Help Maya Kern Stay Open
0% complete
$9,979 raised of $90K
132 donations
Hi all!
My name's Maya. I started my small business in 2015 selling skater skirts with my art printed on the fabric and sold exclusively at anime conventions across the US. Over the last 11 years my wife has joined me, we hired an employee, Ash, we've worked with collab artists, and we've grown to the point where we work with a warehouse for fulfillment and work with multiple factories overseas.
We are women- and queer-owned, designed in Minneapolis, Minnesota. We make durable clothes that are comfortable and cute, available in sizes S-6XL. All the factories we work with are SEDEX-certified, ensuring their use of ethical labor, and we work with factories that have additional certifications so we know our clothing is made ethically with good quality materials that are made with safe materials. All our art is drawn by humans, all our clothes are designed by humans, and all our descriptions are written by humans.
Towards the end of 2025, the factory we'd been working with for several years dropped the ball. Clothes that were supposed to arrive in October 2025 for our holiday sale didn't arrive until January 2026. On top of that, throughout 2025 and 2026, the volatile tariff situation made our bills unpredictable and chaotic and forced us to increase our prices. We cut into profit margins to stay as affordable as we could be, but it wasn't enough.
And now, September 2026, UPS sent us an invoice for tariffs they failed to charge us for in a timely manner.
We owe $90,000, and the only payment plan they would give us was for 12 weeks.
That's about $7,500 per week, which we cannot afford.
Even if we sold our entire current inventory right now, we wouldn't be able to pay it. We're out of loan options. We've involved our lawyer. We're holding presales starting September 10th on the apparel we already have in production, but we would need to sell every single incoming skirt and our entire inventory to pay this bill. We've already skipped multiple paychecks and taken significant pay cuts this year to bridge the gap.
I posted about this on social media and my incredibly understanding, kind, and encouraging followers told me to swallow my pride and start a gofundme. I feel horrible asking for money for nothing in return. They told us to consider it an investment in future products that they love and make them feel good in their bodies. They told us this is a failure of the administration that allowed the tariffs in the first place and it is not due to our failure. They told us they don't want to buy things they don't need, but they want us to survive this.
What else are we doing?
- Hosting presales: Starting September 10th, we will be accepting orders for the printed skirts that are already in production. Half of the inventory will be listed at 3pm central time, with the other half available for purchase after the warehouse has received and shipped presales.
- Offering low cost options: We introduced stickers, prints, and coloring sheets in August 2026 to give our fans with a smaller budget ways to support us.
- Putting old stock on clearance: We updated clearance in August 2026 to include cotton clothes, both with my art printed on them and in solid black.
- Running sales: We've run multiple sales this year to make ends meet.
- Changing factories: After repeated issues with meeting deadlines and rapidly increasing prices, we changed factories in June 2026. We also diversified to three factories (so far) instead of one so future issues won't impact us so heavily.
- Redesigning the skirt waistband: We changed from a thin, all-the-way-around elastic waistband to a thick waistband that's flat in the front, giving a smoother silhouette. The original waistband was stretchy. Too stretchy. The new waistband still provides the comfort of elastic without pantsing you if you want to put an entire water bottle in your pockets.
- Changing from polyester to cotton: We've been getting feedback for years that, while the skirts look good, some customers are unwilling to buy polyester clothes. We switched to a high quality, durable cotton, with the first round arriving as part of the delayed order in January 2026.
- Putting gift cards on sale: A kind follower suggested this after seeing other small businesses do the same thing. This allows our customers to invest in a future design they love, rather than spending $60-100 on a design they feel lukewarm on
- Skipping paychecks: In order to pay our employee and catch up on bills, my wife and I have been skipping paychecks and drawing from savings. In addition, we've also taken significant pay cuts.
This was almost enough until we got the UPS bill. We can't afford the payment plan, and we definitely can't afford to order more product after the bill is paid.
The best case scenario is we reach our full goal. This would allow us to pay UPS and invest in our next restock. However...
What happens if the goal isn't reached?
- If we reach the halfway mark on our goal it should be enough to pay UPS after our presales, but not enough to invest in our next restock. In that case, we would need to run preorders.
- If we don't reach the halfway mark, we may need to liquidate stock and close for 3-6 months. We can live off our savings for a little while, but our employee would be without work. In this case, we would need to hold preorders once everything has settled and hope we can start over.
- We may also need to consider closing permanently.
What happens if the goal is exceeded?
- First: Every $7,500 is one more week paid. Every $7,500 buys us time to raise more money.
- We can invest further in other types of apparel. We have designs ready for new tops, bottoms, and dresses, but we haven't had the budget for prototypes. Diversifying what we sell will help prevent this problem from happening in the future.
- We can further pay off our other loans, allowing us to have that option to fall back on.
- We can register to sell in the EU, allowing us to reach a wide market we've been cut off from due to changes to EU business regulations.
- We can invest in models and photo studio rentals, improving our product photos.
- We can offer free or subsidized US shipping.
- We can invest in an industrial sewing machine and topstitch machine and offer tailoring and made-to-order garments that are too niche to mass produce.
We don't intend to take backpay. That's the cost of owning a business.
Thank you so much for considering donating to us. Please don't send money if it'll put you in a bad position, one of us struggling is enough.
Your support and kind words mean the world to me. From the bottom of my heart, thank you.
Organizer
