With a focus on Greater Philadelphia small businesses and entrepreneurs, "The Creators" is a weekly feature presented by PHL Inno. Check back each Monday for a new profile on a local business. Have a story you think we should know about? Email associate editor Lisa Dukart at ldukart@bizjournals.com.
One of Amy and Leo Voloshin’s business mentors likes to joke that it only took them 12 years to become an overnight success.
In many ways, that’s true.
The company has already surpassed $10 million in revenue just a few years after launching.
The husband-and-wife duo behind Philadelphia-based pajama brand Printfresh have experienced soaring growth over the past two years and will debut their first brick and mortar at 260 Elizabeth St. in New York on Feb. 14. Spanning about 500 square feet, the Voloshins hope it will be the first in a line of destination stores.
On the tails of one big move will come another. Printfresh is expanding its line with Philadelphia-headquartered Anthropologie by debuting a home goods collection consisting of bedding and wallpaper. The first items will hit Anthopologie online starting in March and then be available through Printfresh’s website in April.
Anthropologie was a natural fit for the brand, which also sells an exclusive selection of Printfresh pajamas, since its parent company, URBN – whose portfolio includes Urban Outfitters, Free People and BHLDN – is where Amy worked early in her career.
Having earned a degree from the Rhode Island School of Design, the Boyertown native returned to the area after school to pursue textiles, patterns and garment design. In the ensuing years, she launched Printfresh Studio, which focused on textiles, creating and selling them to retail companies like Kohl’s, Macy’s and Target.
Eventually, she and Leo – who grew up in Bucks County after his family relocated as refuges from the former Soviet Union in the 1980s – decided to pursue a different kind of business and the current iteration of Printfresh was born. Focused on sleepwear, the company is known for its sustainable practices and size inclusivity. Some of its sets are available in as many as 23 sizes, which range from petite to tall and from size extra-small to 6X in whimsical patterns featuring foods, plants and animals.
The company’s best-selling Bagheera print showcases leopards and is the print that first inspired the switch to pajamas. Prior to that, as Printfresh Studio, Amy and Leo were focused on wholesale. Wanting to tap into their engaged online audience, they introduced direct-to-consumer stationery items like journals, incorporating some of their eye-catching patterns. That proved a difficult endeavor due to its low price point and didn’t showcase the patterns to their full advantage.
In 2017, Amy participated in the Philadelphia Fashion Incubator’s program and in late 2018, when their sales representative suggested pajamas, they figured they’d give it a try, starting with the Bagheera print. Already working with a factory in Jaipur, India, it was an easy switch and the pajamas quickly garnered orders.
The modern Printfresh and its focus on pajamas got under way in the fall of 2019. After a successful pop-up in Fishtown, the couple prepared for a busy 2020. Then the Covid-19 pandemic hit, forcing their business to go remote. At the time, they were still focused on wholesale orders and quickly found their Olde Kensington office piling up with returned merchandise from retailers. It quickly became clear they would need to go directly to their customers and so in the early days of the pandemic, they built out their website and marketing. With many at home, the timing worked to their advantage.
“Most people didn't have a great at home sort of leisure capsule of what to wear,” Amy said, making a line like theirs desirable.
Soon the company took off. Leo, who previously worked at Johnson & Johnson for a decade and is also a real estate developer, estimates that from 2019 to 2020, business grew by a factor of 10 and from 2020 to 2021 it doubled. There’s no sign of business slowing, with the company being up 130% this January over last January. “We're self-funded still … so we're really reinvesting continuously in the business,” he said.
Two years later, between 80% and 85% of their business comes from direct-to-consumer sales. Printfresh is also stocked in about 300 stores nationwide, as well as Anthropologie and QVC.
Size inclusivity remains important not only from a business perspective, but for the brand’s ethos. “So many of my friends, family members, coworkers, all would like to buy plus clothing and they have very limited options and it just seems so ridiculous and insensitive by so many fashion brands,” Amy said. “I think it's a huge opportunity and more brands should really just start to increase their sizing even if it means going up to extra-extra-large.”
Meeting that demand in the marketplace – the sleepwear industry is expected to grow to $21.6 billion by 2026, according to data from Research and Markets – Printfresh today has about 300 SKUs and is thoughtful about its stock and product pipeline.
Like size inclusivity, sustainability and ethical manufacturing are important and the company uses organic fabrics that are certified by the Global Organic Textile Standard. “As a small brand, I feel like we have more choices in how we do things and it's just important to make the right choices,” Amy said of the decision.
Printfresh has since expanded to include pajamas for men, plus other loungewear staples and accessories like robes, T-shirts, socks, slippers, eye masks and travel bags. Sales have grown so much that they enlisted a third-party fulfillment center, working with the woman-owned Lorry Industries in Maryland.
Each new product was a natural extension of their brand and some were customer requests, which will soon extend to its home collection. “I love the idea of home products, because I find that they're a little bit more sustainable for a brand to be creating because people tend to use them for longer…,” Amy said.
As the brand continues to grow, Amy and Leo will look to add a few key roles to their staff and recently hired someone for buying and planning. Their team of 14 is based in Philadelphia
“It's been an adventure and it feels and it's also happened so fast,” said Leo.
What’s your design process?
AV: We do everything usually starting from a painting. I work with a print designer who I've been working with for the last 10 years. So she'll make these beautiful little paintings and then it becomes a very collaborative process where she'll get it into the computer and then I work more on the color side of things. Our goal is really just to make really fun, joyful patterns. Everything usually involves plants and animals, which we adore, and we just try to make things that are loud and happy to wear at home.
How did the Philadelphia Fashion Incubator help your business plan?
AV: It was a fantastic experience. I joined it very early in our business. It was great just to get to know more people in the Philadelphia community especially because I had been working in fashion but mostly in New York and Los Angeles. I never really got to know a lot of the retailers and designers in Philadelphia. I met so many incredible mentors through it. That's probably my major takeaway, getting paired with people like Danny Noble who is kind of a local famous sleepwear designer.
What’s it like working with your spouse?
AV: I think that it is nice to know that my partner always has our best interests at heart and it's nice to have somebody that's around that I can talk business to it any hour of the day. We're very different in our personalities. I have a lot to contribute in terms of design and brand; Leo's definitely much more numbers and growth focused. So I think it's a good pairing of the two of us.
LV: It's been a great working relationship. We're always trying to redefine where our lanes are and trying to stay within them. And I think that's the parts where it's been always interesting.
Will you add more stores in the future?
AV: There were definitely some locations that we talked about. We've always wanted to have a store in Venice Beach, California. I love California and it definitely suits our style. Palm Beach is definitely up and coming. Those are some of the locations I would love to do next.
Why New York?
AV: New York is so close. We've spent so much of our professional lives working there, especially with our previous business, and think that that little street, Elizabeth Street, is just one of my absolute favorite retail locations ever. I think there's so many amazing small businesses along there, so it just kind of seems like the perfect fit.
LV: That block is really awesome. It's on our favorite block for shopping in the whole city. And we're doing [the store] with a company called Leap Inc. and Leap is doing that for a lot of direct-to-consumer brands. So they're actually helping us get it off the ground and they're going to run it and staff it so that takes the load off of our small team.
