Made by CarSea was a spontaneous passion project turned business that I created back in 2022!
It all started by me making a toque for my friend's new born baby. He loved it so much that he ordered 10 baby hats to sell at the cafe he managed and I worked at, The General Store. This is a small cafe located at the Mackenzie Beach Resort.
The rest was history.
At first, I was just making hats as birthday gifts to close friends. In time, sales started to multiply as word got out. After a while, I had friends-of-friends requesting for hats which turned into random people who worked close-by and would see them wearing my hand-made toques.
Eventually, sales started to pool in so fast that I had to change the way I was doing things. Being out in Tofino, Yarn was NOT an easy supply to come across. I would typically make trips into Port Alberni or Nanaimo to purchase large hauls of Yarn every 3 weeks. This was just to keep up with demand AND trends.
After a few months, my same friend and manager of The General Store reached out and asked if I would be interested in selling hats to their store. It did begin as baby hats but soon turned into a range of adult hats and sizes. Alot of trial and error took place and I had to come up with my logo.
The name CarSea was not actually one I came up with or gave to myself. Another good friend of mine had a 2 year old who struggled to pronounce my full name, Carsyn. He would just call me Carsee. It was adorable and it quickly became my nickname out in Tofino. I'm happy to say it remains that way.
Till this day I typically make 50 hats per order, and orders are once a year. It is a teeny business but it has also so much brought me so much joy. There is no better feeling than walking around in town and bumping into a TOTAL stranger who is rocking one of my custom head-helmets.
Although it is not often, I do love seeing my hats featured across Mackenzie Beach Resorts Instagram Page. Kinda cool to be apart of their marketing!
