01.10.2023

Hey, Camilla here 👋

This is my final email as "Camilla from Northern Playground." After five amazing years with Northern Playground, my journey is taking a new direction. It might sound strange for an employee who is leaving to write a newsletter about it, but as the sender of our emails, I thought, "why not?"

When I joined the team in August 2018, the goal was crystal clear: sell as many products as possible. While the products were as innovative as ever, the business model was straight out of the fashion industry playbook. We celebrated every time we entered a new market (it was a big deal when we got into 10 stores in Japan!), and it was standard practice to resort to discounts to clear out our inventory. We were five ambitious and slightly crazy individuals in a small office, plotting our plans to conquer the world with our "sustainable clothing."

Much has changed. Today, we are fully aware that there is no such thing as sustainable clothing, and the goal is no longer to push garments onto people who already have enough. The goal is to encourage people to use their clothes longer and collectively reduce clothing consumption. We've taken some daring steps along the way, like saying goodbye to retailers and traditional marketing practices like discounts. And while the number of employees has doubled, we are still an ambitious and slightly crazy group in a small office, plotting our plans to turn the fashion industry upside down.

This is the (extremely) short version. The point is that even though we've entered a more professional sphere and scaled up parts of the company, we've retained much of the original startup mentality and haven't been afraid to change course along the way. It has proven to be the best thing we could have done.

As a marketer, my role in all of this has been very visible, and I look back on most of our marketing efforts with pride. But when I got the job five years ago, it wasn't entirely clear to me why founder Jo hired a project management graduate in a marketing role. The same was true for others. "How did you get this job?", a 19-year-old marketing guru asked me early on in my NP career. I was a bit taken aback at the time, but now I think I have a good answer for the "guru" 😊

From the first newsletter I wrote about the launch of The Hoodie with a 20% discount to this final one that allows me to be both personal and open, you see only a fraction of how far both I and the company have come. They say all roads lead to Rome, but I believe the path we're on is one of the better ones. It may sound a bit strange to make a U-turn and leave, but I simply have the need to see more of the world. I look forward to following the journey of this daring company from the outside!

Thanks for everything ✌️
Camilla from Northern Playground