Milk x Whiskey
Building an Outdoor Brand From the Inside Out
Founder / Brand Builder / Creative Direction / Product Development / Operations
Milk x Whiskey began with a simple belief: becoming a parent shouldn’t mean giving up the outdoor life you love.
Over the past three years, I’ve taken that idea from a brand on a screen to a growing outdoor company—with physical products, international manufacturing, e-commerce, wholesale and a community of adventurous parents.
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Building the Brand: Identity, Website & Creative Direction
Milk x Whiskey is built to speak to parents who still see themselves as adventurers.
I developed the positioning, identity, voice, e-commerce experience, campaigns and creative direction around a simple idea:
The adventure doesn’t end with parenthood. It gets better.
The brand needed to feel credible in the outdoor industry while being honest about the unpredictable reality of getting outside with kids.
Designed With Parents: Consumer Insight, Ambassadors, Product testing & Community
Parents aren’t just our customers. They are our ambassadors, product testers and clearest source of insight.
Their experiences help us understand what outdoor families actually need—not what a traditional baby brand assumes they need.
That perspective shapes the products, messaging and community behind Milk x Whiskey: real families helping more families spend meaningful time outside.
From Screen to Product: Product Design, Materials, Features, Prototypes & Development
Building Milk x Whiskey pushed my design experience beyond brands, campaigns and digital experiences.
Translating ideas from the screen into physical products—learning how materials, fit, construction, features and manufacturing decisions shape the final experience.
Moving between creative direction and practical execution: reviewing prototypes, refining specifications, testing fabrics, balancing durability with comfort, solving production issues, and managing packaging, pricing and margins.
The result was the simultaneous launch of three distinct product systems: the modular Adventure Proof Backpack, Chaser UPF 50+ Sun Hoodie and Tumbler Grid Fleece—each developed around the real needs of outdoor families.
Building the Right Team: RFPs, vendor selection, onboarding and partner management.
Building the company required finding the right outside expertise at every stage.
This included developing and sending RFPs, interviewing prospective vendors, evaluating capabilities and selecting partners across product development, manufacturing, ecommerce, marketing and creative.
Once selected, each partner was brought into the Milk x Whiskey brand; aligning them around the vision, customer, voice and standards. From there, the work required clear direction, ongoing communication and active management to keep different vendors moving toward one consistent brand and business goal.
International manufacturing came with a steep learning curve and very little time to climb it.
Learning International Manufacturing. Fast! Sourcing, sampling, production, logistics and quality control
Bringing three product systems to market simultaneously required quickly learning how to manage sourcing partners, technical specifications, materials, minimum orders, costing, production schedules, freight, tariffs and international logistics.
It also meant understanding where problems could happen and putting systems in place to catch them early. Sample reviews, material approvals, production checks, quality standards and vendor accountability became essential to protecting the products, the investment and the brand.
What began as unfamiliar territory quickly became a working knowledge of how to move products from concept through production and into customers’ hands.
Built for Real Life: Customer feedback, product validation and industry recognition
The clearest test of the work is what happens after a product leaves the screen, factory and warehouse.
The clearest test of the work begins after a product leaves the screen, factory and warehouse—and starts being used by real families.
The Adventure Proof Backpack has traveled through airports, hikes, beaches, campsites and everyday family life. Those experiences validate what works while revealing opportunities to improve organization, materials, comfort, features and construction.
“I’m loving this bag so far. It’s truly the jack of all trades.”
— John K, Utah
“This backpack was made for adventurers like us.”
— Kristin, Parenthood Adventures
Customer reviews, ambassador input, product returns and direct conversations with parents are collected and carried into future versions. That feedback helps refine existing products, guide new features and identify what outdoor families need next.
The Chaser was also named an Editor’s Choice sun hoodie by CleverHiker—outside recognition that helped validate its comfort, performance and positioning within the outdoor market.
The goal isn’t simply to launch products. It’s to keep learning from how families use them and make every version better.
Equal parts camp, bike, surf, skate, snow & sun. The party doesn’t end with children. It only gets better.
Milk X Whiskey is an exclusively online retailer which celebrates new parents during the most special time in their lives with high-quality, lifestyle-driven clothing and accessories. Honoring new Mothers AND Fathers with unique and fashionable everyday styles with an edge and a love for adventure, we handcraft each and every piece with the love we have for our children, whether they’re just walking or waiting to arrive.
