Victory Wolf Victory Wolf...
Man, 2014 has not been kind to Victory Wolf. Late winter offered up the loss of my favorite tobacco absolute, which opened up the possibility of discontinuing the fragrance. Drama ensued. Customers panicked. I panicked. Fortunately, I was able to rework the formula and all was well. Or, so I thought.
I have recently discovered that someone else has started to use the name Victory Wolf. Judging from the information I have, they are well aware of my use of the name. They've trademarked it and are very aggressive with the promotion of it thus far. It's disheartening to see someone so blatantly rip off such a random yet specific to me name. Victory Wolf is a loose translation of my husband's last name, Sielaff: sigi 'victory' + wolf 'wolf'. I made this fragrance for him. We had the release party for Victory Wolf at Nationale on September 25, 2009. It's been a popular fragrance sold in many stores in the US, Canada and Europe. I never saw the name used before 2009 and it's been nothing more than some guy in Turkey's Myspace handle since then. I'm bummed that some other business has dropped in on it.
This brings me back to when I was in 8th grade at Randolph Junior High. I grew up solidly middle class. I was never hungry, had a nice home, never really wanted for anything. But, I only got one or two name brand articles of clothing a year. I had to beg for them. It was 1989 and that's just how you did it then, name brand everything. I had this Guess stonewashed denim jacket. I got it for Christmas and I wore it everyday. I loved it. I somehow ripped the shoulder open. A HUGE rip. My mom didn't sew, I didn't have a patch anyway. I needed to wear my Guess stonewashed denim jacket to school that day or I would be lame and never have friends and my world would be over, etc. So, I used a shoe lace from my purple Converse high tops and laced that shit up. It's the best solution my 13 yr old self could come up with. I was embarrassed but I figured my back pack would cover it most of the time anyway. When I got to school, a few people complimented my Guess stonewashed denim jacket with the shoelace going up the side. It was a hit. They thought it looked cool. I was pretty pleased with myself, mostly because something I made wasn't laughed out of homeroom. I thought outside the box, made due with what I had and it worked out. Within a week a few girls had ripped their jackets and laced them back up with shoelaces. I remember being annoyed not so much because they copied me but because they had multiple intact Guess jackets and didn't need to do it! Before long, kids at school just thought Guess made stonewashed denim jackets with a shoelace going up the side. I got no credit for my innovation and we moved on to other trends the next year anyway. Victory Wolf will probably end up being my Guess stonewashed denim jacket.
This is basically just an emo blog post to OLO customers and friends. I've been incredibly lucky with this business so far. This was a hobby that turned into a career that is so fulfilling. I get so many kind words and support on the daily. I appreciate it all. This is now a profitable business that supports both me and my husband. Jonathan is now a partner in OLO and we are excited about upcoming projects planned for 2015. I have just rolled with what came at me for the last five years but it's been made clear to me that I have to be more assertive with this as a business. I apologize for all the hashtags and promotions and images that are about to hit the internet all hard in the name of OLO Fragrance.
In order to keep Victory Wold associated with OLO for as long as possible we will be doing a giveaway. Post any image of Victory Wolf on Instagram and tag it #victorywolf #victorywolf2009. It can be a picture of your personal bottle of Victory Wolf, an inspiration shot or the store you bought it in. We will giveaway one bottle a day from today Saturday, November 22nd thru Saturday, November 29th.
