PayPal Stories Archive

Black Milk Clothing Founder, CEO and Head Designer James Lillis takes a break in front of a wall of customer and staff generated images at Black Milk Clothing in Brisbane, Australia, on Thursday, Nov. 12, 2015. John Pryke for PayPal.

 

Don't tell James Lillis that real men don't sew. Or that trying to build a global, ecommerce-based fashion brand from a kitchen in Brisbane, Australia, is crazy. Or that women's nylon leggings will never be a social media hit.

 

In just six years, Lillis went from being broke and futzing around with a used sewing machine (purchased by hawking his CD player) to founder of Black Milk Clothing, a company with 150 employees that makes thousands of garments a day – including leggings, jackets, dresses, swimsuits, gym wear and even shoes. Exports make up half of the company’s sales, the largest market being the United States.

 

“I’m going to be that guy,” Lillis recalls saying of his 2009 foray into fashion, “the guy who knows everything about leggings.”

 

Black Milk’s growth came from building an online community of devotees and using a well-known digital payments provider to take the business cross-border. Today, Black Milk counts one million Instagram followers and nearly 700,000 on Facebook, who shop from the company’s website or Facebook page – mainly using PayPal to buy the latest best sellers.

 

“What social media allows you to do if you play your cards right is to create community,” says Lillis, noting he “definitely took it to an extreme” getting to know his customers. “What other company has its CEO chatting online with you at 11 p.m.?”

 

Lillis tends to the company's Facebook page at Black Milk Clothing in Brisbane, Australia, on Thursday, Nov. 12, 2015. John Pryke for PayPal.

 

But Lillis, like so many other small business owners starting out, at first struggled to break even. He barely made enough to cover costs selling his initial pairs of leggings at farmers markets and stores. He took to social media to talk about his trials and travails with Lycra, leggings and being a small business startup, penning a blog called Too Many Tights!

 

A leggings craze was going strong at the time, Lillis recalls, and the blog gave him an outlet to show his ideas, ask for feedback and every so often make a few snarky comments about others’ designs. It also created a “safe place” for women to talk about fashion and not feel like it was going to be a dark Internet corner for “sneaky shots of ladies wearing leggings,” he says.

 

From there, Black Milk’s social media following took off and Lillis realized he didn’t need a brick-and-mortar store; he could sell exclusively online. He had figured women with a passion for leggings would want to read about fashion in general, but quickly found that they “wanted to follow along on my journey as an entrepreneur. They were excited to go on this journey together.”

 

Part of that journey, as an online-only seller, entailed finding the right payments provider. Most of Black Milk’s customers were overseas and Lillis realized he needed to work with a respected provider who would give his buyers peace of mind.

 

“We were looking for an instantly recognizable and trusted way of transferring money and that is where PayPal came in,” he says. “We looked at several options, but PayPal was the only logical choice as it had a reputation for being safe, reliable and convenient for shoppers.”

 

And six years later, PayPal continues to be the payment method of choice for Black Milk and many of its customers.

 

“I always use PayPal to buy Black Milk,” says Sarah Hyatt, of Los Angeles, who owns 617 Black Milk pieces. “It makes the checkout process faster.”

 

Lillis at a sewing machine at Black Milk Clothing in Brisbane, Australia, on Thursday, Nov. 12, 2015. John Pryke for PayPal.

 

Hyatt is one of Black Milk’s biggest fans – part of a group known as “sharkies,” as in sharks circling for the next collection to come out and then attacking the company’s website so hard that it would sometimes crash in the early days.

 

Soon the sharkies started their own communities. Facebook groups were formed (now numbering around 80), meetups were held and in 2012 “SharkieCon” was born: a Las Vegas extravaganza where Lillis and his fans could hang out and party together.

 

“It was very important to see how engaged he was,” Hyatt says of Lillis. “It made me feel like I was part of a community rather than just a consumer buying a product.”

 

The tight bond led to what Lillis calls “community-based selling,” where fans are not just your buyers but also your advertisers, generating buzz and anticipation for new products.

 

“Any company can connect with its customers,” Lillis notes, “but getting your customers to connect to each other? That’s another level of commerce.”

 

That foundation means that while Black Milk has spent some money on Facebook advertising, it’s never bought traditional ads, it never attends fashion shows and it’s never tried to get magazine publicity.

 

Lillis and Product Developer Aisha Cole discuss upcoming ideas at Black Milk Clothing in Brisbane, Australia, on Thursday, Nov. 12, 2015. John Pryke for PayPal.

 

PayPal, which helps thousands of small firms worldwide do business around the globe, encourages SMBs to tell their stories online to build a community and to grow their client base as Black Milk has done. Though it can be daunting, those firms that embrace social media will succeed, says Emma Hunt, director of small business for PayPal Australia.

 

“Social media can play a really crucial role in connecting a business to its customers, so think about how those interactions can enhance your business and not just replicate it on Facebook,” she says. “Black Milk is a great example of a company that has understood the power of social media.”

 

 

 

Though successful, Lillis says they don’t have a perfect recipe for social media and tinker as they go. When the company moved from releasing collections once a month to the trend of “fast fashion” releases of every few days, it didn’t take long for the community to respond.

 

“We found they were missing the excitement, the buildup, the romance” of each monthly collection, says Lillis. That’s because those came with a storyline: detailed blogging, photo shoots and even videos around a fictitious character dressed up in the latest line.

 

So the monthly releases are back, including “Lady Anarchy,” a Halloween line with a video fashion show hosted by Lillis.

 

Model Bianca Booth has her hair adjusted by makeup artist Maria Rivera as she chats with Lillis during a photo shoot at Black Milk Clothing in Brisbane, Australia, on Thursday, Nov. 12, 2015. John Pryke for PayPal.

 

For Lillis, the entire process – from storytelling to sewing to checkout – requires dedication.

 

"You have to care, genuinely care, that every stitch is perfect, genuinely care that the printing looks amazing, genuinely care about your customer," he says.

 

"When you care about something, people can feel that and then they care as well,” he adds. “And when people care about something, that changes their lives."