natural . real ingredients . no DYES . NO CORN SYRUP
Starting out... our story
After getting married in March of 2015, we (Chad and Rachael) both relocated our lives to Longview, TX to live near family and the childhood ranch Chad grew up on. With that, we left our careers and lifestyles back in Fayetteville, AR and Dallas, TX. We came to East Texas with a bunch of dreams for joining together and beginning a business that would allow us to spend our days next to each other and expound upon things that we love and find important to us. Funny enough, Shivers started as a dream to own a coffee shop. However, after realizing we had no capital to start with a brick and mortar building, and many dreaming sessions morphing our ideas, our passion for creating a coffee shop in town turned into a desire for a snow-cone stand in a field. (Left field, I know).
Sitting on the sofa the week of our official launch in mid June of 2015, Rachael said "hey let's give away all our snow cones for free the first day." After some "what in the world are you talking about" glances from Chad, that's what we did! We opened our first day with our little vintage airstream parked in a field, and our fridge stocked with syrups for what we thought would last us many days. Opening with an active downpour of a thunderstorm we were sure it would be a total bust, however, the sweet community and great people of Longview showed up with umbrellas and smiles. We made 400 snow-cones in 4 hours that day and finally closed our windows after running out of every flavor we had prepared. That day was the starting point of this entire adventure for us.
We are thankful for the community that has been behind us since day one, supporting us when lines were 45 minutes long and cheering us on when they pulled up to a "sold out" sign sitting in the front lawn. We are thankful that our "Shivers Peeps" have helped us to cultivate a family friendly environment where sitting on a picnic blanket with a friend to talk about life is a norm.
Our 2016 season began with a newly renovated interior to our Airstream that could accommodate finally hiring some employees! We were fortunate to find a team of awesome college and high school students that wanted to be a part of the Shivers adventure. It's been a rewarding, exhausting, exciting, terrifying, and fulfilling adventure over the past two seasons. As this little business grows, it's not lost on us that we owe much of our success to a faithful God with dreams bigger than our own, and a community of people with hearts bigger than we imagined. The biggest blessing of 2016 was the arrival of our favorite little snow-cone ever, our son Shepherd Woolley Reeves! This sweet boy has stolen our hearts and captured every ounce of our dreams. He gives us the drive to work harder and smarter so we can spend as much time as possible smothering him with all the kisses and hugs he can stand!
2017 brought on the fun challenge of opening up our second location located in Hallsville, Texas. It was a great experience for us learning how to juggle two locations at once, and how best to support our employees!
2018 brought with it our 3rd location opening in Lakeport, Texas. We loved opening in a new community of folks and sharing our sweet treats with them. This is the year that we learned how to manage 30 employees at a time! Definitely a big growing season for us as a company and as people.
2019 was a season where we focused on refining what we do behind the scenes and fine tune all our processes as a company. We welcomed our 2nd baby boy this year, Graham Wylder Reeves! He is our new favorite squishy!
2020 will begin our 6th year in the snowcone industry!! Woo Hoo! Lots of dreaming is going on about our next steps as a business and where all the adventures will take us!
Meet Rachael
Her dream of living on a ranch on the outskirts of a small town finally came to life. When she's not up at Shivers she's usually sitting up at the barn holding a barn cat, petting a horse, or looking for a new baby calf to bottle feed! This city girl has found a new heartbeat in the country! Rachael is expecting her and Chad's very first little one, due at the beginning of November 2016. When not growing a baby bump, she LOVES a good road trip and exploring new adventures, hence the passion to own an airstream shaved ice stand! Also an avid Crossfitter, she loves that Shivers recipes offer tasty treats that aren't riddled with guilt. Her favorite Shivers flavor is "Fresh & Sweet" named because of the only way Rachael could think to describe it!
Meet Chad
After spending ten years working in the local church, Chad was excited to find a venture like Shivers Shaved Ice that continued to create community and serve local friends and family. Bred from a family of entrepreneurs, Chad's been lucky to have such awesome support and a wealth of knowledge to tap into. Equally concerned with health and well-being as Rachael, Chad was excited to cultivate a company focused on simple recipes that offered a gourmet experience! One of his personal passions is GOOD COFFEE! Chad's "shaved ice baby" is the Gourmet Cold Brew Shaved Ice, the "Brown Cow"! YUM! Chad's free time can easily be filled up by a board game with friends, or sitting down to indulge in a good book.