It's our breithlá! What a year we've had! Bliain ar dóigh!
We officially launched Beanantees at the beginning of 2019 but it was a long time in the making. Beanantees actually started out as a means to ward off boredom during storm Ophelia in 2017, storm embroidery! Ever heard of it?
'Droid do Bhéal' messily hand embroidered on a ten euro black Zara tee, was the ever design - although we didn't even know what Beanantees was then. Being cooped up indoors for hours led to myself and Lana drawing up business plans. These plans sat dormant for another year before we decided 'feck é' let's do it!
Last year when we set up our little business with just three t-léinte we didn't realise what a fun, fulfilling adventure we would go on. We had an idea, we liked it, thought it was cool, turns out, loads of you guys did too!
We had no expectations when we set up Beanantees, just two 'cairde is fearr' wanting to do something creative together that highlighted the Wild Women of Ireland and also brought Gaeilge to the forefront.
Since we've launched we've made some pretty big moves. We've now got a broad range of products all with our signature cúpla focal, and also helping very important charities doing very important work.
We've had so many highlights during our first year as Co-Banríon's, but some that stick out have been selling out in the first week of business; the amazing spread in the Irish Independent, being featured in Lovin.ie, Stellar, Evoke and more and being part of the inspiring International Women's Day event in the Bernard Shaw.
We still get such a buzz from seeing important figures wearing our Beanantees, like when legend Siobhán McSweeney wore our geansaí whilst fighting for our sisters in the North, James Kavanagh repping Beanantees as he promoted the Irish Language and just last week seeing the delight on Jonathan Van Ness' face when someone handed him his very own Yas Banríon mini zip bag.
We have collaborated with some deadly folk like Bród Gaillimh, Lottie Dolls and Miss Dia Buit, and we've seen our little ideas spread and be shared throughout the internet.
But our favourite thing was meeting our lovely customers and see them bopping about with their Beanantees merch. Shout out to the lovely legends we met at EP this year in particular!
Malaí, geansaithe and tees laden with Yas Banríon, Bean an Tí and GRMA, next and more have been sent throughout the world sprinkling some Irish humour and culture in far and distant places.
Tá muid an bródúil as an obair atá muid ag dheánamh agus oibrímid go dian ar ár gcuid smaointe do frasaí Gaeilge. We're not perfect, and your Irish doesn't have to be either! Cúpla focal ansin agus anseo helps keep ár teanga beo!
The thing we are most proud of is our decision to give something back to our amazing charities partners the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre, Rape Crisis Network Ireland, Alliance for Choice and the LGBT community.
So far we have raised over €2,500 for these amazing organisations and we can't wait for the next €2,500!
To say 'tá muid ag buzzáil, for the next year would be an understatement.
To say a huge GRMA to all our incredible customers who have been on this journey with us, we're celebrating our (sort of) birthday with 10% off the whole site.
No code required. Offer ends at 8am Friday 25th October.
Ciara agus Lana,
Beanantees
