Founder Says She Can No Longer Afford Booth Space At Aviation Events

Lynda Meeks, president of the Girls With Wings Pilot Shop and Very Important Pilots LLC, wrote on her blog last week that, after much consideration and mounting losses, she is closing the Girls With Wings Pilot Shop.

Meeks writes that she created the clothing line because she found very little in the way of merch for female pilots. She bought a $2,500 embroidery machine and began to create items designed for girls and women, and began booking exhibit space at shows like AirVenture at Oshkosh.

But in her January 18th blog entry, she says that booth space at an aviation show can cost north of several thousand dollars. When she added in expenses like travel, lodging, and shipping, she was never breaking even, let alone making any profit to roll back into Girls With Wings Inc., the non profit organization that inspired the line. She wrote that online sales were also disappointing, despite extensive social media marketing efforts.

Meeks says she can simply no longer subsidize the line, and is offering clearance prices on the inventory she has in stock. She stressed that she does hope to re-open under a new structure, but gave no timeline for that to occur. She also stressed that the Girls With Wings non profit organization will continue to operate as it always has.

FMI: www.veryimportantpilots.com/