Willabean's Debut at Cruftside 2024: A Day to Remember

09.05.24

Willabean made it’s debut as a stall holder at Cruftside 2024 this Bank holiday weekend. And we loved every minute of it.

We spent some very late nights in the weeks leading up to it designing and hand making our waterproof webbing collars and leads in different colour combinations as well as designing and building our booth to showcase all of our beautiful products. We even built a little display area for people to customise their own collars and leads too.

As the first day of Cruftside rolled around, we had a 4:30am start which Willow was not best pleased with! We got ourselves ready and made the 45 minute journey to the venue where we were greeted with the beautiful backdrop of the River Avon to set up next to as well as glorious sunshine.

We met so many amazing people ranging from the other lovely stall holders to the wonderful customers who shared stories with us of their furry friends and we got to watch some of them take part in the different dog show rounds and activities which was brilliant. It was lovely having Willow with us to model some of our products and meet all of the lovely people who spent their weekend at Cruftside, although her enthusiasm had waned by day 2 and she was falling asleep sitting up!

We managed to take a few pictures of the dogs wearing their new accessories (when we remembered!). It was surreal seeing our products on real life dogs that aren’t our own or friends/family members! After more than a year of planning before we launched the business in April 2024, this was a real ‘pinch me’ moment.

Day 2 of Cruftside was a little quieter, but the weather was definitely on our side. We had uninterrupted sunshine for most of the day and some friendly new faces (both canine and human) to chat to as they browsed the stalls and took part in the fun dog show.

As we packed up our booth as the sun was setting on Cruftside, we reflected on such a brilliant experience and realised that this is just the beginning for Willabean! We cant wait to see what other exciting things we get up to and hope you will follow us on this journey!

Aimee & Jon.

(& Willow & Archie)