Sun Milk started as just a hobby. Owner Ashley Johnson began teaching herself embroidery to reconnect with her creative side and created the local clothing brand in 2021.
After seeing other creators post their products on TikTok, she decided to take a leap of faith and make posts of her own embroidered apparel. Johnson quickly went viral, and the demand for her products followed soon after.
“The support that I received online right away just totally caught me by surprise,” Johnson says. “I was so shocked, and the fact that people wanted to buy it gave me so much validation that what I was doing was worth creating.”
It’s time to pick your Milwaukee favorites for the year!
Learning the basics of embroidery took Johnson a couple of videos and lots of trial and error.
“I feel like I learned by making mistakes, you know?” Johnson says. “Like, this is going to be a mess, but I’m going to learn something every time that I do it.” She says she’s always trying new techniques and designs.
Each product takes anywhere from 10 minutes to an hour to embroider. Johnson refers to the process as a labor of love that she can’t get enough of. “The end result is so beautiful and timeless; I’m just so hooked.”
When creating her own clothing line, Johnson drew inspiration from the nostalgic charm of childhood souvenirs. During family road trips, she would buy a sweatshirt to remember each destination, and she wanted her brand to reflect that feeling.
“I had this idea for the state flower collection, imagining it in gift stores all over the country – inspired by something that’s so iconic to the state’s natural side,” she says. “That’s what totally took off and what changed my business the most.”
Johnson dreams up all her designs and draws them by hand before they’re digitized into a format for the embroidery machine to read.
“I don’t buy designs off of a platform and remake what other people did,” Johnson says. “I create every single thing that I release by hand so it is unique. I feel like it’s very true to my brand and vision.”
Although her business has grown locally as well – Sun Milk sells at many local markets and festivals – Johnson still credits TikTok with the jump start of everything.
“I had some very viral videos that did things that I would have never thought possible,” she says. “For my business to have a video get several million views, and sell out what I thought was gonna take me a full year to sell in 48 hours – it changed everything.”
Johnson used to run Sun Milk out of a sunlit room in her Milwaukee apartment but has since upgraded to a small warehouse space to grow with her clientele. Both she and her fiancé Tosland Hopkins work collaboratively to keep things running smoothly.
Hopkins had been recently laid off when Johnson’s business was starting to take off. He agreed to help her in the meantime while he searched for a job. Since then, they’ve been full-time business partners for two and a half years. Johnson called it fate.
“He’s definitely the very organized side of everything – he’s got a plan and loves numbers and documents,” Johnson says. “I’m probably the chaotic creative side who just has the ideas and is like, ‘Let’s do this.’”
In a market ruled by large chain clothing companies, Johnson said the advantages of being a small business owner far outweigh any disadvantages.
“I think it’s really cool to be able to connect so directly with your customers,” Johnson says. “There’s so much support and people who appreciate being able to have what feels like a personal relationship with the person who’s making their clothes. I write notes – I recognize my customers.”
Johnson is a fourth-generation entrepreneur and loves seeing how people connect with something she created, whether it’s families with her matching sweatshirts or aspiring business owners looking to her for inspiration.
“I’ll never get over the fact that people want to purchase and support something that I’ve created,” Johnson says. “It’s just the most humbling and heartwarming thing ever.”
