Out of Focus | January in the Sun
"Life is a journey, not a destination"
Ralph Waldo Emerson.
As a family brand, we have always felt strongly about empowering our team and giving them the same opportunities we would embrace for ourselves. With a young team of creative minds, we decided several years ago to offer everyone the opportunity to travel and explore the world for an entire month, every January, whilst still being paid. It sounds completely crazy, but we think it works quite well.
The philosophy behind our approach is that a full month of freedom is enough time for the team to fully focus on themselves and their pursuits of individual endeavours (outside of their careers). We believe that whilst they are not only shielded from the most miserable month in retail, the travel opportunities allow the team to grow as individuals, and return to their everyday working lives in February with fresh eyes and big energy... and big energy goes a long way in the business of fashion!
This year, we were excited to see that everyone got the memo. January 1st arrived, and within a few days the team scattered themselves across four continents and went on to explore over ten different countries!
From Sri-Lanka to LA, Cape Town to Costa Rica, and Botswana to the Cotswolds, we are proud to say the Jam team made a splash in the ocean this January!
According to Meag, who skipped between Sri Lanka and the Maldives in a quest for both surf and sunshine, it was “the best month and waves of her life.” Meanwhile, an ocean away, Izzy moved herself into a Panamanian tree house, surfed until her fingers went wrinkly and drank way too many margaritas. After island hopping around Panama, she settled on the warm shores of the Pacific in Nosara, Costa Rica.
In Africa, Lucy pursued a ‘dream trip’ to help out on a horse Safari in the Oakavango delta (Botswana). Her daily dawn treks to the various watering holes seemed otherworldly to her 'normal' life on the Kings Road. Just down the road in Cape Town, Mark threw himself into Camps bay (quite literally) and discovered a new passion for paragliding, which pairs dangerously alongside his love for the Stellenbosch red wines!
Anna pursued her love of all things retail and landed herself in LA, just in time to explore the latest cold coffee trend, and explore one of the world's finest shopping districts in Melrose. More locally, Thea explored the Cotswolds whilst throwing herself into a new side hustle in the fitness world.
In Asia, Grace went straight to work at a dog rescue centre in Thailand, whilst Lynne understandably popped over to Singapore to meet her new granddaughter.
This left us with just Andrew and our incredible part-time team at home to man the ship… so if your order was wrong or went missing in January… blame Andrew.
Most importantly for now, the team has returned this month; serotonin filled and sun-soaked, the ‘Family’ is now firmly back at work. With smiley faces all round, we are starting to get excited about the incoming deliveries of spring/summer. If you want to find out more about the many ‘missions’ of January, please do come and see us in stores and we will be more than happy to share what we have learnt.
Absolutely none of our missions have anything to do with our day jobs, but we feel like a proud family when we say, we practice what we preach... and we are happy!
Lots of love,
The Jam Team
