 2023 and it’s time for reflection…
It was a busy start to the year after our very busy ‘22 Christmas gift run.
The cold weather in January and February meant our business continued into spring. Our best-selling fingerless gloves - 'Wristees®' with matching scarves & accessories continued flying out of our Bristol workshop keeping folk stylishly warm through our cold winter.
In February, just in time for the month of love, a lovely little old furry man called Henry came into my life, and the impact he has had has been quite extraordinary. He is the sweetest companion both at home, and at our workshop and has even had a say in some of our designs for 2024!
Our Wristees®, Scarves and Beanies are ever so popular amongst the UK's growing community of dog walkers, and our latest new product is a dog collar and lead in matching Wristee® and scarf colour combinations... inspired by you know who! We are looking forward to launching our new range of pleated dog collars and leads in 2024. I wonder what will come next….
Springtime is often an inspiring time after a long winter, with flowers blooming around us, it’s a beautiful time to be reminded of nature's beauty and time for us here at the workshop to start new projects. Last spring we put more time into researching more sustainable green materials and improving the way we package our products. We replaced our tags when needed with uncoated plastic-free eco cards and started using biodegradable packaging.
Our current best-selling line is the pleated collection and this year we sourced a supplier of eco fleece made from recycled plastic bottles. This fabric has the global recycled standard and Oeko-Tex certification and it is our first of many steps into moving away from our current polyester fleece. Providing our customers with a sustainable and eco-friendly alternative. We launched the Recycled Fleece Wristees® at this year’s ‘Home & Gift’ Buyers Fair in July 2023 where they received an overwhelmingly positive response.
Our Organic Cotton Collection was expanded with new fabrics and finishings.
We sourced an amazingly soft and luxurious feeling organic cotton fleece for a new range of eco-friendly accessories made from 100% organic cotton fleece and velvet. We are very excited about this collection and are looking to expand it in 2024.
This autumn the cold weather arrived later than expected. Much to the delight of everyone in the UK, but for us, it meant that we were unusually quieter than we had been in previous years. To be honest the warmer weather did have us slightly concerned, being a small business selling predominantly winter accessories and gifts, that sell best in colder weather. With us making most of our sales in the last quarter of the year, the warmer weather puts us under huge pressure! Thankfully for us at Wristees® HQ, the cold winds did eventually arrive and the usual madness of our busy selling period was suddenly upon us.
Being a small business we never seem to have enough time to do all the jobs that need to be done. One of these areas is our lack of time to promote the health benefits of our best-selling Wristees®. We have been so overwhelmed with the fantastic response from our customers year after year whether they are trade or individual retail customers that we have neglected to be more informative, concentrating on the areas we do best in, crafting and of course our excellent customer service…..
So, not only are our best-selling Wristees® wonderfully warm and comfortable to wear in an array of fabulous colours, but the amount of customers we hear from who share with us their personal stories of the health benefits of Wristees® has to be shared.
Wristees® Handwarmers for Health and Wellness
Wearing Wristees® makes an undeniable difference to how warm you feel, covering your wrists has been proven to help those with circulatory hand issues. As a sufferer of Raynauds disease myself, I know how important it is to cover my pulse points, warming the blood and helping keep my wrists warm and so in turn my fingers stay warm. The benefits of wearing Wristees® are quite remarkable.
Our Wristees® are now recommended to people by many professionals in the health and wellness industry including physiotherapists and we sell them through a hospital in London and a few chemists around the country so we will be making efforts to market the benefits and share knowledge of the health benefits in the future!
Here is one of our lovely customer reviews
“ I bought myself two pairs earlier this year.
They are SUPER hand warmers to wear while working around the house, or playing tennis. They were perfect after I had to undergo an op on my hand in January. They helped with my blood circulation and camouflaged the dressings I had to wear. I even played Bridge in them. I keep a pair easily available in case my hand goes dead - which it often does now. I took a pair on safari in June and they were perfect to use early in the mornings.
Where we meet our customers
Throughout the year Anna Falcke and Wristees® show their collection at some of the UK’s most popular events whether Trade or Retail.
After sharing Christmas cheer and spreading Christmas warmth, it’s good to be back at the workshop to decompress, and literally take stock and review the year past. Having a physical presence on the high street at the Christmas events is a great way for us to do market research and hear from you. We welcome any suggestions or feedback or ideas, so please stay in touch. Its a time for us to gather any feedback and plan the year ahead.
The Team
We really couldn't do it all without the help and support of our wonderful team, and a very special thanks goes out to our Christmas Elves - Tom, Tam and Isabella.
Beth, our resident Wristee Workshop Bee who not only handcrafts our collections but also helps prepare for shows and works hard to get our orders out on time to our wonderful customers.
We would like to thank our team of sewers - Kitty, Shazia, Nazia, Lauren, Jackie and Sarah who have worked hard to keep you all kitted out in warm winter wares! Thank you too to our lovely Bryony and Jess who beaver away in the background helping keep our websites and marketing up to date. A special thanks to our Julie who sits (runs, jumps, skips and trips) in Wristee HQ, always at the ready to take sales orders, pack orders, arrange deliveries, manage the day to day running of the workshop and answer any customer queries. With Julie at the helm, it's no wonder we receive so many reviews for our excellent customer service.
This year we have sent out 1000’s of Wristees and Scarves, and look forward to 2024 and another year of warming hands and hearts to you our lovely customers and traders.
Best wishes to you all,
Anna Falcke
