The name Kaia Kini has its own story too.
We knew exactly what we wanted to build, but we couldn’t quite find the right name. I had always wanted the brand to have a connection to my dad, Derek, who I sadly lost to cancer in 2025. The only problem was that “Derek” wasn’t exactly the easiest name to weave into a bikini brand!
For months, Jacob kept asking me if I’d come up with a name yet. And every time, my answer was the same: “Leave it with me.” Being the stubborn person I am, I was convinced the right name would come when it was meant to.
But as the business started taking shape, samples were being made, and everything was beginning to feel very real, Jacob finally cracked me. I had to admit defeat. We couldn’t keep kicking the can down the road, the brand needed a name, and it was time to let Jacobs ideas in.
Then, on a car ride to the gym, Kaia Kini popped into Jacob’s head.
Kaia was the dog we got to keep my dad company during the last few years of his life. He absolutely adored her, and I’m convinced she was one of the reasons he lived as long as he did. They were inseparable.
When my parents named her, they believed that “Kaia” meant “the sea” in Māori, a fitting choice, given that my dad’s sister and my brother both live in New Zealand. It later turned out that the meaning wasn’t quite what they thought, but by then it didn’t matter. The name had already become so much more than its literal definition.
So when Jacob came up with this name for the bikini brand, it felt like the perfect fit, a way to honour both my dad and a little dog who brought him so much joy.
With both of our dads woven into the story in different ways, Kaia Kini became something much more personal than a swimwear idea. It became a way of building something of our own, with meaning behind it, and creating a brand that felt like us.
