Rooster Camisa Turns 1! Rooster Camisa

Rooster Camisa Turns 1!

So as we sit here and write this, we reflect on a wonderful year at Rooster Camisa!  We turn 1 today and it’s hard to believe that our first year went by so fast and was so full of great opportunities and travel!

Our 1st Year in Review:

We kicked off the website on October 1, 2013 and 3 weeks later launched our Pop Up shop experience at Thornton Festa.  We introduced our beloved Barcelos Rooster in which we take our customers and fans pictures with!   We quickly saw that we offered a product to our wonderful Portuguese community that was different.  We focused on the funny side of being Portuguese, bad words and all!!! 

As the holidays approached,  we continued to grow with our first line and we saw a trend of families buying shirts for the whole family.  We saw a lot of great activity online via social networks such as Instagram, Twitter and great feedback on Facebook.  By the end of 2013, we had reached 3000 Facebook fans and continued to go strong into 2014.

We started 2014 with a great honor for our little 3 month old company, we were named Best of 2013 in business by the Portuguese Tribune.  We feel so blessed to have the support of our community as we’ve found we all need to stick together to be successful!   As spring approached we started into the sports world contributing to the 1st EVER San Francisco Giants Portuguese Heritage night tee shirt.  We designed our very own version including all elements San Francisco, Baseball & Rooster Camisa!  We were lucky enough to have our shirts featured on the Souza family on the San Francisco Giants weblog.  In time for the World Cup, we also designed our very own soccer collection which included the Força Portugal and History of Portuguese shirts. Even though they didn’t move past the first round our fans were able to go to viewing parties in style with the most fashionable Portuguese soccer gear! 

In April we attended the 1st YPA (Young Portuguese Americans) Summit in San Jose, CA and were greeted and welcomed by Jason and Taylor Amarante key members in YPA.  During this summit we learned the issues facing all the festas across the state of California in regards to the changing of guard as the younger members join.  As kids we attended countless festas but have been out of the circuit for many years.  We were able to listen to all the key persons from every group across the state and network.  We left this summit super charged and ready to make a difference during the summer months with our brand of humor.  We quickly saw opportunity to help join the movement in helping to bring change to the festas and bring interest to the younger Portuguese.

As festa season rolled around, we were happy to start in our home town of Lincoln, CA on Memorial Day weekend.  We were the very first vendor to ever be allowed to vend at this festa and we came with a lot excitement and the new line for festa season.  Nothing like having 95% of all our families and friends at our first festa of the year!  We added some really funny shirts to our line which included: Juizo Na Cabeça, Malcriado (featuring a very angry Portuguese Grandma), 3 Balls, E.D.F (Eat, Drink, Festa & Repeat!), Que Lindo, and Once a Queen, Always a Queen.  We quickly saw that our brand of humor was just what the festas needed in a greatly underserved market.  We have had 100’s of conversations with our customers about our brand and what we are doing. We spend time talking about our history and the legend of the Rooster and what the Queens mean to a festa.

Our Pop Up Shops included personal visits to: SPHSS Portuguese Hall Sacramento, Dia De Portugal Festival in San Jose, Freeport/Clarksburg Festa, Festa de Sao Joao in San Jose, Tracy IPFES Festa, Livingston Pentecost Club Festa, Newark Pavilion Festa, Rio Vista Festa, Chino Valley DES Festa, and Gustine Nossa Senora Festa (host by The Olive Branch).  We’ve also opened up direct retail stores locations in San Diego at UPSES Poruguese Market, San Jose at Bacalhau Grill & Trade Rite Market, Gustine at Queen Bee Couture and The Olive Branch. We have also created custom festa shirts for the Magic Valley Portuguese Hall in Idaho to help raise funds for their festa.  In addition, we’ve sponsored the band Sombras who will carry Rooster Camisa products at their upcoming events.   We have sponsored some Portuguese Radio contests for the World Cup and done countless giveaways for events like the Super Bowl, Valentine’s Day, and whatever random day we felt like it.

Our Fall 2014 line includes some really great new pieces as we’ve added a throwback collection inspired by 1970’s and include Portugal, Acores and Madeira tees with matching hats, we’ve added a feminine line for women with fun multi colored roosters, heart of Viana, and Saudade (a word only found in the Portuguese language and takes 10 English words to describe!), and we’ve added more baby and kids products and are ready for another great year!

We are all so grateful and blessed for the wonderful 1st year we’ve had at Rooster Camisa.  We the team at Rooster Camisa would like to personally send out a very warm thank you to all of those that have helped us along the way.   We know we can’t possibly name all that we’ve touched and have touch us, so forgive us now if we missed a shout out!

SPECIAL THANKS TO:

The Oliveira Family: If it wasn’t for you not agreeing on which matching shirt to wear for Christmas, we might not have started a company!

Carlos Azevedo: Helping to make and paint our Barcelos Rooster and making commercials with Lafayette.

Antonio Medeiros: Our Rooster Camisa Pai & Padrinho – who never misses a festa and is always there to help anyway he can! Going and giving us amazing support all year long.

Diana Kenyon and Bernadette Rothert: For buying one of each of every shirt we made for all of your family and telling everyone you can about us. 

Nelson Medeiros: For being the best resource for all things festa related and my all around secret weapon.

Dina Silveira: For always sharing our posts on Facebook and being an awesome cheerleader for us!

David Martins: For always giving advice on all things Portuguese!

Nicole Alves Bairos: Our #1 online customer, she dressed all her family in Rooster Camisa for a family reunion! 

Angela and Adrian Simões: For being amazing ambassadors in the Portuguese Community, supporting our new business with their knowledge and guidance into introducing us to PALCUS.

Antonino Pascual: Helping us join the wonderful group of vendors for Dia de Portugal and checking in with us through the year to see how we were doing.

Barry Costa: For being our #1 Facebook fan, we love you too Barry!  Thanks to fans like you that come out just to see us at events like Dia De Portugal we will keep on going strong!

The Medeiros Family: If it wasn’t for you I would not be here today… you inspire me more then you’ll ever know!

Karol, Karlie and Keith: Great crews working the festas in 100+ degree heat and doing so with a smile!

Festa Committee Members: To all of those that believed in what we are doing and invited us to come to their festa. 

Thanks for the best 1st year ever and we look forward to another wonderful year!

Muito Obrigado de todos nós na Rooster Camisa,

Goretti, Lafayette, Julie, Natalie & Steven

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