Why We Started En Route Designs...What is the point? There are already so many E-commerce clothing companies

By Co-Founder: Abhishek Bhaumik 

I feel incredibly blessed to have a supportive wife who embraces outside the box thinking. She is my best friend and my business partner. She has helped me immensely for my start up pediatric dental office that is now 6 years old. We have grown the practice together these past 6 years. We value the importance of having high moral and ethical standards, doing the right thing and not being afraid to grow slowly to grow fast later. I am proud to say we have learned how to run a success small business that happens to be pediatric dental office. Throughout our years together, we both love to pitch to each other potential business ideas and usually after much discussion we realize we just don’t see a clear path to make a potential business idea come to fruition or we simply lack the fire/passion to get the project off the ground.

 

With the birth of our 1^st son- Arie and coming from an Indian cultural background, there were a lot of celebrations and events that first year of life. We got to experience various brands that are present for children’s clothing and Indian children’s apparel.

 

Elisa pointed out two big problems that had never crossed my mind.

1. Why are South Asian children’s clothing so uncomfortable?
2. Why is it accepted and no one has come up with a solution?

 

My wife pointing out these problems, brought back a lot of childhood memories for me. Growing up, I despised wearing traditional kurtas and South Asian attire because they felt tight and itchy. I also felt embarrassed to be out in public wearing our traditional attire.

On a side note, I was also dealing with major identity issues through my teenager years, 20s and part of my 30s. Feeling different and not knowing how I can simultaneously embrace my Indian heritage and American culture is something I struggled with for a very long time.

 

As I approach 40, I feel so proud of my Indian culture and heritage. I wish I would have been more confident in my own skin in my high school years and 20s but I know this is how my life story was meant to be. Perhaps through clothing I get this opportunity to connect with more children and help them embrace their cultural backgrounds.

Elisa pointing out this big problem and the lack of clothing companies providing solutions to this problem for not only South Asians but people of various cultural backgrounds, got us both excited and lit that fire/passion.

 

I genuinely enjoyed working almost every night for over a year with 7 clothing factories to perfect our concept drawing of what a Kurta Footie should look like. With Elisa’s creative vision and my love for business operations/logistics, I know we have a decent shot at creating a clothing company for children that is a little different from the norm.

 

Elisa came up with the name En Route Designs, because we want busy parents just like us to feel proud and confident that they are putting their children in clothing that is not only comfortable but also versatile for any occasion. We want to offer the perfect “do anything/go any place” clothing that acknowledges design inspiration from different cultures all around the world.

 

As a nod to my Indian heritage, we are launching our company with our South Asian collection and we have a long term vision of creating En Route clothing with design patterns/collections from all around the world. The South Asian collection is just getting started and we plan on creating more timeless design patterns and reveal our version of the the kurta pajama and bottoms soon.

 

Thank you for your time, support and joining us on our journey of creating clothing where Tradition Meets Comfort.

 

Sincerely,

Abhishek