Pink Palm Puff's $89 hoodies are the hot new tween status symbol. Meet the 17-year-old founder.
Pink Palm Puff's pink beachy sweatshirts and "preppy" style have caught fire on TikTok and YouTube. Lily Balaisis founded the brand when she was 15.
Laura Proctor for BI
It was summertime when Lauren Brown's daughter pleaded with her to buy an $89 hoodie.
"I thought the price tag was a little steep so I told her, maybe for her birthday," Brown told Business Insider. She kept asking for it, and that fall, for her eighth birthday, Ada got the hoodie of her dreams.
The hoodie wasn't any regular sweatshirt, at least not in the eyes of Gen Alpha. It was a Pink Palm Puff — a new obsession of tween and teen girls reminiscent of the Stanley water bottle craze.
"I first saw Pink Palm Puff on YouTube, and I thought they were going to be so comfy, and I loved the designs and colors," Ada Brown, 8, told BI. "My friends asked where I got them, and I told them Pink Palm Puff. I also have the pajamas now." Lauren Brown
Lily Balaisis founded Pink Palm Puff in 2023 when she was just 15 years old and living in the suburbs of Toronto. With a keen sense of the teen fashion landscape and some social marketing smarts, she helped it catch fire on YouTube and TikTok, seemingly overnight.
"I feel like there's many components to a good hoodie," Balaisis told Business Insider. Comfort is key. The design is also important. It's "either on trend at the moment or has good colorways that match your outfit."
The brand currently sells pastel-hued sweatshirts and matching sweatpants. A line of beachy short pajamas costing $89 per set was added in February and immediately sold out, according to Linas Balaisis, the brand's president and Lily's father.
"I feel like in my generation, pajamas are super popular," the younger Balaisis said. Laura Proctor for BI
The brand's official TikTok account has amassed over 545,000 followers and 9.8 million "likes" (nearly as many as tween leisurewear icon Lululemon) and its YouTube account has 565,000 subscribers. The garments have frequently sold out over the last year, leaving some parents stymied — especially over the holidays. Mr. Balaisis declined to reveal sales numbers but said that they have exceeded expectations.
One sign pointing to Pink Palm Puff's growing cultural relevance is the rise of counterfeits. Lookalike hoodies with names like "pink pom puff" that sell for under $10 have been popping up on Amazon and TikTok Shop. (Amazon is removing some "dupe" listings after BI asked about them). A handful of sites also feature similar-looking hoodies with misspellings of the brand in the URL.
Lily's father, who's worked in finance and marketing, said he's proud of his daughter's success. He now manages the business's day-to-day operations full time.
"I told her, just take care of demand, and I'll take care of the rest," he told BI.
How Pink Palm Puff took off
Laura Proctor for BI
Lily Balaisis got a crash course in social marketing when she launched her first product — a slime concoction — when she was 11. The idea to start a fashion line centered on hoodies seemed like a natural next move.
"If you looked in my closet, there were hundreds of hoodies; I would say I would call myself a hoodie fanatic, honestly," Balaisis said. "I just had so many hoodies that was something that I truly loved, something that all my friends truly loved and something that I feel like I could be able to translate well into a business."
The $89 price point for the hoodies has made them somewhat vexing for the millennial and Gen X parents who remember American Apparel prices (parents may also be confused that there are no drawstrings — Balaisis said that her generation is anti-strings in hoodies). The high price reflects the cost of the embroidery of the designs on the back, sleeve, and front, as well as the quality of the plush fabric (the sweatshirts are made overseas), she said.
The hoodies ship to customers in colorfully printed boxes with dust bags, as if they were luxury purses. The high-end packaging plays into the overall cost, but it also serves as marketing: an unboxing moment that teens can post online.
"We take pride in a really good unboxing moment, I call it," Balaisis said.
When she launched the brand, Balaisis cultivated a community of other young influencers who she identified as having a "preppy" aesthetic and gave them free sweatshirts to spread the word.
(Some adults over 30 may be surprised to discover that the term "preppy" means something quite different than when they were teens. For young girls today, preppy means super girly, bright colors, lots of pink, and skirts with ruffles. To translate for millennials: think Regina George, not Blair Waldorf. Expensive pink and pastel sweatshirts fit right into this new version of prep).
@preppyannafaye OBSESSED @PINK PALM PUFF
