The Podcast
Video
Show Links
- allbirds - https://www.allbirds.com/pages/our-story
- Asphalte - https://www.asphalte.com/en-us/h/pages/about
- blendjet - https://blendjet.com/our-story
- chubbies - https://www.chubbiesshorts.com/pages/about-us
- Grub Club - https://mygrubclub.com/pages/about-us
- Knix - https://knix.com/about-us
- New Era Cap - https://www.neweracap.com/pages/our-story
- PipCorn - https://www.pipsnacks.com/pages/our-story
- puravida - https://www.puravidabracelets.com/pages/story
- WP Standard - https://wpstandard.com/pages/about-us
Help the Podcast
- Apply for Shopify Store Consult - https://jadepuma.com/pages/podcast-consult-application
Transcript
Hey, Scott, Austin here. This episode is gonna be a little bit of a show and tell. So if you're listening to the audio version, there's also gonna be a video available that you can watch. So if you're on the audio version, just click on the show notes and you'll see a link to the video. But I'll walk you through everything. So the audio version will give you a good feel for what we're we're showing you here on the screen too. So what I wanna talk about in this episode is how to tell your story in your about page and how to do it well. So what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna walk through 10 different Shopify stores that I think have really good about and tell a good story to help build their brand. And I hope to use that as an example for you on the different things that you can do in your about page to help tell your story for your brand story.
So let's get started. I'm gonna present these 10 different brands in alphabetical order.
AllBirds
And the first one up is All Birds. Most people know about the Allbirds brand. They make shoes out of wool. And on their about page, what they tell you about, you know, the first thing you see is Mother Nature made us do it, which is kind of a, a north star or guiding example of what their mantra is, right? It's about the environment and what we see. They have a really nice video with sheep running over a hillside. It, it's kind of interesting and compelling. It just draws you in to look at it. But they, they tell a little bit of a story. They, they mention the two founders one is from New Zealand, how they met up and what their, their values are, are simplicity and design, confidence and comfort and made from nature.
And they also talk about some of their charitable givings and how they're a B Corp. It's not the deepest story that they're telling, but it's, it's done in a nice, clear, concise way, the clean way that All Birds does most of their stuff.
Asphalte
Now, the next brand is Asphalt. And Asphalt makes Men's Clothings. And once you read their about page, which has just a few photos, a really nice video and a lot of text and, and one of my favorite things, they show a team photo of the whole team. And in that team photo, they even have a dog, right? I'm always a, a fan of showing babies and dogs in your about page cause they make you more human. And they go on for quite a bit on what their whole design process is and how they manufacture things. And what they talk about is the fact that a lot of clothing today is just disposable.
And what they wanna do is make really high quality clothing. So they have a whole design process where they get the best materials, work with their customers to come up with designs that are gonna be endear enduring so that people are gonna buy them and, and hold these, these products in their, their closet for a long, long time. And, and after you read the whole thing and watch their video, you get a really good sense of how committed they are to their goal of not having so much purchases of clothing that just get thrown away. So they wanna reduce waste on the planet. Next, we're gonna move on to Blend Jet. They start off with a video that is all the, the founders and early team members all, all get a speaking gig in the video. And they explained their origin story, how they got started, how the two founders decided on what they were gonna do, and what their inspiration behind that was, and how they started bringing more people into the team. And they also, you know, have some, some good imagery on some good brand imagery on their products. And they talk about what's important to them, right? And, and some of their core values are quality and innovation, nutrition, service and support, health and wellness. And I go back and talk about the whole story that they, they cover a lot in the video, but then they repeat it in text and images for people that aren't gonna watch the video.
So they're, they're showing the same content in multiple formats so that people on, on different devices or in, you know, different situations can consume that content. And I really like that. And then they end with showing all of their leadership team photos. I'm, I'm a big fan of actually showing the human beings at your company.
Chubbies
Next, we'll move on to chubby and chubby sells shorts for men. I think they're focused on men and they're tagline at the top of their about pages, the official Outfitters of Friday at 5:00 PM And you quickly get the, the feeling that their brand is about fun for, you know, for men and, you know, not taking life too seriously. So they tell a little bit of the story about the founders and why they got started in this clothing space. They have a little sense of humor in everything that they're doing, which is part of their brand.
And they basically explain how, you know, all they see are men in, in clothing ads who just, you know, have perfect bodies and none of them have perfect bodies. And, you know, why can't we have clothing that works for us kind of thing. And they talk about their brand values of fun, relaxation, irreverence, adventure and laughter. And they, once again, like, like a lot of these, these brands show a team photo of everybody that works at the company. You know, they're all excited and they're sporting their, their chubby sweatshirts together. And even in, in the photo, you can see in the background a sign that says Austin. So I assume they're in Austin, Texas, right? And I think it's a, an important thing for companies to say where they're from and how long they've been around. And they, they do that here, right?
So they say they launched in 2011, so that way people know, hey, this brand's been around for 12 years now, which probably means they're gonna be around for a few more years to be able to support my purchase. You know, if I have any problems down the road.
Grub Club
Next we'll move on to Grub Club. They make pet food that is trying to reduce carbon emissions on the planet. And their about page is just fascinating. I've, I've never seen one like this before. I just had to include this one. Their about page is just basically one big long infographic that explains how much carbon emissions are created by creating pet food and how they're gonna reduce carbon emissions with their pet food. And they go on, you know, just like a lot of infographics. And it's, it's not just a infographic, it's a page that's brought together really well with lots of color, lots of photography, lots of different font styles and, and lots of graphics and, and icons to tell their whole story step by step of, you know, what the problem is with global climate change and carbon emissions and how much of that is from pets and how they can reduce that amount of carbon emissions with their type of pet food.
And it's, you know, so it doesn't tell a lot about the team or the origin, but it's really focused on the mission and their bigger story that they're telling of why they're doing what they're doing.
Knix
The next one we have is Nix who makes underwear for women. And their, their mission or, or core value is really making clothing for every woman, not just for the person with the ideal body, but for, you know, people of all sizes and shapes. And it starts off with, you know, a photo of the founder and a little bit of her inspiration on why she's doing this kind of stuff. And there's a nice storyline that talks about the different dates that things have happened, main events in the company's history. And you can see that they started back in 2013. So now, you know, they've been around for 10 years.
And then they talk about their core values of deep empathy. Safe is risky. Stay curious, being inspired, pro, being an inspired protagonist. Invite collaboration, give real a hug. And all of their photos are very inclusive and show, you know, people in lots of diverse sizes and shapes and backgrounds. And then they talk about some of their charitable giving and, and investment that they're doing in the community. So it's, it's a page that really makes you feel like they care about women and are, are serious in the things that they're saying, right? They, they're talking the talk and they're walking the walk in in their about Paige.
New Era Caps
The next one is new era cap which makes baseball caps, right? You, you know, a lot of the pro sports teams use new ERA caps. So you know, when you, when you go to the mall and you see that, you know all the caps, it's the new era caps is is the ones making most of them.
And it's a actually a fascinating, it's an absolute beautiful page new era caps after reading their page has been around for over a hundred years now, and they got started making Gatsby hats. And then, you know, kind of by accident or a little twist of fate, they made baseball caps for a professional sports team. I think it was the Indiana or Indianapolis, I think it was. They were talking about a baseball team. And, and then all of a sudden that was their new growth thing. And, and that's what, you know, they exploded. So it shows you decade by decade photos of what's going on at the company and how the product has evolved, you know, so it's over 10 decades now. So there's 10 little sections, one for each decade, and it's really nicely done, and it's an interesting, compelling story and really lets you see how long they've been around and how invested they are in baseball caps.
PipCorn
All right? The next one is PipCorn and they make snack food. And the nice thing about this one is they really stress the fact that they're a family company. It started by a brother and sister and this one is a really high quality, high production page. It's got, you know, a a nice background to it that matches their packaging. They've got iconography that's going on in the background and, and on their images, they're showing images and graphics and it's a whole timeline view of the history of the company. And it starts off in 2012. So now you know that they've been around for over a decade also. And they, you know, they talk about how they got started in Brooklyn. So now that, you know, they're, they're an American company if you're in the United States, they go through all their history and how they were on Shark Tank, how they got introduced into retail and on shelves, different initiatives they've done, how they've expanded into international and how the product is developed. And it's a really nice story, really, really well told.
PuraVida
Our next one is Pura Vida. They sell jewelry that is sourced in other countries or, or countries where people, you know, aren't, aren't paid fair wages usually. And their whole thing is about paying fair wages. So they tell their origin story about how two guys graduated from college in San Diego and went to Costa Rica on vacation and found these bracelets and thought they were great. Brought some back to the states, started selling them, took off, you know, like rockets. And they realized that they could source these directly from the, the countries that they were bringing them in from and pay these people fair wages. And that's, you know, how they started. And then in, they have a really nice video that goes on for quite a bit where the founders both talk about it and then other people from the company come in and talk about it.
And they show how every new jewelry line they add to their inventory, they're going out and sourcing it from a country and making sure that those people are getting paid fair wages and improving their, their quality of life. So you see that their bigger story is helping these, these people from where they're sourcing their products from.
WP Standard
And the last one is WP Standard, and they make leather accessories. And in this one here, it's basically it looks like the company is just one guy. So, you know, it's not the fanciest page. You know, he didn't spend a, a bazillion years making graphics and all that kind of stuff, but it's still really well done. And you see the founder and he tells the story of how he got started. He shows photos of, you know, when his company was in the basement and how, you know, the early days of what was going on. He's got a dog in there, which, you know, I, I love dogs and, and babies on about pages. And then he's got a really nicely done video where he does a voiceover and then there's just stock images from the past and, and basically he's trying to give you a feel for the history of leather and how leather products, you know, are, are an old school type of thing, right? It's, it's the way things were done back in the day when things were done well, kind of thing. So you're talking about quality and enduring and, and how leather tells the story of the people that carried it around. It, it's a really nice video h really well done video. I, I would, for the quality of the page, the, the video is like twice as good as the page is. So hopefully he's using that in, in multiple places. And then he tells a little bit more his story and, you know, shows a picture of himself in the end kind of thing.
So it's a nice little story about how he got started, why he likes leather so much, and how he thinks it, it makes lives better, which, you know, is a, is a fun little thing to see. So that is the the 10 different pages. And I'll have links to them in the show notes. You can go look at them after reviewing these 10 different about pages. I, I saw some common themes in why I was liking them so much, right? And these are just the pages that I liked. I, I looked at probably a hundred of them to come up with the 10 that I liked best. And if you were to look at the same a hundred ones that I looked at, you might come up with 10 different pages than I did. You know, cuz it's, it's kind of subjective, it's kind of subjective on why these are good about pages.
But I saw seven themes in these pages, which drew me to them. And those themes were one, there was a use of multiple types of content, there was copy, there were photos, there were videos, there were graphics. It wasn't just a body of text or just photos. It was a mix and match of all of those so that different people who consume content in different ways would be able to get out of the, out of the page. A little bit of the brand story. Two. And not every one of these rules applied to every about page, but they were just general themes. Two is that a lot of them tell their origin story, where they got started, why they got started, how they got started, what accident or spark was the thing that caused them to come up with their idea. Who the people were just, they tell the story.
And that way if you tell your origin story, then your customers can repeat that origin story. If you don't tell them the story, they can't repeat it for you. And it gives your customers a story to tell, right? Instead of just saying, Hey, I like this product. They can say, I like this product because, and they tell the story behind them three, in addition to telling their origin story, a lot of them also told their bigger story. Why are they doing what they do? They're not just making products or selling products. They're doing that as a means to an end that is greater than just selling the products. They're doing it to benefit the planet. They're doing it to benefit a charity. They're doing it to whatever it is for your, your brand, your bigger story. You can put that in there for, they say how long they've been doing this for when they got started, 2010, 19, 20, however long they've been around.
And they also say where they got started and where they're located today. A lot of people like things that are long, long and enduring or they like things that are close to them or nearby. So in their about pages, they're saying, Hey, this is the year we got started and here's the city we got started and here's the city we're in now. Five, they show the owners and or the team, right? They show the people at the company. So it's not just about the products, it's not just about the process, it's also about the people. Six, they show a timeline. They show, Hey, in 1910 we did this in 1945, we did this in 2016 this happened to us. And people like that history and, and see the steps and the evolution of the company. And seven, and this ties into the bigger story one really, well, a lot of them explicitly called out, you know, point by point what their core values were. We stand for these five principles or we find these three things as our guiding North star. So for you and your brand, you should think about these different tools that people put into their about pages. And think about which ones work for you, which, which things build up to your brand and tell your brand story and take the ones that work for you and put 'em into your about page.
I hope this overview was helpful to give you some ideas to take your about page to the next level by telling more of a story about your brand. Thanks for listening.
Common Themes
- Use of photos and video
- Tell their origin story
- Tell their bigger story
- Say where they are and how long they've been doing this
- Show the owners and team
- Timeline
- Core values