A Christchurch whānau clothing brand that started with irritation about women's T-shirt sleeves is now sending orders to customers in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and Australia.
CHOOSE SARCASM, founded by Taylor Spittle and run with her family, has become today's clearest founder-focused Christchurch business story. Local reporting on 13 July said the brand began in 2023 after Taylor became frustrated with clothing design and wanted something that felt sharper, more comfortable and more honest than the relentlessly upbeat slogans she was seeing during the COVID period. The report says the brand now has more than 150 five-star reviews and has shipped thousands of orders without a marketing budget.
The company's own story describes CHOOSE SARCASM as a Māori-inspired comfort clothing brand based in Ōtautahi Christchurch. It says the whānau behind it is Taylor, Luke, Alice, Ruby, Te Manihera and Lunar, with clothing designed for everyday life: at home, at the marae, at children's sport or at the dairy. Whāriki's Māori business directory gives the same Christchurch base and describes the business as whānau-owned and operated, with Kāi Tahu, Kāti Māmoe, Ngāi Tahu, Ngāti Mamoe and Waitaha whakapapa listed.
The point is not simply that a local brand is selling T-shirts online. CHOOSE SARCASM has found a specific market by combining dry New Zealand humour, bilingual wording, comfort, Māori identity and a practical pre-order production model. That mix gives the business a stronger identity than a generic apparel shop. Customers can see the voice of the founders in the product, and that voice is the brand.
Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu's 2025 profile adds useful background. It identifies Taylor Spittle as part-owner of the thriving Ngāi Tahu clothing pakihi and says Taylor and her father Luke handle much of the day-to-day work. The profile says Puna Pakihi supported the whānau's early business development, including grant support that helped them relaunch and rebrand as Choose Sarcasm in January 2024. It also says Taylor has since been appointed as a business mentor for other startup Ngāi Tahu pakihi.
That founder pathway matters for Christchurch because it shows how a small, culturally specific business can build from local support into a wider ecommerce audience. The brand does not appear to be chasing scale by pretending to be neutral. It is doing the opposite. It is leaning into local language, family humour and a made-to-order approach that customers can understand.
The pre-order model is part of that identity. Local reporting said the business makes everything to order, reducing over-ordering and textile waste while keeping costs down. Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu's profile also says Taylor and Luke moved toward made-to-order production to better align with their values and reduce waste. In a clothing market often criticised for overproduction, that operational decision gives the story more substance than a simple viral-brand narrative.
The next test is whether the garage-based brand can keep its personality as demand grows. Customers are already asking why it does not have a retail store, according to Taylor's comments in the latest report. Physical retail could bring visibility, but it would also bring rent, stock risk and a different pace. For now, CHOOSE SARCASM's advantage is clear: a founder-led Christchurch brand that knows exactly who it is talking to, and is finding that audience well beyond the city.
