Momotone - Split theme update winner!

Where does the "monotone" name come from?

My surname is Mo, and my cats are always my design muses. Two of them always model for momotone, and they are called Momoa and Gizmo. I always like monotone style, so I kinda randomly made up the brand name, inspired by my Mo elements and aesthetics that I like.

How did you decide to start this business?

As a parent of two Sphynx cats, they have very delicate skin and always need to put clothing on. However, I find that most petwears in the market are not up to my aesthetics and often the quality is not well-made. More importantly, most of the petwears are designed for the body types of dogs only, not for cats. Ill-fitting issues and allergy after use often happen for petwears that I’ve got before.
Coming from a creative background, I want to bring petwears to the next level and create petwears that fit both cats and dogs. From my experience, production always creates a lot of waste. I would like to minimise the waste produced through conscious design & production - using eco-friendly fabrics from Japan and eco printing for packaging.  

Furthermore, my production is done in Hong Kong where my roots are. Hong Kong is one of the most expensive places to live and survive in the world. I often find this city only has financial and property development, causing the beauty and values of this city to fade. Hong Kong used to be one of the manufacturing hubs for the garment industry, but the progress of the city only signifies the monetary contributions, the memories of old Hong Kong and its other values are completely ignored.

In a nutshell, momotone is also a project to awaken our roots.

What are a few challenges that your company is facing?

The biggest challenge is always the production cost. Not only do we use luxe fabrics from Japan, every eco-friendly solution we bring to production is more expensive than regular production methods. Garment manufacturing is the most expensive part - the cost of Hong Kong made clothings is even more expensive than other Asian countries like Japan.

How does our Split theme help with your online store?

A lot! Thanks to my previous work experience, I am familiar with creative and digital development, with some knowledge of coding. Split theme is seamless in terms of UI/UX. Every grid setup is so well-planned for digital dinosaurs and digital savvy people. It has saved me tons of time on creating and maintaining my own website from scratch, so I can just focus on the creative and business development part.

Also, the support from them is SO HELPFUL. I’m so impressed!