Who is Grant?

Meet Grant Nestor, Founder of Hammies!

About Hammies

Hammies, founded by Grant Nestor, is on a mission to offer its customers a fashionable blast from the past. The brand takes its inspiration from the timeless vintage aesthetics of the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s and produces clothing reminiscent of those eras, known to many as the peak of fashion.

Grant’s Journey

Hammies began by happenstance.

Grant had a few t-shirt companies as a kid. In college, he created custom t-shirts but stopped when it became too overwhelming to keep up with orders. At the time, the internet was on the rise, and Grant found his place by working in graphic design and software development. Eventually, he taught himself how to code as a necessity. 

In his early 30s, Grant wore vintage Ocean Pacific shorts, which were popular during the 70s and 80s, and people kept asking him about them. He waited two years to see if other companies would produce the shorts, but none did. After talking to a friend, he realized he could create the shorts himself. He started making regular trips to LA’s Fashion District to learn about the process of making these shorts. Six months later, he made the first batch of Hammies shorts— totaling 150 —and the product looked just like the original.

Crafting the Company

Over time, the shipments kept growing as customer demand increased. Soon, it got to a point where Grant couldn’t work in software and manage the company simultaneously. He and Sarah, his girlfriend at the time, got married and went on an extended honeymoon in Australia and Indonesia. When they returned home, the two began working for Hammies full-time. They moved inventory from their house in Santa Monica to a production warehouse. Since then, the two have been working at the company for six years.

From the start, Grant planned to create an e-commerce company with social media as the primary marketing channel. Although he initially thought that his software development skills that he had  , but Grant actually puts his skills to use every day. 

The Hammies Team

Grant is the only full-time employee; including him, eight contractors make up the team. Each contractor carries out specific tasks, like their customer service manager, social media manager, content strategist, graphic designer, photographer, product development manager. The team also works with TalentPop agents to round out the customer service department when needed.

At first, Hammies was a one-man show, but in 2021 Grant and Sarah had their first daughter, Sophie Hammond,, and he knew at that point that he could no longer sustain the 80-hour work weeks that he had. . Now, the company has a team of people who understand the brand and are great at what they do.

Hammies Growth Strategies

Overall, growing the company has been a lot of fun as Grant and the team work toward an eventual payoff. Occasionally, Grant looks back at the software development work he used to do, and even though it was comfortable, he has been able to work with other people as a business leader. Together, he and the team create something they’re all passionate about, and he can relate to others when discussing his current job.

Incorporating Social Media

Hammies began with social media-first strategies that would eventually help the company grow. As he built the brand, Grant observed other companies and saw that they used customer-generated content to promote their products, which showed him that customers can promote the brand and help the company grow. 

Over time, Grant learned that you don’t have to be a part of the fashion industry to create a successful clothing brand. You can have your island and do your own thing. He used this strategy because he had no connections within the fashion industry, but his strategy proved successful. His customers discovered the brand through social media, word of mouth, and advertisements.

Evolution of Customer Service

Since the beginning of the company, customers have always reached out in need of service. Grant used Gmail to connect with customers and answer their questions. Eventually, he began using Gorgias to increase the team’s reach of support, which has also been helpful because he can see Shopify data and customer orders. 

In 2022, the company partnered with an ad agency, and its sales grew exponentially. Grant brought on some friends to help with customer experience, but he soon realized that having one person fully-trained person in CX was superior to many partially-trained people. The team now has a customer service manager who handles the CX work with the help of TalentPop agents and the social media manager.

Tech Stack

Shopify — E-commerce

Klayivo — Email and SMS marketing

Gorgias — Customer support

Notion — Documentation and collaboration within the team

Slack — Communication

Figma and Photoshop — Brand design

Google Drive — Storage and collaboration

Air — Content management

Adobe Premiere — Video editing

Elevating to the Next Level

Hammies doesn’t follow trends. The brand’s purpose is to make available vintage styles that are no longer availables, and Grant believes that, eventually, the company will be ahead of the fashion curve. There’s a competitive advantage for the company because they don’t have a lot of competition. Longevity-wise, Grant thinks there will be enough people into 60s, 70s, and 80s fashion for a long time, and he believes it’s peak fashion. It doesn’t get much better than that, and many people agree.

Integrating AI into Customer Experience

Grant has considered integrating AI because his team would benefit from it since it’s pretty lean. Additionally, he finds AI interesting because it can completely transform the fashion industry—with generative AI, there’s no need for photoshoots, which can be a negative thing—and there are some trade-offs. Grant wants to take his company to the next level, where he can have all its data in one place and use a chatbox where customers can ask questions about the brand. It would be a self-service way for them to get answers to any question and get customer feedback.

Grant is looking forward to adding AI components through Gorgias, and CX would benefit from the integration because it provides access to customer conversations. If AI can generate responses and individualize each customer inquiry through subtleties, AI will be a great asset to the company.

Advice for Entrepreneurs

Grant advises aspiring business leaders to do market research before diving in.. “What you don’t want to do is invest years of your life to discover that there is no real need for your product or service.”Before everything, Grant and Sarah bought some vintage OP shorts and did a little photoshoot so that they could measure the demand for a product like this. Grant created a survey using the photos and some early branding ideas and sent it to about 60 of their friends. He received much positive feedback and validation, encouraging him to start the business. 

Grant explains that leaders should also weigh their options. While creating a business is fun in theory, it’s so much more work than most jobs and it often pays less, too. .

If there isn’t a turn of profit after two years, then it might be time to re-evaluate, Grant says, but creating ideas and brainstorming products is the most fun step of the process. Selling a product takes time because you won’t get immediate gratification. The key is patience and waiting for a positive turnout because, over time, your hard work will pay off.