Looking for Sober Greeting Cards? Meet We Are In Good Co

Looking for Sober Greeting Cards? Introducing We Are In Good Co.

EVERY TIME a birthday, engagement or other celebratory milestone is coming up, I find myself in Paperchase/Scribbler/Tesco staring at a wall of cards pushing alcohol at me. I used to find these cards funny and cute. I used to buy these cards for my mum, my friends & I received lots of them too. In fact, this birthday I received a couple of drink-themed cards – they are that ingrained in our psyches!

I remember after a particularly challenging day at work, I went into a card shop (that will remain nameless) and I couldn’t find a single nice birthday card on it that didn’t involve alcohol. There were some old lady cards with teddy bears on – nothing against those cards, I love them when my nannie sends them – but no cool, well designed cards that didn’t push prosecco or gin! Manically texting a sober friend about it, I was sending her pictures with ‘not cool’, ‘why is it so hard to find a card that doesn’t push booze?!?’ and ‘gahhhh will I ever feel like a normal person ever again?!’

A month or so later, I discovered We Are In Good Co. on instagram – and started tagging aforementioned friend with “Looooooook sober cards”. I was so excited.

The two women that started We Are In Good Co. are super nice, Sara & Lucy. At the moment they run it as a side business (or hustle if you want to speak millennial with me), and they are producing the loveliest sober greeting cards!

In their own words, they started their sober greeting cards business because:

[They’ve] both been affected by alcoholism hurting loved ones. We wanted to send them cards to support, encourage and celebrate them on their journey, but all we found were cards that promote drinking.

We believe we all need to come together to provide cards and gifts that actively speak to those who choose to drink less or be alcohol free. And, they should be funny, insightful and beautiful and sit proudly in a space alongside all the things that promote excessive drinking. Don’t just take our word for it, the big alcohol brands are investing huge sums in low and alcohol free alternatives. We believe it’s time for our industry to get on trend, too.

I’ve had the joy of meeting them at the most recent Club Soda Mindful Drinking Festival, and a friend gave me one of their sober greeting card’s to celebrate my 2 year sober anniversary in December.

Before we get any further, I want to let you know that this post is in no way sponsored by We Are In Good Co. I truly believe in what Sara & Lucy are doing and want to introduce you to their cards. We can vote with our wallets and be the change we want to see when it comes to sober positive products – and getting a card that has been ordered just for you and acknowledges your life choice feels that extra bit special. If you’re already sold, you can buy sober greeting cards from We Are In Good Co on their website.

I caught up with We Are In Good Co. to discuss their sober greeting cards business, keep reading to find out more about them:

So, how did you two meet?

Lucy and Sara met at Mindshare, a media agency in London. Our boss paired us together to work on an internal project and we soon found out that we shared similar schooling in marketing communications, had both worked at Carat in our past lives, and both spent time working on Diageo. So we have a huge amount of experience in marketing booze and what you can and can’t say. It never did sit right with us to encourage people to drink more but it paved the way for where we are today so every cloud.

Whose idea was We Are In Good Co.?

The business idea was 100% Lucy. Lucy’s partner decided to give up alcohol. In order to celebrate her loved one reaching 100 days, she wanted to give them a card. When she looked at the high street she was shocked to find two things:

1. There are no mainstream sober/ alcohol free cards.
2. There is an overwhelming number of cards that promote alcohol consumption in ways that would not pass advertising guidelines for any booze brand.

She ended up making her own card and in doing so spotted a gap in the market that was perfect for our personal and professional experience.

In terms of the name – that was a team effort. We had some real mediocre one’s going. Then, Lucy came up with our In Good Company card and we realised there was more to that language than just one card. We want people who stop drinking to know – they are still good company – good people to be around AND other awesome people are going sober/ AF, too.

Tell me more about We Are in Good Co. and how it started?

It started when we met for brunch one day and Lucy told Sara about the struggle she’d had to find a card to mark her loved one’s milestone. Sara too has experience of close loved ones who struggle with alcohol so it immediately hit a chord with her, too. We spent the next few months meeting up, talking more and developing the idea and enjoyed having a project that we were passionate about.

We were struck by the ubiquitous nature of alcohol, when you stop to look around you, you realise that it’s pushed at you from every direction. Being sober is hard and most often you have to defend the decision: the majority of people just can’t seem to get their heads around why you wouldn’t want to have a drink. Rather than supporting you, they question it. Truth is they just don’t know what to say.

We knew that support, encouragement and celebration were critical ingredients for success in keeping sober and were astonished at how few products were available that spoke to this need.

We were particularly saddened by the greeting card and gift market – these products are personal and reflect a shared moment but it was full of products that promote excessive drinking. Where are the cards for the sober/ alcohol free people? So we decided to kick start a new brand of greeting cards that support, encourage and celebrate the sober journey. We wanted our range of cards to use our personal experience in an insightful way and help people say what they find hard to say when someone gives up drinking. We wanted them to be funny too, when you give up drinking, you don’t give up your sense of humour!

Do you find there are ‘societal norms’ around drinking behaviours that are not positive?

Yes. Where do we start!? More specific to the card and gift space, we find It troubling how the messages normalise and glorify excessive drinking, ‘Watch me drink Prosecco and get fabulous’ is one that particularly irks us. It’s crazy how you can get away with messaging like this and we want to create a counterpoint, have cards with messages that support an alcohol free lifestyle.

Do you think there is a ‘sober movement’ happening in the UK right now?

We think so. We might be in a bubble. That said, there are 15,000 people on Club Soda UK right now, with more than a third being active users. This feels big to us. Building on that – the Mindful Drinking Festival shows that most major alcohol companies are creating no and low ABV drinks, not to mention Seedlip and the £2M investment from DIAGEO. There’s also been a breakthrough in literature too – books by Clare Pooley and Catherine Gray being in the Sunday Times Bestseller lists. There’s a small movement gathering momentum and it’s reaching a tipping point.

What has been some of the feedback from your clients?

On the positive side – Love. Support. Gratitude. Someone told us that they felt seen by our cards and that really touched us.

Also positive, but a slight barrier, is that most people who see our cards want people to send our cards to them… So we need to figure out how to connect with the community of supporters. All help welcome 🙂

What’s your relationship with alcohol like these days? I think it’s important for people to realise that you don’t need to hit a rock bottom to change your relationship with alcohol.

Lucy is now teetotal, partly in support of her loved one and partly for herself – getting into her 40’s has been a time of positive life changes.  Sara is mindful. That said, Sara has never a big consumer of alcohol prior to this project.

Any final thoughts you’d like to share?

We are not prohibitionist. We are not telling anyone not to drink or buy things with alcohol quotes on them. If you want to drink, go ahead but just make space for the people that don’t, make space for sober.

So, what do you think? Will you be buying We Are in Good Co Cards for your sober mates? I know I definitely will! Comment below or join the conversation on instagram. 

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