Aloha!
We are Monica and Katie, the girls behind K'Lani. Our business is based in Utah. However, we both love our Hawaiian roots, and are filled with the spirit of Aloha.
The Idea behind K'lani was born in January 2021, when Monica was trying to tighten one of her expensive braided bracelets. As usual, her boring black hair-tie was sitting on her wrist next to it. While pulling the strings with her teeth, the thread bracelet frustratingly broke. She thought to herself, "Why can’t the bracelets go on as easily and be as functional as this ugly black hair tie?"
The thought of a cute Hair-tie bracelet kept her up at night for the next few weeks. Monica was a stay at home mom, ignoring her dusty marketing degree from 20 years ago. She had been raising 4 pretty cool and busy boys and loving every minute of the chaos. After tossing the idea over and over in her mind, Monica was ready to pitch it to someone super talented. Someone she knew would be the perfect partner and make the brand AMAZING.
There was only one person on her mind...Katie! Monica and Katie had briefly met only once, through their husbands who worked together, but Monica had been a big fan of Katie's work (borderline stalkerish) on Social Media.
Katie is an amazing graphic designer and photographer, hustling through life while raising 4 incredible kids! They set up a dinner date and Monica threw out her wild idea! Katie was immediately onboard.
The new duo got to work right away designing, planning, ordering samples, and texting or calling each other at least 500 times a day. Over the next 9.5 months they worked with manufacturing to make K’Lani exactly what they envisioned.
After ironing out a few kinks, here we are today! K'Lani Hair-tie Bracelets are sold in hundreds of retail stores nationwide and have a thriving social media presence. They love to give back to the community and have donated proceeds and product to multiple charities. Both Monica and Katie are excited about the future of K’Lani and have big plans for growth and development. Their hunky husbands have been a huge support encouraging them to follow their dreams while launching this product. Dan and Brandon are excited to cheer them on through the successes and failures and lend a helping hand and business knowledge when necessary.
Why K’Lani? Monica was born in Honolulu, Hawaii on Princess Kaiulani’s 100th birthday! Because of this, her parents gave her the middle name, Kaiulani. She loved carrying the name of a real Hawaiian princess while growing up. Her parents and grandparents would always remind her that Ka'iulani means "The highest point of Heaven", which she cherished. When Monica was brainstorming the product, she knew she needed to honor her Hawaiian roots. Katie's grandmother was also born and raised in Hawaii, so K’Lani was the perfect fit.
Princess Ka'iualni
From Monica and Katie:
"This has been an exciting journey thus far, and we thank you for being part of it with us! We love our customers and consider each of you our Ohana. We hope these hair-tie bracelets make your days a little more heavenly, and the spirit of aloha burns brighter in each of you!"
Mahalo'
Monica and Katie