What started as a brainwave over a few bevvies has turned into a burgeoning business for two young Queenstowners.
Sharnden Jeram and Luke Goodwin, both originally from Hamilton, are the brains behind Melonz — unique polar fleece beanies taking Coronet Peak and The Remarkables, in particular, by storm.
Jeram, who works for NZSki, says he’d seen something similar in Canada, but had never seen anything like it in Queenstown.
‘‘In December, 2021, we had the idea when we were partying one night, and made a plan to have a meeting about it,’’ he laughs.
The following month Jeram, Goodwin and another mate got their heads together to work out ‘‘the admin stuff’’ and come up with a logo, before Jeram’s nana kindly shipped down her 1970s overlocker to get them started — which they also had to figure out how to use, along with a sewing machine.
‘‘We’d never touched a sewing machine before this.
‘‘We bought a bunch of fabric and started experimenting, trying to figure out how to make a beanie.’’
Goodwin: ‘‘It took us about three months to get a good beanie going — we had about 50, 60 beanies just sitting in a box, they weren’t good
enough to sell.’’
While it took a little while to figure it out, Goodwin says even that process was satisfying.
‘‘We didn’t really feel like we were working … we were just having fun with each other, making beanies and seeing how they turned out.’’
But once they perfected the pattern and process, Melonz started taking off — they sold about 400 ‘‘one-of-one’’ beanies last winter and have already almost matched that this year through Instagram and NZSki sales.
Jeram agrees it’s a slightly different side hustle for two blokes in their mid-20s — when he first met his partner, ‘‘she thought it was just a little girl in her room sewing beanies together, then she found out it was us and just thought it was real funny’’.
Already, though, the pair are expanding their offering — they’ll launch their hoodies tomorrow and are thinking about adding a few more products, too.
While they already sell some beanies to Coronet and The Remarkables, Goodwin, who by day works for the Novotel, says they’re hoping to get Melonz to Cardrona Alpine Resort and Mt Hutt this year and, longer-term, hope to stock as many mountains in New Zealand as they can.