A happy accident

Lori Burke and Haley Hill first met when they were in their pre-teen years, and after attending separate colleges, found each other again. “After we had kids, I saw her at church and was like, ‘Oh my gosh!’” Hill said. “And we’ve just been together since.”

The Hoover residents even stuck together through the adventure of opening their business, Tagged and Happy, in Nov. 2013. 

Before officially opening, their first line of t-shirts, made out of Burke’s home, represented their alma maters, Alabama and Auburn. “Because, if you’re going to sell something in the state of Alabama, you’ve got to put football on it,” Burke said.

After those shirts sold, their collection grew and they took their line to the Briarwood Christmas Shop. “And we sold, like, all of them,” Burke said. 

“We didn’t mean to,” Hill said. Not only did they sell out, but their line was so popular that they took orders.

“And then we took so many orders, we didn’t know what we were doing,” Burke said. 

At the time, soon-to-be named Tagged and Happy was operating off of Burke’s dining room table; both she and Hill were purchasing shirts, cutting out decorative fabrics and sewing designs onto the shirts themselves. “It was terrible,” Hill said. “A lot of tears,” Burke added.

Burke said, too, that her mom later helped sew the shirts to meet orders and the pair would sit at Panera so customers could pick up their shirts. There, they found their next step.

“The owner [of Wrapsody] walked into Panera and saw us, and the rest is history,” Burke said. “When we got into Wrapsody, which is kind of a big deal in Hoover … it just took off.”

“People have asked us how we got started, and I always say, ‘I don’t know,’” Hill said. “We had no idea [we were going to start a business],” Burke added. It was a happy accident, but a happy accident on purpose, they agreed.

Tagged and Happy was officially born when they took their line to trade shows, and around the same time they were picked up by Monograms Plus in Cullman and by Darrah & Co., a large distributor in Atlanta. 

As they’ve grown, Tagged and Happy has given back to the community, too. 

Burke and Hill sell “Standing for Good” socks, which benefit an orphanage in Zambia that was started by a friend and provide rent-free office space for her to operatethe orphanage.

They also use brochures created by members of Unless U, a ministry that works with developmentally disabled adults, as well as Fund the Nations, a Memphis screen-printing organization that helps raise funds for mission trips, adoptions and non-profit organizations. 

Their shop now includes socks, towels, T-shirts, tank tops, pop sockets and hats. They’ve also grown to employ a group of stitchers to help make the shirts, mostly moms who want to stay home with their children.

“We just kept going because people just kept telling us how great it was. And we believed them,” Burke said. Now, their merchandise is available in 22 stores throughout the Southeast and at their new storefront at 3241 Oak Hill Drive.

Because they are both Hoover residents and it is where the shop got its start, both Burke and Hill said opening a storefront in the city made perfect sense. “We’re straight up Hoover,” Burke said. But regardless if they’re operating from their storefront or their website, Burke and Hill just want to help make others happy.

“I think our mission statement is we want really to just spread some happy,” Hill said. “We are brainwashing America to be ‘Tagged and Happy.”

Learn more at taggedandhappy.com.

Editor's note: This article was updated on July 27 at 9:53 p.m. to reflect the correct spelling of the Hoover store, Wrapsody.