Jungle Cat Club: The origin story

Before there was Jungle Cat Club...

 

There was me, just a girl running around op shops, garage sales, auction houses and scrolling Facebook Marketplace to curate a range one-of-a-kind homewares for my first business, Storytellers Workshop.

 

That little business was my world from 2017 to 2021. It mainly focused on vintage home decor and styling and it taught me so much. Through working on this business I learnt how to run a website, make content for instagram, style products and deal with the ups and downs of small biz life.

 

I’m not sure at what point this happened, but I developed a serious obsession with vintage big cat statues, especially panthers, leopards and tigers. I started collecting them as much as I possibly could. I had people messaging me constantly asking to buy them or be added to a waitlist. The only problem? Vintage means you can only sell something once. I’d find an amazing piece and have 50 people desperate to buy it but there was only ever one.

It got tricky, financially and time-wise. Photographing new pieces every week took forever and the one-off nature of vintage made it hard to scale the business. 

 

Slowly I realised that if I wanted to grow something long-term, I needed to shift direction.That’s when Jungle Cat Club started to form in my brain..

 

What if I could take the vibe of those incredible vintage statues I loved so much and create something new? Something just as bold and collectible but more accessible.

I spent over a year searching for the right manufacturer, learning the nitty gritty deets of product development and figuring out how to turn a teeny tiny idea into a real thing. I was terrified to pivot away from vintage tbh but I knew in my heart that it was time.

In 2021, Jungle Cat Club officially launched with only a few products. It has been slow and steady growth, every spare piece of change has gone back into the business so I could bring more ideas to life. When I introduced our very first pink leopard statue it sold out in under half an hour 🐆💖  That was the moment changed everything.

 

Jungle Cat Club's first products..

 

Since then, I’ve slowly grown the range of big cat statues in bold, dreamy colours. Something I believed was possible but felt like such a distant dream! And looking back, I’m so grateful for Storytellers Workshop. It was the perfect starting point and without it, JCC wouldn’t exist.

Now, with the launch of our panther and leopard ranges, I can really see this business starting to grow in such an exciting direction! There’s still a long way to go, and my head is full of ideas but I’m pumped for what’s ahead.

Thanks for being part of it,  you’re officially in the club 🐾