PolskiIt all started with memories from the 1990s, when their mother sewed clothes for them on a home machine, and…. one groundbreaking conversation while picking mushrooms near Warsaw. Today, the Paterns brand, which Katarzyna Lamik created with her sister and brother-in-law, is an empire of 100% Polish merino wool. Without an ounce of plastic, but with a powerful dose of consistency. To fully develop the fledgling company, Katarzyna made a radical, albeit pragmatic, decision: she packed her life into just one backpack, took a carton of her first products, a cat and moved from Silesia to Warsaw. In the capital, she not only built a thriving business, but also unexpectedly found love. In a very candid conversation with GentleWoman Poland , the founder reveals why she categorically refused to make a sale at the crucial moment of the company’s valuation battle, and makes us realize why, in a woman’s business, sensitivity must finally start to go hand in hand with hard Excel.
Table of Contents:
- Birth of a dream: A walk to the mushrooms, a mentor with capital, and a return to the roots.
- Cardboard, cat and love: How Katowice and working at IKEA shaped a businesswoman, and Warsaw gave her a home.
- PATERNS color revolution: Why did the painter hand over the creation of the name to an expert?
- Fiber magic, merino wool: For the Himalayan summit, for the office and for the “eternal cold”.
- A lesson in humility: when Instagram lies, e-commerce doesn’t forgive, and ego prompts bad decisions.
- Valuation struggles and hard numbers: Share sales, December without promotions and triple-digit growth.
- Girls, count: the glass ceiling, the calculator and the definition of a true GentleWoman.
Piotr Chodak, Editor-in-Chief of GentleWoman: When one reads about your multi-million dollar turnover, it’s easy to forget that behind every company is a person and their personal story. And the beginnings of Paterns is a thoroughly family story, even sentimental.
Katarzyna Lamik: Definitely! We founded Paterns in 2017 – we, that is, two sisters, Kasia and Iza. In this way we realized our eternal dream. The impulse to create the first collection was the birth of Janka, Iza’s daughter. But this true, deepest inspiration went back much further – to the 1990s, when our mother passionately sewed clothes for herself and for us. We wanted to revive this love for clothes created with soul. Back then I didn’t think about numbers at all, I was fresh out of painting at the Academy of Fine Arts. I was simply looking for an idea to create a cool place to work for myself and others.
And then the forest appeared, right? I’ve heard that crucial to the very creation of the company and the division of roles was a certain rather mundane conversation while picking mushrooms….
Katarzyna Lamik: (laughs) Yes, our company was a project from the beginning, the idea crystallized in 2016 on a walk on mushrooms near Warsaw! At that time I was talking to my sister Iza and my brother-in-law Maciek. Maciej was already managing a large team in a technology company, he was older than me and had a lot of experience. You could say that from those conversations we had, he emerged as my mentor. He was the one who had the capital to invest. Izabella became fascinated with merino wool, and I gave my notice to the corporation and took on all the execution, investing my time. This is how we divided the roles. In the meantime, Izabella and Maciek got married, and at the wedding…. they were already performing in prototypes of PATERNS’ collection! They were wearing the same, our original shirts. It was the most beautiful, though completely unofficial debut of the brand.
The development of this debut required you to take bold life steps. Moving to Warsaw with one cardboard box and a cat sounds like a scene from a movie. Where did this decision come from? It wasn’t an escape, was it?
K Lamik: I was definitely not running, it was a very conscious, though logistically modest start! I come from Silesia. Before the brand went into full swing, I worked at IKEA in Katowice. It was there, observing powerful corporate mechanisms, that I learned assortment planning and that design must start with price. In 2018, the decision was made: I am moving to the capital to be closer to the center of events and to be able to fully develop this fledgling business, which was not yet profitable.
In April, I literally packed one cardboard box with the first Paterns clothing samples, threw a few of my belongings into my backpack, took my cat and came to Warsaw. It was simply a jump into deep water. During the day I worked on a short contract, again for IKEA, to have something to live on, and in the evenings and on weekends I built the brand. And the best part of it all is that I went to Warsaw for work and…. in the meantime I fell in love. And so I stayed in this Warsaw for good.
The name of the company – Paterns. It sounds worldly, but there is a very concrete innovation behind it. Who is behind it, since you are a painter by training?
K Lamik: At first we tried to base the name on our last name – Lamik. However, at some point we got bogged down. I realized then that in business you need to be able to put the reins in the hands of someone smarter in the field. We turned to branding expert Michal Janica, and he created the name Paterns. He perfectly captured what we do. The name is an acronym for the word “parents” on the one hand, and a reference to “patterns,” or designs, on the other. No one in the world at that time was printing merino wool in a pattern! We were absolutely the first. We, from the beginning, wanted to de-glamorize boring outdoor apparel, so these colorful paterns of ours were a strong brand differentiator. When we started, the bigger giants on the market were moving away from 100% merino to admixtures. We insisted on pure fiber. Today we see a moment of reversal as the giants are going back to 100% merino again, but we still have our unique patterned identity.
Why is merino wool so special? It is said that you are worn by Himalayans, but also by women in offices.
K Lamik: Merino promises uncompromising comfort. Athletes and outdoor enthusiasts are well aware of these qualities. What sets us apart? Merino wool, even when wet, remains warm. Imagine a climb where you have a strong approach, your first layer gets completely soaked, you climb to the top…. and you’re not wearing a cold compress like you would with cotton.
It has the best weight-to-warmth ratio. You can take a t-shirt out of your backpack compressed into a little ball, put it on and it doesn’t crease. It also has bacteriostatic properties and bacteria responsible for bad odor don’t grow on it, which is a salve for people with AD (atopic dermatitis). We create thermoactive clothing, from socks and panties to hats. And the other huge group of our customers are simply…. women who are constantly freezing!
And all of this, from the first to the last stitch, you sew at our place, in Poland?
Katarzyna Lamik: Yes, we sew exclusively in Poland. From start to finish. We store, pack and transport the finished products without using plastic.
It sounds like a beautiful, smooth success story. But we all know that the clash between passion and the mundane life of e-commerce can sometimes be painful. When did you first feel the dream hit the wall of business reality?
K Lamik: At the very start. It seemed to me, as I looked at Instagram, that success was a matter of a few pretty pictures and the merchandise would sell out in a minute. We fired up the online store and…. nothing happened. E-commerce teaches tremendous humility. It’s not a beautiful movie, it’s an ant’s daily work, optimizing, improving the layout of the site, fighting for survival step by step.
There were also mistakes with diversification. At one point, feeling that we had hit the “wool ceiling,” we released a large collection in linen and then bought a second, “candy” fashion brand, Nalu. I did this to satisfy my own design ambitions, to stroke my ego. I realized the brutal truth then: it’s impossible to be good at everything. After two years, the side brand closed, focusing all energy back on Paterns.
So let’s talk about the hard business. The company was growing, and eventually you sold some shares. How do you value such a brand and what does it look like from the financial side?
Katarzyna Lamik: We closed last year with a turnover of 5.4 million zlotys, which gave us 120% growth. This quarter we already have 150% year-on-year growth, so the appetite is growing and we are aiming for “eight” or maybe even “ten” this year.
But it wasn’t always so easy. A few years ago, we sold a twenty-something percent stake. The valuation was largely based on a promise, where we had to prove a specific financial target in the following year: one million two hundred thousand zlotys in turnover. We were under tremendous pressure, because we knew that if we didn’t, the value of our brand would drop, and part of the price would turn into a loan to be repaid.
I remember that December came and we were still not sure if we would prove this result. Maciek, my partner, asked: “Then what, why don’t we do some promotion?”. I said firmly: NO. We don’t do promotions. Our product is value for money, we can’t discount it and cheat customers just to reach our investment targets. We have achieved this result without reductions.
This is evidence of tremendous strength. What, then, would you say to women who feel that there is still a “glass ceiling” in business?
K Lamik: The glass ceiling in big corporations exists, that’s why I say: start your own companies! However, I have one hard message. I used to conduct trainings for women owners of fashion brands, and I noticed one thing: girls, you don’t count! You focus on aesthetics, marketing, beautiful sessions. Men take over these businesses and get to the top because they just sit down to Excel. Either you want to run a business, or you want to “color pick”. Don’t be afraid of the calculator and tables, because they are the ones that give you true proficiency and freedom to create.
And the definition of this free, conscious woman? Who is a “GentleWoman” for Katarzyna Lamik?
K Lamik: Oh jeez, I didn’t prepare for this question at all! (Laughter) Gentlewoman…. is definitely a classy, elegant woman. I would very much like to be like that. But when I look at myself, I see that I have too much looseness and such pure, crazy enthusiasm in me when I’m in my element. I associate the notion of GentleWoman with great adulthood and a certain maturity. And I think this business of mine, with its hard numbers, difficult decisions and constant relationship building, is teaching me this maturity every day.
From the editor: Lamik is not ashamed to talk about her failures, mistakes and disappointments. It is thanks to them that she is still learning how to combine artistic sensibility with hard numbers in Excel. After these few intense years on the market, the brand still remains true to the ideals from which it grew: family, nature, production in Poland and packaging with plastic reduced to an absolute minimum. Katarzyna knows that GentleWoman is not only a woman who wears clothes with class, but above all one who creates her own principles and stays true to them even when it would be much easier to say “yes” to investors than to say a firm “no” in defense of one’s self-worth.
The interview was conducted by: Piotr Chodak, Editor-in-Chief of GentleWoman Poland
