“I’m super crafty, but I’m super cheap,” Crystal said. “And so I saw these natural stone beaded bracelets, and I was just drawn to them. ... It was like $30 for a bracelet. And I was like, ‘Absolutely not. I will go to Hobby Lobby, and I will make my own bracelet.’”
From there, she began making jewelry at her home at the time in Tomball and selling it on Etsy. Just a few months later, her husband Steven Habel—who owns the business with her—made a website for the company, and the business began to do around 200 orders a week.
“[The products] started off in our office, which was nice,” Crystal said. “But then it went upstairs into our spare bedroom. ... It would go through our foyer; it would go into our kitchen; and then the dining room is where we would lay out all the orders. ... So it started to consume our house.”
In summer 2017, the Habels rented their first commercial space of around 1,200 square feet, Crystal said. But they quickly outgrew that space—and the space after that—and now the business occupies a 26,000-square-foot distribution building in Tomball’s Business & Technology Park.
“It’s hard to really realize what we’ve done because we’re the business owners, and so it’s still stressful and busy all the time,” Crystal said.
Today, Kinsley Armelle fills around 200-250 orders a day with seven employees dedicated to fulfillment, Crystal said.
“Most [customers] are, of course, from the United States,” Crystal said. “Whenever it comes to international, it’s Canada. And then, believe it or not, Australia. ... There’s nothing like it [in Australia] is what they always say.”
Crystal said she attributes the business’s growth to its ambassador program, which at its peak had thousands of people referring customers to Kinsley Armelle in exchange for a commission. The business also has over 1,000 active wholesalers—from boutiques to hotels and casinos.
With over 3,000 products, Crystal said customers are always surprised by the quality of the jewelry for the price.
“For me, I just wanted to have nice-quality stuff but not pay the price for it,” Crystal said. “That’s the reason behind it.”
Kinsley Armelle
281-801-6773
www.kinsleyarmelle.com
