updated January 10, 2025
When MARION CEO Joy O’Renick attended the Los Angeles Prego Expo promoting her maternity workwear brand in summer 2023, she thought nothing of offering to lend her dressing room to the maternity brand across the aisle. The owners of AXK Maternity had a long line of customers hoping to try on their stylish maternity leggings and nursing bras, but didn’t have a dressing space. “I had a pop-up dressing room in my booth, so I walked over and said they’d be welcome to send customers to use it any time. I didn’t expect them to look so shocked - it felt like pretty basic decency.”
It turns out, basic decency was not always what AXK Maternity founders Crysti Mccormick, CEO, and Danielle Amin, COO had experienced on their North American tour of baby expos. The AXK team waited for a lull in business a couple hours later and went to visit the MARION booth. “We told Joy, you just restored our faith in humanity,” says Amin. “Then we told her the horror story of introducing ourselves to another maternity brand owner at our last convention. I saw that she was selling maternity activewear like we do, though our styles are a lot different, so we weren’t even really in direct competition. Either way, we really value building relationships with people in the industry, so I went over to say hi. I introduced myself and asked her if she was enjoying the show so far. Out of nowhere, she stopped me and said, ‘Um, with all due respect, can you kindly get the f*#& out of my booth?”
“We even tried again later to go back and clear the air, just asking for kindness,” says Mccormick. “We didn’t feel okay leaving it in such a negative space; we wanted to make sure there hadn’t been a misunderstanding. That ended with her swearing at us again.”
“I was floored,” says O’Renick. “Danielle and Crysti were so kind and friendly. I couldn’t imagine anyone wanting to kick them out of their booth.”
AXK founders Danielle Amin’s and Crysti Mccormick’s kindness and friendliness was, in fact, the reason they were exhibiting at Prego Expo to begin with. Hailing from different Canadian provinces, Amin and Mccormick became friends on social media after recognizing the common experiences and challenges they were having as new moms. Their bond deepened quickly, and eventually they founded a corporation before they ever met in person. “We like to joke that we built a business entirely during naptime,” says Mccormick.
As the Prego Expo progressed, O’Renick had her own experience with no-strings generosity from a fellow female founder. “My primary goal for MARION in 2023-2024 was to contract with Nordstrom, Bloomingdale’s, Sak’s, and Neiman Marcus because I was 100% confident the elevated maternity line we offer is a perfect fit for their customer base. As a newcomer to fashion, I didn’t have any idea how to facilitate these introductions, so I’d been writing emails and making cold calls for a while without ever reaching anyone.”
At the same expo, O’Renick says, “I had a couple of really lovely chats with a founder named Emily Ironi, who owns a line of beautiful nursing bras and lingerie called The Dairy Fairy. During our conversation, she mentioned that she worked with Nordstrom. O’Renick told The Dairy Fairy’s Ironi of her goal to become a Nordstrom vendor and asked Ironi if she would be willing to share how she went about forming a relationship with the retail giant.
“Emily didn’t hesitate for a second - she immediately asked if she could stop by to see MARION’s collection for herself,” O’Renick recalls. She praised the line’s quality and declared it a perfect fit for Nordstrom. Not only did she share her contact info, “she offered to write an introductory email to Nordstrom’s buyers recommending us as a new vendor. I was floored, and even more floored when the promised email showed up the next day.” Within a few days, Nordstrom had invited MARION to be one of their maternity vendors. “Emily had nothing to gain from helping me and never asked for a thing in return. It was pure generosity. We’ve kept in touch, and I hope to be able to repay her kindness some day.”
After the Prego Expo, AXK’s and MARION’s founders also stayed in touch. “We had conversations about the power of moms supporting each other, and talked about how we could potentially work together and support one another,” says AXK’s Mccormick.
O’Renick adds, “We discussed this idea that’s been fed to women forever - that we’re only allowed a few seats at the table, so we can’t support other women’s success or we harm our own chances of getting those few scraps available to us. It’s such a disempowered, outdated mindset, and actually prevents us from expanding our place at the table. But, if we help each other, we increase our collective power, and that’s where real change and gender equity can begin to happen.”
A few months after the Prego Expo, AXK’s Amin and Mccormick reached out to MARION’s O’Renick to ask her if she’d be interested in collaborating. Before long, AXK and MARION teams were sharing manufacturing information, sustainability tips, helping each other with marketing and technical needs, and generally checking in for personal support. The three founders eventually decided to exhibit at the famed ABC Kids Expo together in Las Vegas. “We were Facetiming from three different time zones -and two different countries - all working to prepare for the expo,” says Amin. “I don’t think we would have made it to ABC without our collaboration,” adds Mccormick. “It’s a huge opportunity we only have because of the power of women and mamas supporting each other.”
All of the support paid off: the brands exhibited at the ABC Kid’s Expo together in spring 2024. The success of their team effort was “beyond what we could have imagined,” says Amin. AXK was offered deals with Babylist and Buy Buy Baby. They are now a US corporation, and are expanding distribution across North America. MARION signed with Bloomingdale’s, Babylist, and Macy’s, as well as the upscale brick and mortar stores Boutique Baby near Chicago and Village Maternity in Seattle. Amin, McCormick, and O’Renick continue to share information and ideas for their respective brands, and plan to continue combining efforts on a number of ventures in the future.
O’Renick concludes, “We all agreed from the beginning that ‘your success doesn’t diminish my success’, and vice versa. It’s kind of become our mission to prove that generosity and relationships create better business outcomes than trying to keep any little advantage for ourselves. There’s plenty of space and opportunity for women founders doing really good work.” She adds, “And if at some point we find that a certain table is full, we’ll just help each other push in more chairs.”
ABOUT MARION
MARION's mission is to fill the void of elevated, sustainable workwear for pregnancy & nursing. Dedicated to meeting women where power and femininity intersect, MARION empowers women to be effortlessly confident at work during every stage of maternity. MARION is sold at their online store www.marionmaternity.com; at retailers including Nordstrom, Bloomingdale’s, Macy’s, Babylist, Figure 8 Moms, Milk & Baby, and Easy Tot; at brick and mortar locations such as Boutique Baby in St. Charles, Illinois (near Chicago) and Village Maternity in Seattle, Washington; and at wholesale marketplaces Faire and Range Me.
MARION Team
pr@marionmaternity.com
Visit us on social media:
ABOUT AXK MATERNITY
AXK’s mission is to redefine maternity and create a community surrounding mamas during such a transitional time in their lives. We take pride in creating solutions for moms who won’t have to sacrifice comfort for functionality and style. With skin-to-skin in mind, we carefully sourced our fabrics to mimic that second-skin feel to maximize our mamas’ comfort throughout their journey. We paired our own experiences with experiences from mamas all over the world and carefully curated designs that make life easier, while looking your best.
AXK Maternity Team
www.axkmaternity.com
support@axkmaternity.com
Visit AXK on social media:
