Part 1: How It All Started
When I first started Onyx Native, I never really planned on having a mobile retail trailer.
Back then, pop-ups meant cramming my minivan full of clothing racks, laying the clothes on top of each other, and hoping everything made it there in one piece. It was chaotic, but it worked — at least for a while. I didn’t have a ton of product yet, so it felt manageable even though it wasn’t ideal.
As weekends went on and I did more events, I started to realize I needed something better. Something that could keep me organized and help customers shop more easily. That’s when the idea of a trailer really started to make sense — and as luck would have it, my dad had a small trailer he wasn’t using anymore. He hadn’t been feeling well, so he gave it to me, and that little act of generosity became the foundation for something much bigger.
At first, the trailer wasn’t anything fancy. I used to just fold the clothes and stack them inside — you couldn’t really shop in it yet. But over time, I started making changes: adding racks, rearranging the layout, and making it easier for people to come inside and actually browse. By the time Apple Fest in October 2024 rolled around, I had done a few pop-ups with a more shoppable setup inside the trailer.
That little trailer gave me my first real taste of what it could look like to create a mobile boutique — something unique, something intentional, something that made it easier for customers to connect with my brand and find pieces they loved.
And that was just the beginning.
Whether you’re just starting your boutique journey or you’ve been hauling racks in a minivan too, I hope this gives you a glimpse of how simple beginnings can lead to something bigger.
That little trailer — gifted from my dad — became the start of something bigger than I could’ve imagined. It wasn’t fancy, but it was functional, and it gave me space to dream a little louder.
In Part 2, I’ll share what happened when that dream started to grow. The pop-ups got bigger, the brand gained momentum, and the trailer? It had to keep up. You’ll see how those early setups turned into something that felt like a real storefront, and the lessons I learned as Onyx Native started to take shape.