SquidKids Launches into Hamleys!!

SquidKids amazing stand at Hamleys : Boots, Umbrellas, Jackets and Bags

Close up on the colour changing Wellington Boots and Drawstring Bags

A close up on the colour changing Bus Jacket

The cute colour changing Green Flower Wellington Boot

So excited to announce that SquidKids have launched! Into non other than the coolest, most favourite Toy Store in the world, Hamleys! So happy.

We may have been going for 6 years now, but realising new designs and working hard on projects still gives us an adrenaline rush. We were so chuffed at all the press that turned up to Hamleys yesterday  and responded so positively!! Also a big thanks to all those that support us, not just yesterday, but on this whole journey - you guys are the best.

Keep an eye out for us. We will continue to sporadically update you - we promise!
Plus our SquidKids website will be updated with stockist information so you can all buy lots of colour changing goodies for the cute kids in your lives!

I hope you enjoy the pictures.

Emma-Jayne & Viviane xxx

John Lewis PitchUp Follow Up

The Squidders

John Lewis Buyers Spraying the Colour Changing Drawstring Bags

All the #PitchUp Contenders

Sorry its taken us a few days to get this post up - time is flying by at the moment!

Just a little follow up on our #PitchUp to the John Lewis Buyers last Friday, 1st August.
All the businesses pitching in the morning were asked to arrive at 830am to the John Lewis Head Quarters at Victoria, London. PopUp Britain the organisers, greeted us and we had a quick briefing session and were introduce to the two Heads of buying and they were nice! Not scary at all... well not really..!  Our pitch went well - you will see the photograph above of us in the pitch. There were 5 buyers in our pitch including the Head of Children's buying across the categories and also the head buyer for childrenswear. We had 30 minutes altogether to talk about SquidLondon and the new SquidKids range we are bringing out and to show off all the cool products! It was good fun, once you start you are fine as you know the business inside out so there are no trick questions that can not be answered.

We stayed for lunch so we could meet the other businesses and also a guest speaker was to join us, Ed Vickers from Jollie Goods who last year, after a successful #PitchUp was granted a mentor and shelf space for his awesome socks! Every pair that you buy, a homeless person in the vicinty of were you purchased your socks receives a pair for free. A great inspirational speaker and all round awesome guy.

Excitingly we have contacted by the head of chlidrenswear to be our mentor and have a meeting in 2 weeks!! Fingers crossed - we would just love to be stocked in John Lewis and hope they think the same too.

Speak soon,
The Squidders xx

John Lewis 2014 PitchUp

We are super excited to be announced as 1 of 12 finalists to pitch to the John Lewis buyers on the 1st of August!! We will be pitching our new childrenswear collection SquidKids.
There were over 700 applicants from all over the UK this year - record number since PopUp Britain started the PitchUp Competition 3 years ago.

All finalists and their products:

• Luggage entrepreneur Alistair Callender’s lightweight garment travel solution Gate 8
  
• Wrapping paper innovator Linda Hasking, founder of Identity Papers
• Cycling safety pioneer Lucy Lynn-Evans and her wearable fibre-optic light solution Veglo
  
• New British sports-wear brand Lexie Sport, founded by designer Lily Rice
  
• Innovative tablet holding solution G-Hold, run by award-winning entrepreneur Alison Grieve
• Lighting innovator Patrick Evans with Smoo
  
• Former lawyer Leyla Cooper’s skincare range Pretty Athletic
  
• Kitchen appliance entrepreneur Daniel Harkin
• Children’s rain-wear specialist SquidKids, founded by Emma-Jayne Parkes & Viviane Jaeger
• Smartphone charger inventor Matt Sandrini with Popcord
  
• Angela Ramsay’s new children’s board game Blank, as seen on Dragon’s Den
  
• Children’s building kit Bildy, founded by Jayne Bromfield

You can read more here.

Wish us luck for the 1st August!!
Emma-Jayne & Viviane x

Hamleys Christmas in June Press Day

Yesterday we had the most wonderful day showcasing the SquidKids collection in Hamleys Regent Street London on the 3rd floor! It was their annual 'Christmas in June Press Day' and we were so lucky and honoured to be invited to take part! They chose their top ten sellers to showcase their brands and selected a further 4 new brands that they will be launching for Christmas and we were one of them!!

It was a fun packed day, children loving all the new products (and ginger cookies), journalists engaging with all brands and brand owners feeling quite chuffed to see their products in Hamleys - the greatest children's store in the WORLD!

Exact launch date coming soon!

Emma-Jayne & Viviane xxxxx

Jack and Jill School Fair!

Making it Change Colour!

Are there any white patches left?!

Dry Colour Changing Banner

Wet Colour Changing Banner

We were fortunate to be invited to The Jack and Jill School Fair on the 18th May at Twickenham Green. It was a scorcher of a day - the sun was shinning and the children were buzzing!

We made a huge colour changing banner game for the children - armed with water guns and water pumps they drenched the banner with as much water as they could to make every potential white spot colourful! A few children didn't want to leave resulting in a few tears.. And some parents wished they had saved their £10 spent on the rides and just let the children play with the SquidBanner - it was the cool gazebo ;-)

We were there to promote SquidKids up and coming Launch and also Shooting Star Chase - the wonderful charity we have chosen to donate a percentage of the SquidKids sales to.

We hope you enjoy the pictures!! We sure enjoyed the day.

Emma-Jayne & Viviane x

SquidKids Website Is Here!

Exciting! We have launched our SquidKids website... softly! We still need to do the photoshoot of the first collection, and as usual the garments are taking longer than planned to arrive..! But otherwise all looking good :)

We are super happy with the website, fun and colourful! Big thanks to Spritz Creative!

Check it out here:  www.squidkids.co.uk 

Emma-Jayne & Viviane xx

SquidKids Tagline

We have been umming and ahing over our tagline. We thought of loads but none of them were quite right. However over lunch with two other board members we had a 'little' brainwave. We decided that SquidKids is not just about water or rain but it is totally about colour! Everything and anything to do with colour. Hence why there is no main areas of black in any of the SquidKids designs as scientifically speaking it's not a colour ;-) So we hope you like our new tagline: "bringing colour into little lives"....

Emma-Jayne & Viviane x