Give us the full intro.
Kia Ora team, I'm Jacob, the creative behind Shaggy. A bit about me: I'm an Oat Mocha loving, shorts in the winter kinda guy. I'd like to say I'm a dog person, but I've got two cats that adopted me and I'm a sucker for them now. I live by the beach in Omaha with my Wife and couldn't think of a better place to be. Most days you'll find me procrastinating the admin side of business with a pen in hand scribbling up the next design.
Tell us a bit about why you started Shaggy?
While at Uni I'd been dabbling a bit in the idea of a side hustle (just broke student stuff). So when Covid hit and I ended up back home with 5 weeks to kill I downloaded photoshop and started playing around. After spending two days straight designing I thought "If I'm spending this much time on it, I might as well figure out how to get paid". I drafted up a few hoodie designs, started an instagram page and kicked off a presale.
Honestly it was the roughest bootstrapped start, and looking back now I can't believe how quickly I just went for it, call it blissful ignorance. Since then the brand has grown, a lot, and I've slowly found my feet and style. It's a good story in just starting. If you have an idea, just go for it! You'll figure out the details later, and learn so many valuable lessons and skills.
Is your background in design then?
Nah, absolutely not! I actually spent four years doing a degree in Civil Engineering down in the Waikato. It was during this time that I started Shaggy and realised that I'd stumbled on something that has become an absolute passion of mine. Before this I was never massively into design, I'd say I was a pretty creative guy but had never explored further than that!
What's your favourite product?
Can I say all? If you can't tell by our range I'm a big fan of a quality Lid. It's a hard task picking just one item, but if I'm going by the piece in my collection that's looking the most worn in then it's the Monstera 5 Panel. Bloody difficult to go past a tidy two-tone piece of Cord.
Other than that my current rotation has the Luke and Bex 5 panels on repeat. And a wee teaser...the next collection of Hats and Tees are in my opinion my best work, but of course I'd say that.
It's a Saturday morning, you've put down the pen for a day off - What are you doing?
I've always been a morning person so you won't catch me sleeping in, too much energy for that! I'm pretty lucky to be living with the beach just up the road so a good morning looks like my wife and I grabbing the in-laws dogs and heading down to the beach for a walk. There's always got to be a coffee in hand though! I'm a sucker for a good coffee, go-to order is an oat mocha.
I've also got a board that's collecting a bit of dust at the moment so when the weather warms up a bit I'll be trying to get out for a few more surfs.
Is Shaggy your full time gig?
Not quite yet! It was a side hustle for the first couple of years as I finished Uni and started work. After about a year of Engineering I came to the conclusion that it just wasn't for me, and that I had too many dreams left to chase with Shaggy to not give it more time. So I switched up careers and now I work part time as a youth worker and the rest of my week is in the business.
What's the dream?
I've loved the past few months having the freedom to work more on the business. The flexibility and lifestyle is a massive thing for me, and so far there haven't been any regrets leaving full time employment!
Ultimately my dream is to make Shaggy my full time Income so I can continue to do what I love. Beyond that, in terms of the brand I'm aiming to make it the top local independent Kiwi surfwear brand, kinda like Billabong and Ripcurl were for Aussie. Big dreams but hey...aim high and have a crack!