How Travel Blogger Becca Ingle Built the Lain Snow Swimsuit Brand Around Community

The North Carolina native launched her swimwear company in April 2021.

Becca Ingle and Camille Kostek / Tato Gomez

A few years ago, travel blogger Becca Ingle was looking for a swimsuit brand to collaborate with on her very own line—and then the pandemic hit. While she describes being “devastated” at the timing, she firmly believes that rejection is redirection. Ingle hired a business consultant and decided that instead of partnering with an existing swim brand, she would create her own.

After learning how to create a website and navigate Shopify, Lain Snow, named after Ingle’s daughter, was launched in April of 2021. The company started with a mommy-and-me line of swimwear, something that was lacking in the market at the time.

“We decided, let’s do our own mommy-and-me line because I couldn’t find anything that was cute for the kids but also looked hot on as a mom or was flattering in that aspect,” Ingle explains. “I felt like it either was one or the other when trying to find matching mommy-and-me styles.”

Jena Sims in Lain Snow for SI Swimsuit’s runway show during Miami Swim Week / Alexander Tamargo/Getty Images

The North Carolina native says fans have referred to to Lain Snow’s ribbed swimsuits as “the Spandex suits for moms,” and notes that she wanted her brand’s offerings to support women whether they’re sunbathing or surfing. Three years ago, the brand launched with one silhouette in three different colors for moms, along with a matching long-sleeved rash guard and lining-free swim trunks for children.

Not only are the designs cute, functional and suitable for both mothers and their children, but Ingle has leveraged her incredible online community into becoming active participants within the brand. Before a style launches for pre-order on the site, Ingle invites her 90,600 Instagram followers to suggest patterns and name particular prints or colorways.

Xandra Pohl shops Lain Snow / Tato Gomez

“[The brand is] very interactive”

The choice to involve her community so deeply in her brand was a natural one, Ingle says. Prior to launching Lain Swim, she’d already built up a large social media following, and came up with the idea to involve her fans on a deeper level while on Lake Powell in Utah last October. While out on the water, Ingle snapped a photo of herself in the brand’s black-and-tan swimsuit, posted it and asked her followers to name it.

“I was like, ‘Wow, that was so fun. Let’s just keep it going,’” Ingle says of the suit, which was ultimately deemed Hot Chocolate. “And ever since last October, we’ve just continuously done that.”

Last Friday, Lain Swim launched its neon swimwear collection, which included fan-named pieces like the Miami Vice, as worn by Katie Austin on the SI Swimsuit runway during Miami Swim Week.

Katie Austin in Lain Snow for SI Swimsuit’s runway show during Miami Swim Week / John Parra/Getty Images

“I just started doing this for our 4th of July print [also], and if someone suggests like a retro print and we end up using it, I gift that [swimsuit] to the person that suggested it,” Ingle says. “And then we post the suits and whoever names the print, we gift a swimsuit. So it’s very interactive and I haven’t seen any other brands that engage with the audience [in this manner].”

“It created ... loyalty”

Ingle, who often stars in her brand’s Instagram campaigns alongside her daughter, Lainey, says that authenticity has been key when it comes to building her business. Rather than expensive campaigns, her brand followers, along with her 111,000 followers on her personal Instagram page, want to see her and her family hitting the beach in Lain Snow designs.

From the very beginning, her prioritization of customer service has also helped set Lain Snow apart from other swimwear brands. She and her small but mighty team of three pack and ship orders next-day to local residents in North Carolina.

“Now looking back, I feel like it created that loyalty where people were like, ‘I’ve never gotten a swimsuit faster, you’re faster than Amazon,’ and [customers] knew that we were behind the scenes hustling to get it to them.”

Today, Lain Swim operates on a pre-order system, meaning new items hit the website for a designated period of time before the purchase window closes. The method has helped Ingle to manage internal costs while also mitigating waste, and creates a sense of urgency among her customers to not miss out on a particular design.

Abbie Herbert in Lain Snow for SI Swimsuit’s runway show during Miami Swim Week / John Parra/Getty Images

“Start small and start snowballing it”

Outside of hiring a consultant to help build your business and establishing a TikTok presence, Ingle’s other piece of savvy business advice is to accumulate savings before you start. She worked two remote jobs during the COVID-19 pandemic to save up funds for Lain Snow.

“Go ahead and have that money ready, because the last thing you want to do is go into debt trying to get started,” she offers. “I basically started with $20,000 and did a small line. I think if you just start small and start snowballing it, then you can see how it does and get feedback from the community and see what they like.”