From Our Family To Yours: A Sweet Story
Just like some of you, this little company is a family business. When you decide to partner up with us, you're partnering up with me. No reps or robots. (I can do the robot moves, but not that well.) We're going to be a team from here on out!
Our family business starts out with the neatest story. Mint's parent company, Flying Circle, was started on the family ranch over 20 years ago by my in-laws, Joy & Jim Chittim. Joy's entrepreneurial spirit couldn't be tamed on the ranch, coming down from the big city of Dallas in the early 1970s. She had moved far away from her family and the big city and onto a ranch in the middle of the Hill Country. She and Jim were (and are) so creative and an excellent team--they've had lots of entrepreneurial adventures together and have designed several innovative products along the way. Eventually, Flying Circle came to be. What started out in a few modest barns with concrete floors has grown into something that's quite an operation today!
About 18 years ago, Jimmy & I started our own adventure similar to Joy and Jim's. My husband & I moved to Texas from Chicago to help his mom out with the growing family business. Jimmy dove in to learn the responsibilities of the military side of Flying Circle and & I worked at Flying Circle, too, to help develop what was called the "monogram line" back then, which serviced around 100 regional accounts in the Texas area. Some of you might remember our first styles--the tri-color travel set, accessories made with Texas-grown denim, and the famous solid pink duffel! Joy did that! At the time, Flying Circle was one of the only suppliers of monogram blanks to the market.
Baby Jack's arrival inspired all kinds of new perspective. Some of you even probably remember me having to sleep under the table in Atlanta Temps/in the booth at Hsu's/eating crackers during Monograms America Vendor Forum during my pregnancy. I went on a brief hiatus to be with Baby Jack (during this short time as a full-time mom/homemaker, it confirmed I was indeed domestically-challenged)...the very moment Jack could hold his own bottle, it was time to get busy with the "monogram line" again. Armed with a little creativity, a million ideas & an awesome team, Mint came to be! An entirely new brand, product, look, and story was launched thanks to the inspiration of Baby Jack and an attempt to inspire myself to actually dress in more than drawstring pants and old Grateful Dead t-shirts each day by going back into the office to rebrand, market, and design a new line.
Luckily, 'Mint' went over pretty well and it quickly took off to the next level. We grew from 10x10 tradeshow booths with paper tablecloths & hand drawn line sheets to permanent, award-winning showrooms in Atlanta and Dallas! Today we're proud to send our Mint boxes to over 4,000 retail storefronts & web-based businesses across the US & international locations like Hong Kong, Ecuador, Singapore, Dominican Republic, Panama, Turkey, Israel, London, and Toronto! Woo-hoo! It has been quite an adventure for all of us, to say the least. I am so grateful for the loyal following & continued growth.
Lots of people keep Mint running smoothly, like Diego, Jordan, Alma, Eduardo, & Dustin. We're a small crew, but we do the best we can!
All of us at Mint appreciate you. None of this would be possible if it weren't for your loyal following for all of these years. We love working with our customers and I love creating new things for you & your customers. Thank you for the opportunity to bring you new things each Market!
Christi Chittim