Triple Flip girl wear has undergone “50 per cent growth rate each year,” says president
Anyone in Calgary who has a daughter between the ages of five and 14 has likely heard about Triple Flip.
The company’s Minky Dimple hoodies hit the playgrounds by storm a couple of years ago, and girls all over the city – and the country, it turns out – have been wanting to become “Flip Girls” ever since.
The ultra-successful clothing line’s headquarters in Calgary is as cute as their clothes. The front foyer is marked by the brand’s name and logo in big, bubbly white letters protruding from a hot pink painted wall.
Bright colours are everywhere – peppered against the modern concrete finishes of each room. It all looks like what might happen if a group of 10-year-old girls got together and were asked to decorate a workspace. Super cool. Super fun.
Linda Maslechko, president and co-founder of the clothing line, emphasizes that the 8,000 square foot office space didn’t happen over night.
“When we started out, I didn’t have an office,” the tall, slender blonde says with a laugh. “I had my laptop on my lap!”
Triple Flip, a Calgary-based clothing lines for preteens, has had much success due to its “human-brand” business model, says President Linda Maslechko By:Melissa Molloy
Triple Flip, she says, is a concept that came from identifying a gap in the marketplace: a clothing line that only serves pre-teen girls, made specifically for their unique body types and their unique, active lifestyles.
“What we saw with other brands that tried to make clothes for this age group, was that they typically just downsized their regular line,” Maslechko says.
After having raised three daughters and spending many years as a “brownie leader, volunteer, and school council member,” Maslechko says that those in-between years that girls go through while transitioning from child to adolescent became a world that she understood deeply.
“I thought, you know what, these girls need something that fits their bodies and their lifestyles,” she says. “We wanted to provide the kind of clothes that wouldn’t end up on the floor, but the ones that the girls would want to wear everyday.”
Triple Flip was born when Maslechko, whose first career was as a Toronto stockbroker, paired up with a like-minded massage therapist, Mona Rae Peterson.
The two Calgary women established the clothing line in 2006 and have experienced a “50 per cent growth rate” every year since, says Maslechko.
The success, as far as she sees it, is due to the value-based business strategy that Triple Flip has developed.
“I think it is really important that your company is set on a level of standards that you live by,” she says. “We are not based on one ‘fly-by-night’ type product for product’s sake or a personal desire to make a quick buck.”
Maslechko’s passion for the Triple Flip brand is more than apparent. Her office is covered in letters from “Flip Girls” – fans of the brand – and when talking about the “human brand” based model for her company, her eyes get a little teary.
She tells a story about one Flip Girl who holds the spot as the brand’s “number one fan.” The girl, who had only been able to order Flip gear online due to location, was finally able to get to a store in Saskatoon, and when the Triple Flip team found out, Maslechko and her crew made sure to make the little girl’s shopping experience a memorable event.
“She walked into the store, and everyone working there knew she’d be coming. They all knew her name and made it really special for her,” the president says. The little girl wrote in later that it had been one of the best days of her life.
“That’s the kind of thing I get to experience in this business,” she says.
“We get franchise offers on a weekly basis, but if the people are just about the business side of it and making a buck on a hot idea – that’s never what we’ve been about.”
mmolloy@cjournal.ca