Whew! What a whirlwind year. Year 2 of operating in the middle of a pandemic but we did it! To be honest, I’m not sure where this year went but we managed to launch albeit much later than expected! A rundown on how our year went:

Pre-Orders

We soft-launched Lilith in January and had our Concrete Jungle Green colorway available for pre-order, along with hoodies & tees so folks could rep us before the kicks arrived! A huge thank you to our early supporters, whether you bought a pair or gave us a shout on your platforms, especially Snobette who covered our soft-launch. We appreciate you!

Time is a flat circle.

We hit production delays month after month and it seemed like we would never launch! But in that time we caught up with our friends at _Women In Sneakers, Ally NYC, Bee + Kin, Sole Savy, Sheaker Magazine, Co-Lab, An Untold Narrative, Sneakers by Women & Total Sole. 

Campaign Shoots

Despite COVID restrictions and *several* lockdown periods, we managed to shoot 2 gorgeous campaigns in Queens, NY & Colombo, Sri Lanka, bringing to life our vision of marrying the grit and lushness of both spaces, as a nod to our love of tropical modernism.

Our Official Launch

Global supply chain crisis be damned - we finally had our sneakers arrive stateside in September and got them out to all those who pre-ordered. Tears may have been shed at surging air freight costs but we formally launched in November! 

NYLON Magazine Feature 

Nav Gill wrote this lovely piece on Lilith NYC that covered everything from our launch, brand development and ethos, and creating our own table as a woman of color in the sneaker industry. Such a highlight for this story to drop in alignment with our launch! 

Collabs

AAVRANI

Lilith NYC sits at the intersection of fashion x tech x wellness and that couldn’t be more true given our collaboration with our friends at AAVRANI, a woman-owned beauty brand rooted in South Asian Ayurvedic practices. We hope you’ve been masking and basking in your own self-care glow! I know I have!

The Verticale

We partnered with The Verticale, a curated marketplace that vets and showcases brands that aligns with their Verticale Value standards which includes women owned businesses like us! 

QNSC Popup

We had our very 1st pop up in Astoria, Queens and were hosted by the lovely folks at QNS Collaborative over the Black Friday weekend! #CollaborationOverCompetition

In true startup-fashion of 'just get shit done', I've rarely taken the time to reflect on what I've accomplished this year as a self-funded, solopreneur. It's always been "onto the next" in my head. Apart from footwear development, it really has been just me behind the scenes attempting to do it all, everything from managing the shipment operations, warehousing + fulfillment, coordinating with vendors + partners, social media posting, the list goes on. 🤯 (I did bring on a wonderful graphic designer in November; hey Hannah 👋🏾) I'd be lying if I told you I wasn't feeling burnt out but in the same breath I'd tell you how ridiculously satisfying it's been to do this all on my own. To see my vision (what I thought was a pipe dream in 2015) brought to life in a short 18 month span. Like what? Is this real life? 

Honestly, thank you all for your endless support and love. Truly could not have accomplished what I did without you all.

Here's to getting shit done in 2022! ✌🏾

xSarah