I started by purchasing a sewing machine from a garage sale. It was $30 and basically started my company on a broken sewing machine. Felix: What were your first products? Roxelle: My first product is still our best selling bikini bottom today. It's called the Kona bottom named after my hometown, super simple. I basically took five different bottoms that I loved and I took them apart and came home and I cut fabric, sewed fabric together, and I would literally put them on my body to size, take it to the beach and test it out. That's how we came up with the first product, and I started getting interest from my friends that were at the beach with me. Roxelle Cho’s pregnancy led her to design her own bikinis to create the perfect fit for expecting mothers. Fused Hawaii Felix: What about that first sale to a stranger, where did that come from? Roxelle: I hit the streets, literally. I remember packing a backpack full of bikinis. We have these canoe races here in Hawaii annually, and they're international races so people from all over the world come to race their canoes at this regatta. These are ocean people, it's my avatar customer in a way, and I went down there and basically sold things out of my backpack.
That's when I realized people who are ocean goers, who are active in the water, the person I was as well, they loved this suit. From there I started doing local craft fairs and markets, of course, surrounded by ocean water type people and we were selling out. But of course, at the time I was sewing each and every piece by hand, and so selling out meant 20 units, 40 units, 60 units. It was whatever I was hand-making at the time. Felix: Did you ever have any intentions of "getting a real job" or day job or you had faith in this from the beginning? Roxelle: I've never had a payroll type job. There were no other options. I've only started things, seen failed attempts quite a few times in businesses. When I look back at that time and where I am now it's dumbfounding, it blows my mind, but at the same time, it was this path that I needed to be on to be here now. It was all part of this greater plan for me. I think of those marketplaces or those craft fairs where some days it'd be raining or windy. I'd be under a tent that was blowing around and some days I'd feel like a complete loser. That's when I realized you don't ride the highs or the lows.