“The past couple of months have been pretty crazy”: How one clothing business grew in 2020

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Over the summer, Bay Area clothing designer Aliya Wanek’s business started booming as Americans across the country focused on supporting Black-owned businesses.

Wanek works on her clothing line in the evenings and on weekends — when she’s not working her other job as a speech therapist for young adults with disabilities. We checked back in with her to see how her business is doing as 2020 comes to a close.

“The past couple of months have been pretty crazy,” Wanek said. “I released a few collections and they’ve done really well. They’ve sold out within a couple days.”

Because her business has grown so much this year, Wanek has started working with two local factories. Before that, just she and one other sewer made all the products.

“The big question that I’m trying to answer now is how do you increase production and meet the demand that’s coming your way, but you also don’t want to break your back and break your sewer’s back,” she said. “It just wasn’t making sense to triple our production and think just she and I could do that.”