Venus Rising

ProfileIssue: Libra 08

Steph Teleen Keeps Pregnant Women Moving with Jakfish

When Steph Teleen was pregnant with her first child, she looked for maternity clothing that would allow her to stay active throughout her pregnancy and couldn’t find any. After her second pregnancy and the same problem, she decided to quit her job and start Jakfish Active Maternity Clothing. Now she designs, creates, and sells comfortable, high-performance maternity clothes for active/athletic pregnant women and those who would like to be.

A native of Dennis, Massachusetts, Steph moved to Vermont about 12 years ago. With a major in Journalism/minor in Spanish from Indiana University, Steph went on to receive her Masters in Social Work at the University of Vermont. Steph says that, unfortunately, neither of her degrees prepared her to start Jakfish. “My first challenge was to think about how to make clothing that was truly innovative - what would make my products different and more useful than a larger sized fleece at EMS? I had a lot of other challenges too, like where to find a pattern maker, where to get my fabric, how to get clothing manufactured, etc.”

Steph also found that getting Jakfish established in the outdoor industry, was the equivalent of crashing a male-dominated party, which didn’t go so well at first. “When I was investigating the possibility of starting Jakfish, my brother was working for New Balance and gave me a free pass to the giant Outdoor Retailer trade show in Salt Lake City. Since my badge said that I was a retailer working for New Balance, everyone kept asking me questions like, ‘Does my old friend, Joe Smith, still work at New Balance,’ and ‘What do you think about that new product line?’ After about an hour of fibbing my way through the show and getting increasingly hysterical, I ran to a quiet corner of the convention center and called my brother. He said 'Just tell them that you don't work for New Balance,' which was the only feasible option, given the circumstances. For the rest of the show, I had to divert all questions about New Balance with the admission that I was just snooping. Clearly, not the best way to make industry contacts.”

However, Steph says it was a man, her husband Tim, that got her started in the first place. “I had been working on the idea and the business plan for a few years with the hope that I could leave my job and work on this full time. One day, when I had a particularly challenging day at work, I said ‘I'm really looking forward to leaving my job at some point.’ That's when Tim said, ‘I think you should leave now.’ My first reaction was, ‘I can't possibly leave,’ but then the next day I thought about it and the next week I decided to quit. I am so happy I left. It is hard to describe how lucky I feel that I was able to have this adventure with such a supportive guy.”