“They had a play date and were just kind of mucking around with it, and then they kind of went ‘oh, actually we do want to make T-shirts out of these’,” she said.
“In the first lot we were just making T-shirts for the busking,” said Dusty, “we just thought it was cool.”
Dusty, 11, is excited about the new venture. Photo / Michael Cunningham
The brand name Liquid Surf Co is an acronym of Lennox, Quinn and Dusty’s names. The brothers then put together a design and surprised Lennox in time for Christmas.
The brothers also organised a membership with Te Kowhai Print Trust in Whangārei, where they then booked dates for screen printing and figured out the hourly cost of equipment.
The design of the T-shirts came out of Dusty and Quinn’s love for surfing. They played around with some designs, and finally settled on the one featured on their T-shirts.
Tūtūkākā Surf Shop now stocks the T-shirts, after they approached the shop with a letter introducing themselves and their brand.
Quinn, 13, hopes they continue selling their T-shirts for years to come. Photo / Michael Cunningham
What started out as a fun idea has turned into a full-blown business, with Monday - the first official day of sales - selling six T-shirts.
Quinn, 13, and Dusty, 11, raised the money for their brand through busking, and budgeted for quality T-shirts.
The cost and time taken to create them was weighed up in order to decide whether it was a worthwhile cause to pursue, and has since taken off.
“If this lot goes good, we’ll probably do another run,” said Quinn. “The first one is kind of an experiment.”
The pair say “hopefully” they will continue their brand into the future.
The pair’s Instagram page, run by their parents, can be found here.
