Learn more about the latest addition to the Pattern family, Onsen. 🛀
Last year we evolved our business model to focus on acquiring Shopify-based home-life brands to the Pattern Brands family. We doubled down on our vision of providing more people with products that help them find greater enjoyment in their day-to-day life at home by acquiring four incredible brands in the past year, GIR and Letterfolk in 2021, as well as Yield and Poketo in 2022.
One year in, we’re convinced we made the right decision. Today, we’re proud to announce the acquisition of Onsen, a Utah-based towel and robe company founded by Shane Monson in 2018, and led by his longtime friend Connor MacArthur.
When we first launched Pattern, we asked our team to select brands they liked for each part of the home. In early 2020, after launching our first two brands, we started to look through some of these brands for inspiration for potential next brands and products. One of these brands for the bathroom was Onsen. Two years later, we couldn’t be more excited to have Onsen as the newest brand in the Pattern family.
Founded in 2018, Onsen quickly emerged as the go-to towel for discerning customers across the U.S. Shane is half-Japanese, and spent time there throughout his formative years. Inspired by Japan’s ‘Onsen’ culture of hot springs, bathing facilities and traditional inns, Shane saw an opportunity to bring the traditional ‘waffle-weave’ technology to America, where he struggled to find a towel that would dry him, and itself repeatedly, in a timely, and clean manner. In Japan, where it's humid and space is limited, towels tend to be lighter in weight so that they dry quicker between uses. This didn’t exist in the U.S. and Shane wanted to change that, for himself, and for anyone else that wanted a lighter, cleaner, faster dry. By combining their now signature “waffle-weave” with the highest-quality Supima cotton led to an incredible breakthrough in the U.S. towel category.
In 2020, shortly after reviewing that list of top brands per room our team made, we reached out to introduce ourselves. Shane and Connor, familiar with Gin Lane and Pattern, were quick to write back and a professional pen pal friendship ensued. As we continued to evolve our platform to acquire brands and position ourselves as a multi-brand for home goods brands, we continued to stay in contact. After an in person visit in Utah, enjoyable emails and phone calls checking in with each other as fellow entrepreneurs in the home goods space, this year we decided to see if it might make sense for Onsen to join Pattern. Successful on its own, we collectively wanted to explore if Onsen could have wider, long-term success as a part of our family of brands.
When we entered in conversations, we couldn’t have been more impressed by the professionalism, organization, simplicity, discipline and clarity Connor and Shane brought to our conversations. Onsen has been a spectacularly well-run profitable business, and after aligning that Pattern could be an incredible long-term home to grow Onsen over many years, we quickly locked in, and found a way to bring their business on.
It has been a pleasure working with them, and we are so grateful to have the opportunity to share what they’ve built with more Americans. The product is a category-defining product, their brand & marketing are top-notch, the customer-service is A+, and we think you will love the Onsen experience.
We’re honored for Pattern to be the long-term home for Onsen. With Shane and Connor’s guidance, knowledge, and direction, we hope to help Onsen find a home in many, many more bathrooms across the U.S.
If you love beautifully-designed, high-quality, fast-drying, long-lasting products and value cleanliness – we think we might have the perfect product for you.
Enjoy,
Pattern Brands 🏡
