Today we’d like to introduce you to Abhishek Bhaumik
Hi Abhishek, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
Our children’s clothing company is called: En Route Designs. Here is our story.
When my wife and I had our son, we quickly realized that South Asian traditional children’s clothing has not changed much at all. Our son cries and hates putting on South Asian traditional clothing. On a personal note, growing up in India and then moving to the US, I was expected to wear our cultural clothing for special events or to go to the temple. I still remember how much I disliked the stiff and uncomfortable cultural attire. Now, it is a full circle watching my own son also not like our traditional clothing!
Although South Asian children’s clothing has beautiful designs and colors, they are very uncomfortable. My wife and I did some online research to try to find children’s clothing brands that offered South Asian designs and offered clothing in more breathable and stretchy fabrics.
We were surprised to find there weren’t any companies. Not even Indian clothing brands that you can import here to the US!
Elisa and I saw this as an unique opportunity, challenge and a fun project. It took us a 1.5 years to research fabrics and create prototypes with multiple manufacturers to finally get to this final step of launching our E-Commerce store:
En Route Designs.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
This is a funny question! Nothing is ever smooth. Lots of challenges and obstacles along the way. Here is a small list of a few obstacles:
-existing patents/trademarks
-manufacturing costs can greatly vary depending on country
-not all manufacturing factories have access to certain fabric blends that we were looking for
-variances in product quality between initial prototype and bulk production with some manufacturers we have worked with
There were so many challenges but the biggest challenge which I want to be transparent about is trying to be good parents for our son, Arie, and juggle our day jobs/responsibilities.
I think life in general is not going to be a smooth road and non of us are truly self made. I feel incredibly blessed to have a supportive wife and partner. I feel incredibly grateful for all the lessons, mistakes and challenges we faced with our first start up venture which in hindsight prepared us for En Route Designs. We look out for each other and have taken on challenges together.
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about En Route Designs?
Our most recent business venture, En Route Designs, is an E-Commerce children’s clothing company. My wife and I also own a pediatric dental office called Stonebrook Pediatric Dentistry. I am a board certified pediatric dentist and my wife is my office manager. I have been a pediatric dentist for 10 years now.
My wife and I are both very creative and curious types of people. At 17, my curiosity and gut feeling that pediatric dentistry could be a good career path for me took me down a long journey of 10 years of post high school education to become a pediatric dentist. After working for multiple group practices for 3 years out of residency, I knew I was ready to start my own office. My wife, Elisa, has a journalism and marketing background. My pediatric office is successful because I have an amazing and supportive wife. I am about to turn 38 and I am proud to say I have dedicated 20 years being curious and excited about pediatric dentistry.
Once we had our son, Arie, our curiosity and creativity lead us to research children’s clothing and identify a niche that needs improvement. En Route Designs is the first children’s clothing company that combines traditional and timeless Asian designs with clothing features that gives a nod to culture/heritage and most importantly the clothing is very comfortable.
Do you any memories from childhood that you can share with us?
I can’t say I have exactly one favorite memory but I want to share 2 fond memories. One of my favorite memories is back when we were living in India in 1994 before we moved to the US in 1996. My mother would read English books to my brother and me on our balcony and I remember really enjoying listening to her read to us in English.
My other memory I want to share that I still reflect on is when we moved to the Houston, TX in 1996 and we lived in a fun apartment complex. This apartment complex had a lot of kids our age. We had so much fun every day after school running around and playing sports. We were allowed to come home once it got dark outside and I still remember how amazing it felt as a kid to get so much freedom.
Pricing:
- $38: Kurta Footies
- $36: Baby/children’s blankets
Contact Info:
- Website: https://enrouteclothing.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/en_route_designs/
Image Credits
Photography: Gabby Ngo (Instagram: @blnkcartridge)
