Mckillop U/W & Co. Blog

Tuesday, May 14, 2013

Sunday, May 12, 2013

Friday, May 10, 2013

Our too hot for Facebook pic - Our new model

Wednesday, April 3, 2013

Mckillop moves to Merida - The adventure begins

Wow finally got internet !!! whoot whoot - well its just an internet stick for now till I get real internet.

So I arrived safe and sound. You should have seen the customs guys faces with hundreds of Mckillop inserts spread out over 4 massive tables. They went through EVERYTHING - Even thought the cat food was dodgy .. till i showed her the 2 cats lol.

the trip started in Vancouver where I met a fab girl on the plane beside me who had a bidding war on Dragons Den and we sat and talked about business and our stresses and happy moments - it was the perfect start to my trip.

Flew from Vancouver's 18 degrees celsius to Toronto's -1 degrees for 1 night with the family - which was amazing. Then boarded the West Jet flight to Cancun ( BTW West Jet ROCKS pet and baggage policy is bar none the BEST). Had 3 seats to myself to spread out and it was like a mini office. lounge lol. Arrived in Cancun with my 2 friends waiting for me outside and customs saw my 500 lbs of luggage a mile a way and flagged me over. They searched the cat kennel then xrays my bags and then opened every last one of them. Mckillop stuff spread out over the whole airport - how's that for advertising. lol.

But it was good- they were all friendly and I paid my duty (which could have been much worse) and moved on ( 2 hours later). Met my friends and carried all of the bags to the van I rented and off we were for the 4 hour journey to Merida Mexico.

Arrived at the new house to find no one was there to give us the keys - Now that I must say was scary but it all worked out in the end - just slower then expected. We moved all of the luggage into the car port then the cats into their new room and while doing the walk through the sprinkler system turned on and soaked some of my bags (saved them in time luckily with no damage).

I proceeded to unpack and the first thing I did was unpack my Mayan Hammock which is going to be my bed for a few days (very comfy actually) but I realized that I didn't buy any rope. What the heck was I going to do ... 2 days of travel and no bed - I didn't want to sleep on the floor then I had a bright idea .......

and part 2 of the story will arrive tomorrow : P off to bed now lol

Wednesday, March 6, 2013

Moving to the Yucatan - Press Release and Expectations

We are proud to announce that Mckillop has outgrown our current facility in Vancouver. Some of you are aware that we were planning to move our company to Mexico and we are now proud to say it is official.

With the soft introduction of our Swim line and the time consuming nature of our designs we require a lot more man power to continue to make the types of luxury items currently in our collections. We had to make a choice to either turn into a mass produced company, outsource to a foreign company or move to a location that is inherently talented at creating hand crafted items, we chose this option. Through our extensive search we found that the Yucatan, a peninsula in Mexico, was the perfect place to relocate. Their culture is very different then Mexico proper, the Mayan culture has a long history of hand made goods, textiles, and quality of service. 3 years ago we tried to outsource our items and we found that the quality was not up to our standards and with this learning curve we made a command decision that we would not outsource again, which is why we are packing our bags and actually moving the whole operation to Merida Mexico.

We Believe this move will increase our quality as we will not be rushing through orders

We Believe our manufacturing times will get shorter

We Believe our collections will allow for new designs arriving semi annually to seasonally instead of yearly

And We Believe the Mckillop experience will increase as we grow into the global luxury brand we intended to create

We know for a fact that the quality of our product will not decrease, this is why we are moving ourselves to train each craftsperson over several months to create Mckillop Products exactly the way they are intended to be made. Also our elastics, fabrics, threads and materials remain unchanged as we will be importing them from our current USA and International suppliers.

With all of this being said there are going to be big changes on our end, we will have to adapt and learn in a foreign language and culture; how things are done there. We also know that their shipping has a bad reputation but we have tested their system and their parcel service is a little higher then Canada but it does come with tracking and is a little faster. If we encounter any problems we will change to another distribution method immediately, such as an international courier company.

We would like to thank you in advance for being on this journey with us, your great patronage and support over the years, as well as your patience as we proceed through this growth spurt.

Here are some closing points of importance:

Down time : March 28th our sewing equipment is being shipped to Mexico, We arrive in Mexico April 2 – therefore no sewing or shipping will occur over the Easter weekend.

Our brand new set of sewing equipment will be arriving on April 3rd (we may start on orders as early as the 3rd but officially back in full operation Monday April 8th)

Communication and invoices will continue in English, though commercial invoices on couriered items will be in Spanish

Your orders you will be purchasing will continue to be through Mckillop Enterprises Inc. (Canada) In Canadian Currency same as now

Your return shipping labels will say Mckillop Manufacturing (Mexico)

Our products are NAFTA & EU Free Trade approved therefore no duty for North America or EU

For Canadian customers you will be charged sales tax same as currently

For international customers you are not billed sales tax in Canada

If you have any questions we are always here to help

Ryan Mckillop and the Mckillop UW/SWIM Team

PS for those of you in Vancouver - Our going away party is at 1181 Davie Street Saturday March 23rd 7pm

Sunday, January 27, 2013

Suicide Prevention

I have never used social media for the direct purposes of selling our wears, since day 1 I knew that the soul reason to be online and to acquire an audience was to inspire and somehow show you that following a dream is vital and in the most part it is not as easy as it looks but mandatory for true happiness.

One of my recurring tweets is "following your dreams can be expensive but not following them can cost you your life." This has more meaning today then ever before.

As you know I am a big Oprah fan and the most important thing she has taught me is that when you have a platform of any size you carry the responsibility of your words and actions. I take this responsibility VERY seriously. Whether your platform is your family , your coworkers or a mass audience your words and actions are influential and you need to use it accordingly, and with respect. I feel that talking about suicide awareness/prevention is vital especially this time of year. I know that my friends out there in the online world might have these types of feelings or might know someone who is in need of help and don't know where to turn.

This time of year it is the coldest, the darkest, and the most depressing. We are not as active and we tend to hibernate but for whatever you are feeling someone is feeling that magnified to a level that we don't understand. Depression has a bad stigma that it it not real and that the person experiencing it can "pull themselves out of it" but in actual fact some cannot.

Some people, maybe including yourself might notice that you are on the wrong path but are so far along this negative path that you have become accustomed to how it feels and for some reason it feels comfortable. You/they might feel that there is no way back but it is our job to notice these signs and recognize that something is just a little off and do something about it.

We are all very busy in our lives and we might mistake a friend's absence as just that "busy" but if there are secondary factors such as a life change or character changes and they push you away I would suggest trying to pull back into their lives, to also be known as "being there for them," and loving unconditionally. We must wake up to the signs and symptoms of our surroundings and take a broader look of whats going on with the people in our lives. I think of the words "it takes a village" and it really does, humanity is here to raise people up but it is so sad that in a lot of cases we push people down so we feel better- we need to be selfless and respectful in the part that we play in our "Village."

If you feel that someone is suffering please use the Hotline numbers below or call 911 and please be observant, caring, non judgmental and selfless if you encounter a person in your life that is struggling with depression. And Please give them your time, your focus and your love. Their life is more valuable than whatever trivial task you think is "important" that is keeping you "busy."

Be kind to one another and remember what your role is in your village whether it is at school,your work, in your family and especially online because someone is always watching. Be an example of strength and support and I truly believe that you need to find your calling, your passion, your path to make an attempt to avoid these issues of depression and suicide - so please inspire each other to become the person we were put here on earth to be. And in closing if you feel you are on the wrong path and need a starting point please call the hotlines but also try this one activity or prayer.

Every morning ask for HELP
Every night give THANKS for what you have

This will/could align you with a loving grateful space instead of a dark helpless place.

Be kind to each other

I send you all of my love and support

Ryan Mckillop

I found an article on suicide from the New York times and I wanted to share the possible symptoms with you, I have highlighted some that are less obvious and those are the important ones :

Symptoms

Often, but not always, a person may show certain symptoms or behaviors before a suicide attempt, including:

Having trouble concentrating or thinking clearly
Giving away belongings
Talking about going away or the need to "get my affairs in order"
Suddenly changing behavior, especially calmness after a period of anxiety
Losing interest in activities they used to enjoy
Performing self-destructive behaviors, such as heavily drinking alcohol, using illegal drugs, or cutting their body
Pulling away from friends or not wanting to go out
Suddenly having trouble in school or work
Talking about death or suicide, or even saying that they want to hurt themselves
Talking about feeling hopeless or guilty
Changing sleep or eating habits
Arranging ways to take their own life (such as buying a gun or many pills)

Also I have listed here Suicide hotlines and prevention tools for you if you are in need of assistance.

National Suicide Crisis Hotlines

911 CDN/USA or 112 EU

USA: 1-800-784-2433 Web: http://www.suicidehotlines.com
Canada: 1-800-448-1833
UK: 08457 90 90 90
France: 01 45 39 40 00 Web: http://suicide.ecoute.free.fr/
Australia: 1300 13 11 14 Web: http://www.lifeline.org.au
New Zealand: (9) 5222-999 within Auckland, 0800 111-777 outside Auckland Web: http://www.lifeline.org.nz
Germany:

0800 - 111 0 111 (ev.) (protestant)
0800 - 111 0 222 (rk.) (roman catholic)
0800 - 111 0 333 (Kinder / Jugendliche) (for kids/teens)
Web: http://www.telefonseelsorge.de

Netherlands: 0900-1450 (workdays, 0900-1800 local (CET)) Web: http://www.korrelatie.nl
Belgium: 02 649 95 55 (24/7) Website: http://www.zelfmoordpreventie.be/index.php