Emily hates winter. She loves wine. She loves getting together with like-minded women. And in December of 2022, she had a closet full of clothes and a Montana January staring her down.
So she decided that instead of complaining about the cold, she was going to host a clothing exchange. She had never done one before. She just knew she had too many things she was not wearing, and she wanted something to look forward to.
She put an event on Facebook because not all of her friends were the same body shape and size. She needed a bigger pool. Within 10 days, the interest was so overwhelming that she knew she was never going to be able to host it at her house. She rented meeting space at the Hilton.
"Instead of bitching about the winter, I was going to host a clothing exchange so I had something to look forward to."
Then came the weekend of the event. January 2023. Thirty below zero. A lot of women did not come because it was too cold. About 20 women showed up anyway. They collected over 874 items that first weekend.
And then something happened that Emily did not plan for. The women who did not come because of the cold started asking: when are you doing this again? Emily's answer was honest: she was not really planning on doing it again.
But then there were the women who had come. Some of them walked up to Emily and said, "You always look so cute. Would you just dress me?" And Emily said yes. They spent hours playing dress up together. And what struck her was that these women were willing to try things they would never try in a store. Colors, styles, textures. Because there was no risk. No guilt. When you remove the barrier of money, the way women engage with clothing changes completely.
They were dressing the body they were in right now, not the aspirational body they were waiting for. Not the "fat clothes" they kept just in case. Just themselves, right now, having fun.
The Facebook group she had created to share event details before that first swap? Women kept adding more people to it. And more people. That group now has over 3,100 members. It is the community that built Switch Society before Switch Society was even a company.
"I never intended on starting this company. It literally was just divine intervention and me saying yes to things even though I had no idea why or how."
Emily did not build Switch Society from a business plan. She built it by paying attention to what women actually needed and saying yes every time the door opened. Three years later, 319,000+ items have circulated through the community. The Billings location is thriving. Phoenix is coming. And the mission has never been clearer.
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