Today we’d like to introduce you to Eric Hartter.
Eric, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
Since graduating with Accounting & Finance degrees, I’ve been a career consultant specializing in the banking sector and have spent time at top firms like PwC, EY, and Accenture. That being said, throughout my career, I’ve always had my hand in entrepreneur endeavors.
The first company I co-founded was HARTTER | MANLY in 2015. HARTTER | MANLY is a premier custom menswear brand headquartered in Minneapolis. Early on, the brand looked and felt very much like a mom & pop local shop. However, as my expertise in my day job as a consultant became more digital in nature, we thought why can’t we bring similar functionality to the retail industry. Since then, the brand built out an online presence where customers can design their suits, jackets, shoes, bags, etc. using augmented reality. Meaning, as they made changes to their designs online, they could see the update live. Once they completed their selections, their garment shows up 3 weeks later looking exactly like what they designed online. In addition, we developed H|M Mobile Tailor, which is a hands-free measurement tool that allows the customer to take 2 pictures and we get up to 70+ measurements down to the millimeter. Essentially, we are trying to digitize the entire custom experience.
As you can imagine, these tools drastically helped us during COVID. We are now in a position to scale and establish ourselves in multiple markets, so we are starting to hire a dedicated sales team to help grow the brand.
In the last year or so, I also launched Sods & Stripes (lawn care company), PMGo Consulting (Virtual Assistant company), and stood up Tech[quity], which is a Venture Capital company that helps start-ups build and augment their technical teams while keeping overhead costs low & increasing their speed to market.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
No entrepreneur, or frankly successful person, has had a smooth road.
For instance, HARTTER | MANLY has changed the manufacturers we leverage multiple times, overcame COVID when no one was buying custom menswear, and we were even sued for not having our online presence accessible to the blind (wild concept for a custom clothing brand, right?). Every day is a new challenge and you have to wear many hats and adapt, but that’s why I do it. I love the journey.
Is there anyone you’d like to thank or give credit to?
David Manly – Co-Founder of HARTTER | MANLY
Megan Hartter – wife who has to step up because I still work a 50–60-hour day job as a consultant in addition to standing up my side hustles.
Parents – both entrepreneurs back in Iowa who instilled a strong work ethic
Consulting Mentors – my day job makes me a better entrepreneur and my entrepreneur endeavors make me a better employee. By seeing what is going on at large companies and helping them tackle multi-million-dollar challenges, I’ve learned a lot especially about technology. By having no safety net and being required to figure out things on my own as an entrepreneur, it has made me a more self-sufficient employee that can own something end-to-end.
Pricing:
- Custom suits starting at $899
- Custom shoes starting at $299
Contact Info:
- Email: hi@harttermanly.com
- Website: harttermanly.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hartter.manly/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HARTTERMANLY
