MEET MY SIDEPEACE

Longtime lifestyle blogger Bows & Sequins launches her own product called the SIDEPEACE.

I’m so, so, so excited to introduce you to the project I’ve been working on for the last year and a half…. S I D E P E A C E!

So it all began when my phone got stolen on New Years Eve at Snowglobe Music Fest in Lake Tahoe in 2019… If that wasn’t an omen to ring in 2020, I don’t know what was. The sun had just set and we were heading into one of the music tents to see SG Lewis, one of the artists I was most excited to see. As he was starting, I reached into my coat pocket to grab my phone to take a video and it wasn’t there. I searched my bag, couldn’t find it, and had that sinking feeling I’d had many times before. BUT I JUST HAD IT?! My pocket was zipped and my bag was closed?! I used my friends phone to call it and it was off right away, the telltale sign that it was snagged, not lost.

The thing is… I’ve maybe only been to one single music festival where a phone hasn’t been taken from one of my friends. (And we go to a lot of fests! 😂)

Fast forward a few days from New Years… I’m back in Chicago and the Coachella group chat is fired up about finding a house. If you know me, you know that Coachella is one of my favorite events of the year, but I felt this weird feeling of dread. I love music festivals and concerts, but I’m almost thirty two years old and so sick of the aftermath of dealing with theft. It’s embarrassing and a total pain in the butt. Especially nowadays with two-factor authentication and all of our apps, it’s a complete nightmare to function without a phone. 

Growing up, my dad used to lose at least one phone per month. He’s a veterinarian and works on large animals so a small flip phone would fall out of his pocket out in a pasture, never to be seen again. My mom finally bought him a phone case and attached a lanyard to it and made him wear it around his neck. (It’s a good thing my dad gives zero effs about what anyone thinks of him 😂) But I don’t think he lost a phone after that!

So I got to thinking… There has to be some sort of case with a cool strap that makes wearing your phone cute and convenient. And when I tell you I searched for hours and hours and only found two options that were absolutely heinous, I knew I was on to something.

If you’ve seen a case with a strap, it connects at the top corners. Our phones are so large these days, and since I always have the “max” iPhone size, I just imagined it flapping around while trying to dance at a concert. I wanted the phone to lay horizontally, like a crossbody bag. 

After my hours of searching, I reached out to an old contact in the jewelry business and we worked frantically for the next month or two to try to get these designed and manufactured before Coachella in April 2020!

In that time, I talked to so many people that have had their phone stolen while traveling (also guilty, happened to be in Paris!) or at any crowded event these thieves prey on. I felt like I was really onto something!

And then covid hit in China. And when China was getting back to open, we were shut down here. While production was at a stand still, in came all of the thoughts that took the wind right out of my sails… Social distancing meant no crowds for a very long time. No music festivals. No travel. Was this all a complete waste of time and money?!

I had finally gotten a first-round sample sometime during quarantine last year and couldn’t believe just how convenient wearing my phone felt. Outside of the times when you’d want to keep your phone close because of theft, there were a million different scenarios that worked while in quarantine.

I babysat my friends dog over the summer, and it was so nice having my phone out of my hands on walks to be able to handle the leash and the poop bags. 

Gone were the days of setting my phone down somewhere in the house and searching for it for minutes when I needed it. 

When grocery shopping off a list on my phone, no rummaging through my bag to find said phone. Being able to let go of it to grab the groceries and easily pick it back up when I need it again.

Not worrying about setting my phone on a germy surface during times of Covid.

And most importantly, my sanity walks last summer! No one wants to carry a bag while on a long walk, and us ladies might not always have pockets. When you really only need your phone, a key, and maybe a card, there’s now a less cumbersome way! 

My friends have been wearing their SidePeaces since last summer and providing so much feedback along the way. It’s truly one of those things you don’t even realize you need until you have it, because it makes life just a tad bit more convenient. (Which is something we can all get behind after the last eighteen months!)

Maybe someday I’ll get into the nitty gritty of why this launch was pushed from December to June, but right now I can just tell you, it’s been A LOT of stress and work and pivoting and tears and sleepless nights behind the scenes.

But it’s SO SO SO worth it now that they’re here!! I’m so beyond excited to finally push this little baby of mine out into the world. I hope you to get try it out, and I can’t wait to hear what you think!

You can browse the different styles on my new website: shopbowsandsequins.com! There’s also a ton of merch (just because I love me some good merch!), too. I’ll be sharing more photos and videos on Instagram, too!

@jessicarosesturdy  //  @sidepeacebybows

Thank you so much for all of your support over the years, it truly means the world!

xoxo Jess

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1 Comments

  1. 6.24.21

    Yay! They are all so cute. Huge congrats!