An Engineering student who started a vintage clothing business in her bedroom has successfully grown her ‘passion project’ into a verified top seller on Depop.
Sadhbha Medlar (Sab) is the founder and owner of an independent brand called sourcedbysab that specialises in premium vintage and sustainable streetwear located at Grand Central Canal Road, Letterkenny and online via the fashion resell platform Depop.
Sab is a former pupil of Loreto Convent in Letterkenny and is well known in local sporting circles having been involved in a wide range of team sports and played at various regional, county and province levels.
A former student of DCU, she studied Mechatronic Engineering under an Intel Scholarship. However, when the pandemic struck, Sab moved home from Dublin and things went in a completely new direction.
“I’ve taken a slight deviation from the engineering,” laughs Sab.
“I finished college and moved back to the hills during the pandemic.
“I was doing a remote internship as a mechatronic engineer in the automotive industry whilst also exploring a few other projects – one being an Online Depop shop that I ran from my bedroom and named it SourcedBySab.
“I mostly sold tie-dye then in time vintage apparel and now this store has become the SBS we know today featuring in the top 0.0001 per cent worldwide and its accreted as a verified top seller.
“As the online store began to out grow my bedroom, I started to look for potential rental units. In sync with this, SBS had just had a number of successful weekend long popup shops.
“Over a coffee with my sister Maeve I decided to bite the bullet and give running a physical store a rattle.
“This was when Maeve joined and SBS now had a team! The physical store is now 15 months old and the experience to date has been unforgettable,” said Sab.
Looking back on her success, Sab says it started as a passion project but evolved massively.
She advises any other woman with a idea to start their own business to follow their passion.
“I think it is important to work in an area you feel passionate about and have a natural curiosity for,” said Sab.
“Start where you are, use what you have and do what you can.
“It’s a journey made up of small steps that accumulate over time.
“Of course, we have a vision and core beliefs of the impact potential we have but we’re just putting one step in front of the other and not looking too far ahead and the steady pace has been working for us so far.
“I think our Letterkenny Chamber award was a special marker that gave us the opportunity to look back and see just how much the small steps can accumulate,” said Sab.
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