Alana Steyn, who runs Mud Mates - an online business selling messy play gear - with her neighbour’s twins, Angus (green and blue) and Rhett Treagus, dressed in Mud Mates coveralls. Photo / Warren Buckland
Alana Steyn, who runs Mud Mates - an online business selling messy play gear - with her neighbour’s twins, Angus (green and blue) and Rhett Treagus, dressed in Mud Mates coveralls. Photo / Warren Buckland
Alana Steyn watched her toddler play in the mud, covering his clothes in dirt.
But instead of taking him away from the messy play, she thought of a solution to the piles of dirty laundry.
“Kids love playing in the mud and jumping in puddles, however, parents are notso keen on loads of washing,” the Hawke’s Bay mum-of-two said.
“I thought a coverall would do the trick. I tried to find one but without any luck.”
So Alana took matters into her own hands and asked her mother if she could make one.
“She whipped one up and it was perfect. Then friends started asking me about them so I started making them myself and selling them to people I knew and at local markets.”
That was the beginning of Alana’s online business Mud Mates, which has been flourishing for 10 years.
“When I first started I would buy two metres of material at a time, now I buy 2000 metres at a time. I’m proud that our range is handcrafted right here, in Hawke’s Bay, by mums, grandmothers and great-grandmothers.”
Rhett Treagus dressed in Mud Mates coveralls points something out to Alana Steyn. Photo / Warren Buckland
Alana says Mud Mates has meant she has been able to be there for her children.
“I love the freedom and flexibility of running my own business. It’s meant I could go to sports days and be home when the kids got home.
“I’ve also made a lot of connections through social media with amazing and inspirational business owners.”
She says keeping on top of social media and putting herself “out there” had been the hardest thing for her.
“I was not one to share a lot but I knew I had to do it. There were a lot of challenges and learning.”
Alana also shares parenting tips and hacks on social media and a recent one about sweetcorn had 15 million views on Instagram.
“I first put it on TikTok where it had 10,000 and I thought that was good so I put it on Instagram and about two weeks later it just went off. Having that exposure is invaluable and important. The more eyes on my business the better.”
She said Mud Mates specialises in a range of protective gear, from wet weather over-garments, craft aprons and bibs that saves laundry headaches, to sun-savvy hats and sunglasses.
“Our personalised swim bags and wet bags are popular as are our mud kitchens, magic potions and playdough powder all designed to make messy play even more fun.
“Really, that’s what my business is all about, getting children outside having fun.”
Linda Hall is a Hastings-based assistant editor for Hawke’s Bay Today, and has 30 years of experience in newsrooms. She writes regularly on arts and entertainment, lifestyle and hospitality, and pens a column.
