Selling (and Living) an Experience

How I Grew My Business by Selling the Experience of Making Shoes

Author

Melissa Quaal
August 07, 2023

My name is Melissa Quaal and I’m the designer and creative entrepreneur behind A Happy Stitch. I’m also the owner of The Espadrilles Kits, an online shop that sells kits used for creating your own espadrilles shoes. I’ve been selling espadrilles kits and teaching espadrille shoe-making for the last five years.  My small but mighty business has shipped over 3,000 kits to everywhere from California to Mexico to Australia and New Zealand. The kits have been featured in numerous places from Sew News, Handwoven, Bust, Uppercase and Frankie magazine as well across social media. I’ve had the great joy of teaching espadrille workshops across the country and even internationally. When I started in 2018, my shop was the only place I knew of selling shoe-making kits. Since then, the field of shoe-making kits has expanded considerably and now includes sneaker kits, clog-making, and so much more. It’s a great time for experiential products like these and I’m excited to share my business journey with you. 

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