Kim Vaccarella’s journey from hospitality to the creative force behind the Bogg Bag is a story of resilience and innovation. Kim shares how she transformed skepticism into success, navigating the unpredictable fashion industry with determination and creativity. Drawing inspiration from Crocs, she crafted a unique product that defied expectations, proving the power of vision and perseverance.
Takeaway Points
- Resilience in Action: Kim’s journey highlights how persistence can turn initial skepticism into groundbreaking success.
- Family-Driven Entrepreneurship: Learn the emotional and financial dynamics of running a family business while managing growth.
- Creative Problem-Solving: Discover how Kim turned a foam sheet prototype into a thriving brand, blending innovation with storytelling.
Our Guest, Kim Vaccarella is the founder of Bogg Bag, a handbag brand known for its Crocs-inspired design and functional appeal. Without formal retail experience, Kim ventured into fashion with intuition and a strong support system, overcoming challenges like patent investments and industry complexities. Her story is a testament to the power of creativity and determination in building a successful brand.
Host Emily Blumenthal is a handbag industry expert, author of Handbag Designer 101, and founder of The Handbag Awards. Known as the “Handbag Fairy Godmother,” Emily also teaches entrepreneurship at the Fashion Institute of Technology. She is dedicated to celebrating creativity, craftsmanship, and the art of building iconic handbag brands.
Find Handbag Designer 101 Merch, HBD101 Masterclass, one-on-one sessions, and opportunities to book Emily Blumenthal as a speaker at emilyblumenthal.com.
Buy Emily’s Books: “Handbag Designer 101” & “Savvy Suzanna’s Amazing Adventures in Handbags”
Youtube: / Handbagdesigner101-ihda | Instagram:/ Handbagdesigner
TikTok: / Handbagdesigner | Twitter: / Handbagdesigner
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
I was a really good waitress so I can always pick up
a second job.
So he said you're not going togo back to working two jobs,
Like we have kids to raise andall of these other things.
But he was supportive in thatregard.
So I just, you know, spentmoney that we would have either
had in the kids' college fund orwould have put in the college
fund, and I was confident in oneway or another that I would be
(00:21):
able to recoup that.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Hi and welcome to Handbag Designer 101, the
podcast, with your host, EmilyBlumenthal, handbag industry
expert and the handbag fairygodmother.
Each week, we uncover thestories behind the handbags we
love, from the iconic brands andtop designers to the creativity
, craftsmanship and culture thatdefine the handbag world.
Whether you're a designer,collector or simply passionate
(00:45):
about handbags, this is yourfront row seat to it all.
Welcome, Kim Vaccarella of BogBags to Handbag Designer 101,
the podcast.
Kim, I am over the moon to haveyou.
Thank you for joining us, ofcourse.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
Thank you so much, emily.
I'm so happy to be here.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
I feel like I scored a coup.
You've got quite the protectivelayer to get to you.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
Yeah, it's been a little bit crazy, but it's all
good.
I'm glad to be here.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
Yeah, I mean talk about unsung heroes.
You know, having worked withhandbag designers for a really,
really, really long time, it'sfascinating to see someone and I
wouldn't even call it abackdoor, because I had a
handbag once upon a time and ittook me a long time to come to
the conclusion that it wasreally a solution item.
(01:39):
It really wasn't a handbag, andhaving something so unique and
interesting, it's always achallenge for buyers, for
retailers, even for people tounderstand where it fits within
their landscape of accessoriesand fashion.
And I think you know yourproduct, the Bog Bag.
It really kind of took a lot ofpeople by surprise, even though
(02:01):
you were not surprised at all.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
Yeah, absolutely.
I mean, you know it was one ofthose bags where we used to get
comments.
What the hell is this Like?
I don't know what it is.
I remember the first store Iwent into in Ridgewood.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
It was called Pink, new Jersey.
Speaker 1 (02:16):
Yeah, in Ridgewood, new Jersey and it was called
Pink Bundle-O and I went inthere with this pink bag and it
looks very similar to what thebag is today, but it wasn't as
refined, let's say.
You know, it was my first runout and she looked at it and she
goes I don't know what this isor what the hell this is, but I
feel like I have to have it.
And that was kind of like thewhole beginning of Bog Bag is.
(02:41):
Everybody had the same reactionlike what am I going to do with
this?
Like this is I going to do withthis?
Like this is so big.
And then, you know, it startedpicking up.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
You know it's funny because you start getting the
same, getting used to the samefacial expression.
When you give it to people,they make the huh Okay, Okay,
yeah.
Speaker 1 (02:59):
Like, oh, thanks.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
Yes, I want to get into the backstory, but I want
to talk a little bit real quickabout the connection with Crocs
and how you were able to usethat for you or use that as a
workaround, or was that part ofyour narrative and pitch?
Because you know it's brandswith fans and the only way we
get fans is the story and thebackstory.
(03:21):
And how are you able to workwith that the story?
Speaker 1 (03:24):
and the backstory, and how are you able to work
with that?
Yeah, so originally I did notthink that I was going to
manufacture this bag, bring itto market.
I had zero experience in this.
You know, I had worked in barsfor a good part of my life until
I started a career that I fellinto, which was commercial real
estate lending, which I did for26 years before retiring to take
this on full time.
But I had no experience one inbags, handbags, retail,
(03:48):
wholesale effing EBITDA.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
Like seriously, it's quite a sucker punch in the
stomach where you're going tothrow up being like okay, so
what was that again?
No, no, no, say that one moretime.
Okay, let me get back to Google.
What is this?
What is that?
Speaker 1 (04:04):
How do I set a wholesale price and what is my
retail price and what are mymargins?
Like it's just not stuff that Ihad any you know connection to,
but I was an entrepreneur sincean early, early age and I was
always looking for differentways to make money right,
whether it was, you know,selling daisies and styrofoam
(04:24):
cups.
So there was always something Iyou know I used to say that I
was kind of like a Lucille Ballwith these harebrained schemes
Like what can I sell to makemoney?
Yeah, exactly, and that's Istill have that.
I mean, I'm still buyingwebsites and stuff.
Like I don't have enough to do.
But it's just, it's inherentlyin me.
But again, I didn't think Ithought I was going to develop
(04:46):
this idea.
I really did think it was agreat idea, but I knew I didn't
have the background to be ableto do anything with it.
So my idea was I was going tosell it and I was going to sell
this idea for a bajilliondollars.
And once I had, you know, thiswas all in drawings.
I listened to all the booksthat I had read, which are all a
(05:07):
bunch of bullshit half the time.
Speaker 2 (05:08):
So much.
There's so much bullshit.
You know what I feel like.
If I was in my 20s, I probablywould have bought everything
that was sold to me.
But you know, the older you get, the more you deal with
day-to-day life and existence.
And you hear this.
You're like okay, this waswritten the way.
Chat GPT was pre-chat chat GPT.
(05:29):
I don't need this.
Like you're not telling me thatI can use.
I get that.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
Right?
Well, it was.
You know all the the become amillionaire or become a
millionaire, mom right, and allof these books.
I mean now that I laugh atmyself for reading them back
then.
But it was, you thought.
If somebody was writing it rightthat it was going to be, it was
going to be useful information.
But a lot of them were come upwith an idea, patent it and sell
it and I was like, wow, thatsounds super easy, right?
(05:56):
So this is.
This was the initial intentwith Bog Bag was to go through
this route.
Once I started getting a lot ofno's, I went into the city and
where I'm from in Ridgewood, newJersey, there's a lot of people
that work in the city.
They work in fashion, they workin all various facets.
So I would go out and visitsome companies and I would get
(06:16):
very resounding no's Like thisis too utilitarian, it's too big
, you'll never have the need tobuy more than one.
So all of these things Ilistened to but didn't listen to
right.
But I just knew that it wasn'tgoing to be as easy as me
selling the idea.
So I went ahead and made asample and then, once the sample
came in, I'm like, oh, wow,maybe I can do this.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
Okay, pause.
So, much to unpack.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
Sorry, we haven't even gotten to the need.
I'm from Jersey, girl I talkvery fast, Listen.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
I mean, people are going to have to listen to this
in the minus between you and me,it's like.
So hold on.
Did you end up getting a patent?
Speaker 1 (06:55):
I did.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
Okay, girl woman, after my own heart, I could talk
about handbag patent, utilityor designer, both, both.
I should have looked this up.
I apologize.
No, no worries, I have twoutility and two design.
Because I hang out on the USPTOsite, I linger.
I actually have done a fewtalks for them, just because
when I created my handbag Ipatented it as well.
(07:19):
I have four handbag patents,which is a rarity.
There aren't a lot of us outthere but let alone recognizing
that the patent for what youhave is actually something
usable, sellable and marketable.
Because most people who getpatents and again I've done this
scene, this work with enoughdesigners it's usually something
tech-based, and tech-basedpatents are always, to my
(07:41):
opinion again, just my personaland professional opinion are a
waste of money because it movestoo quickly, it changes and you
really have to do a deeper diveof who your customer is and if
you are your own customer, thendoing that kind of psychographic
demographic.
All of that information is kindof at your fingertips.
Did you start hustling itbefore the patent or while it
(08:04):
was in motion?
While it was in motion.
Speaker 1 (08:07):
So once I knew I had the applications in that's when
I started hustling.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
it Was that something hard to justify internally with
the expense.
Now you have a nothing andyou're protecting nothing and
you're going to start hustlingnothing and then to say, okay,
I've just dropped 20 grand on anothing, but I have a feeling
Was that hard to swallow,especially being a mom and
having kids 100%.
(08:31):
But it's not like you weren'tgoing to do it.
Speaker 1 (08:32):
That's the funnier part supportive and you know, do
what you need to do type ofthing, because you know he would
always come back to me with youknow well, how are we going to
handle that?
And I'm like, we'll figure itout, we'll figure it out.
And my comment to him alwayswas I was a really good waitress
, so I can always pick up asecond job.
(08:53):
So he said you're not going togo back to working two jobs,
like we have kids to raise andall of these other things.
But he was supportive in thatregard.
So I just, you know, spentmoney that we would have either
had in the kids' college fund orwould have put in the college
fund and I was confident, in oneway or another, that I would be
able to recoup that.
So you know, thankfully itworked out.
Speaker 2 (09:16):
But isn't that funny that you're like, okay, this is
terrifying, but it'll be okay.
It'll be okay, it's weird.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
It's weird, and I've had that odd attitude my entire
life Me too.
Like always, my husband laughsat it because I constantly
that's all I used to say.
When we bought our first house,he was in the police academy
and he was making, I think,$25,000 a year and I was working
I was not killing it by anystretch and I was like we have
(09:44):
to go.
Look at this house.
He goes, you realize I make$25,000 a year.
Right, I'm like it's fine, it'sfine, it'll be fine, it's a
good deal.
We can't pass it up, and thankGod we didn't.
It ends up being a great deal.
We lived there for nine yearsand we ended up, you know, more
than doubling our money on it,but it's just.
You know, those are the typesof things where I'm like it'll
be fine.
(10:04):
Or when he told me you can't doanything to this house because
we have no money, and I satthere with a hammer while in the
toilet bowl and broke up allthe tiles around me and said
well, we have no choice.
Now we have to replace the tile.
Speaker 2 (10:15):
So everything works out in the end.
Listen, everything, all thegood ideas happen in the
bathroom anyway.
So you know, especially with ahammer, how did you?
Because this is always one ofthese things that people want to
know.
So and we're going to get backto the idea how did you find
someone to make sed for a sample?
Because that's like finding ababysitter that you don't want
(10:37):
to tell her information or haveanybody see her with your kids,
afraid someone's going to poachit.
People do not give up thatinformation, right?
Speaker 1 (10:45):
Exactly so, coincidentally, my neighbor
happened to be from China he'sthe man we bought our second
house from and I said do youknow anybody in China with a
factory?
And I said I feel really badasking that question.
But he laughed it off and hewas cool about it.
But he said you know, you wouldthink I would, but I don't.
(11:06):
And then I guess he went homethat night and then called me up
either that night or the nextday and he's like you know what?
I do know somebody.
He introduced me to this guythat was doing manufacturing
mostly for like craft stores,for like Michael's, joanne's,
that type of stores, and he'slike I don't know.
(11:26):
You know it looks like yourproduct's pretty big, but let's
have the conversation.
So I had a conversation withthis gentleman.
He referred me to another girland I would then work with her
for a couple of years.
Speaker 2 (11:34):
Did you have them sign an NDA?
Speaker 1 (11:37):
No, not at the time.
I didn't, you know.
I did know what an NDA wasbecause I was in commercial real
estate lending, but I didn'tknow on that side.
And then I, you know, in mymind, I thought it's China, like
it doesn't matter, like what amI going to do with an NDA?
Speaker 2 (11:51):
Exactly Now.
If you were talking to you backthen, would you have had them
sign an NDA?
Speaker 1 (11:58):
It doesn't mean anything, right?
I mean it's how are you goingto enforce it?
So no, I probably wouldn't have.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
It's one of those things that again so many brands
businesses.
The first thing they want to dois sign an NDA and I'm like
what are you protecting?
You know, sure, I'll sign it,but that just shows to me,
honestly, how green you are.
Like, what are you going to dowith this?
Okay, sure, so I totally getthat.
So I want to go back in the wayback.
(12:27):
You know, kim Tobia machine.
So you, you're originally fromNew Jersey, you're from
Ridgewood, you know, respectBergen County.
I'm here for it.
You went to college.
Speaker 1 (12:39):
I only went to two years of college locally while I
was working and received anassociate's degree in accounting
, just because it's what Ihappen to be doing at the time.
But no, I didn't go away tofour year.
I don't have a fancy degree,barely made it out of high
school.
So yeah, I'm here.
Speaker 2 (12:55):
But would you take that same attitude with your own
kids?
Speaker 1 (12:59):
Honestly, I wanted nothing more, which is why I had
the college account so early,which thankfully helped me fund
this in the beginning.
But my husband and neither oneof us went away to school and
had the four-year experience andwe wanted it so bad for our
kids.
My son went to school for oneyear, absolutely hated it.
(13:19):
My husband just retired as apolice officer.
Mazel tov husband just retiredas a police officer, mazel tov,
thank you.
And we always laugh that my son,my oldest son, who was 25,
wanted to marry his mother andbe his father.
And he now he's had agirlfriend for five years who's
worked with me since day one.
She's my first employee.
They were in the same friendgroup in high school and they
(13:44):
weren't dating at the time, butthey would come to date later on
.
So she's like my ride or die,yeah, and he's a cop.
So you know that's what hewanted to do.
He tried it, he went away,didn't like it.
And then my younger son, who's21,.
He had a very long bout of longCOVID.
He's going to school locally todeciding whether he wants to go
away for the next.
He's about two years in anddeciding if he wants to go and
(14:07):
experience something for thebalance of the two years.
But you know, I did have thosebig dreams of them going.
I wanted to go.
Both of my sons were athletesso I wanted to go and watch
games on the weekend and Iwanted to fly here and go there
and do all these fun things, butit's all good.
You know what.
They're both around.
You know they want to hang outwith us, which is like you know.
(14:27):
I have a big birth, not a bigbirthday coming up at a birthday
, and they just keep going upand up and up and they start
counting down.
Oh my God, it's awful.
But you know they want to hangout with us, so we go to the
beach together.
We have a house in Tom's Riverand we go there and the kids
will have their friends orthey'll just hang out with us or
their cousins.
So it's a lot of fun.
Speaker 2 (14:54):
So you know, it's so interesting how things work
themselves out, isn't it?
It's just wackadoo, how youknow the goals and dreams, but
really at the end, you know, Iheard once a long time ago that
you end up doing what yourparents did one way or another.
It might not be in the exactsame shape or form, but you end
up repeating what they doProfessionally.
Personally, I can't speak tothat, but you know, maybe you
had someone in your family thatwas an entrepreneur.
(15:16):
I really even hate using thatterm because it's just such a
loose term.
It's like marketing or PR orwhatever all those terms
actually mean, but it's likesomebody somewhere must have
shown you that it's okay to dothis.
You know, that it's okay totake these kinds of risks.
I mean, you know it depends.
Speaker 1 (15:34):
I've looked at it that way.
You know, my mother was anartist, but not an entrepreneur.
She was just extremely,extremely creative.
I have not a creative bone inmy body, so I am yeah, I am not
there at all, but a lot of itwas.
You know, my mom was divorcedwhen I was very young and she
(15:55):
struggled and even after sheremarried still struggled a
little bit with money, and Iknow that you know.
You know Ridgewood in the townand it's great and all that.
Speaker 2 (16:00):
But you know, it's not a poor town.
Speaker 1 (16:05):
No, it's not, but there was.
You know, she didn't have herown, if you will like she wasn't
like able to do a lot on herown, when financially anyway,
have you always dreamed aboutcreating a handbag?
Speaker 2 (16:16):
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Speaker 1 (17:20):
So I think that was ingrained in me very early on,
that I will not have to askanybody for money and I will
always have my own money and Iwill do what I want with my own
money, type of thing.
You know, up until I gotmarried and then even when I
married my husband, you know Iknow a lot of people now they do
everything separate or theyhave separate accounts or they
do things differently and youknow we, from day one, just
(17:44):
pulled everything and everythingthat we've been able to
accomplish has been for ourfamily Collective.
Yeah, and you know.
So I think that's part of it is.
You know, I wanted to be ableto do the things that I wanted
to do and to have the money tosupport that without having to
ask for it necessarily.
So that was part of what droveme.
Speaker 2 (18:06):
That's a big deal.
It really really is.
And you know, you said pickingup an extra shift, you said
commercial real estate.
All of the things that you'vereferenced are very much career,
not career, working on your ownkind of income-based jobs,
right, You're still the one incharge.
Like hit or miss.
Like you can work a bunch ofshifts and make a lot of money.
(18:28):
You can work no shifts and makeno money.
You could sell lots of homesand make a lot of money.
You can sell nothing and havenothing.
So you know, it's like a huntwhich you kill is very much part
of once.
That's who you are.
It's like okay, no matter what,everything will be okay Because
I know I always can make up forit someplace.
Right, it'll be fine.
(18:50):
Exactly.
I think that's really importantand I think you know ironically
, based on what you're sayingabout your kids how you had
these big hopes and dreams forthem to do something else.
But I think, seeing what thepair of you have gone through,
why wouldn't they want to dothat too?
You know?
Speaker 1 (19:06):
No, no, it's great and again it's great to have
them here and with us and to beable to see what we're building
here and my husband actuallyworks here now too.
Well, he's got the time so heretired on the 31st of December,
but he's been here for a while,you know, coming in and
learning the day to day.
So that's been great too.
(19:27):
So it's a you know as much aswe've grown so much, it's really
still a family affair.
Speaker 2 (19:32):
Would you be averse to?
Because I'm sure at this pointpeople are like, hey, I'll buy
you out.
It's wild.
Once you start making money,the phone calls you get based on
the phone calls that you triedto have, that no one would take
Of course, of course.
Speaker 1 (19:46):
I actually I took on a private partner, was that?
Speaker 2 (19:49):
hard.
Speaker 1 (19:51):
It was such a random chance meeting through a guy in
Teaneck, coincidentally, yeah.
So yeah it was-.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
Where were?
Speaker 1 (20:01):
you when in Teaneck Were you like, were you I wasn't
in.
No, no, no, he's from Teaneck.
Oh, okay, I was not in Teaneck,new Jersey.
Yeah, in New Jersey.
I got a phone call and it was amajor recording studio artist's
manager or on his managementteam and they had wanted to talk
(20:21):
to me because they werebuilding a VC with their artists
, because some of these artists,when they're young, they make a
ton of money.
They don't know how to invest itproperly.
So I thought it was really cooland I talked to them a lot
until we realized that the VCthat they had would not be
enough money to buy me or buy aPorsche.
Speaker 2 (20:41):
Were you considering it, were?
Speaker 1 (20:42):
you considering it.
I was Listen, I listened toeverything.
I had just come out of a year'sworth of due diligence with a
major publicly traded brand andI know they had bought another
brand that I was very familiarwith and I was speaking with
them.
I loved the people, I thoughtthe process was really good, but
at the end of the day, I didn'tthink, you know, I needed help.
(21:04):
I needed help getting to thatnext level.
I needed infrastructure orsomething desperate.
We were still doing things onpaper and pen up until October
of last year, so there was a lotof things that needed to happen
.
I needed the right people inplace.
I did not know what I was doingin that regard.
I had six people working in theoffice At that time.
We were doing $50 million ayear with six people.
(21:25):
So, you know, I just knew Ineeded some help if I was going
to continue to grow the business, and at that point I was all in
.
So what else am I going to doNot grow the business?
So when I going to do Not growthe business?
So when I spoke to this groupanyway, you know I said you
don't have enough money for apiece of the business and the
deal that I had been coming outof was a majority.
(21:46):
It was a lot of money and amajority share, but I just
didn't think Did you buy themout?
No, I never did the deal.
Oh for the majority share.
That never happened For themajority share.
That never happened For themajority share.
I never did it.
Speaker 2 (21:59):
I was watching them, was that?
Speaker 1 (22:00):
hard.
They were watching.
You know what?
The hardest thing about it,honestly and this is not
something I have discussedbefore, but the hardest thing
about it is I stay very righthere.
Throughout this whole processit's the only way I know how to
do it.
Throughout this whole process,it's the only way I know how to
do it.
But when we were going to getthis $105 million at that time
(22:23):
which was, you know, today it'sa lot of money, but at the time
it was insanity and I was soexcited and I remember my son
saying like what are you goingto buy?
And I'm like I don't needanything.
Like what the hell else am Igoing to buy?
I don't want any more junk,because I have much younger
brother and sister.
(22:43):
So I have nieces that are four,six, eight, and then I have a
nephew who's one, and I'm likeI'm taking my sister and my
brother and their husband andwife and their kids, and I
invited my parents too, and mynephews, and it was like
(23:04):
16-something people and I'mgoing to take you all to Disney
world.
It's like, what do you do whenyou?
You know you get a windfall.
We're going to Disney world,right?
So that was the plan and thenthe deal didn't go through.
Speaker 2 (23:16):
So I went into kind of a depression for a little
while because I was embarrassedand I was, you know, even though
that wild, like embarrassed andI was, you know, even now wild
like, yeah, in hindsight, like,and, I think, as someone who and
I don't want to say lucky,because what you've done is not
luck on any stretch like, yes,right place, right time, but it
(23:37):
really comes down to the righthustle, the right.
You know, things don't happenby luck, things happen by.
I'm doing this over and overand over and over, at a rapid
pace that nobody will see, andwhen something falls through
it's like, oh my God, I had thaton my face and it sounds so
awful.
But I equate that to, you know,like going public with a
(23:57):
boyfriend, girlfriend, goingpublic with a relationship,
going public with I got intothis school.
There's so many things but atthe end of the day, nobody cares
about anybody but themselvesand people knowing you and who
you are and how kind you are andgenerous and thoughtful.
If anything, they'd probably bethere to support you and uplift
you, as opposed to say whathappened to her.
(24:19):
Isn't that, you know?
But you are your own worstcritic.
I can't even imagine like Iwould have been in a black hole.
Speaker 1 (24:26):
It was rough.
I went through the motionsimmediately following it.
I went through the motions.
This was about a week where Iwould go to work.
I don't think I showered theentire time.
I would literally brush my hair, brush my teeth.
I would roll out in leggingsand a sweatshirt.
I would go to work, go home, gothrough the motions again
Towards leggings and asweatshirt.
Speaker 2 (24:46):
I would go to work, go home, go through the motions
again Towards the end of theweek.
Did anybody notice this?
Was anybody aware?
Speaker 1 (24:51):
My husband knew my kids may have noticed.
We really didn't discuss it andI just kind of swept it under
the rug like, okay, it didn't gothrough.
Speaker 2 (24:57):
Well, you have to, you're a mom, I mean, the mom is
in charge of the peace in thehome, and if you went crazy then
everybody else falls apart.
So you had to kind of swallowit and just keep it there.
Speaker 1 (25:09):
It was.
Yeah, it was just kind of likea quiet depression, if you will,
and I don't remember what dayit was, but there was a certain
day where I just said I need to.
I don't write, I barely read,to be honest with you but I just
started writing and I wrote thegood part of a book.
I'm probably I don't know howmany pages I'm in I'm towards
(25:30):
the end and it was just aboutthat whole, you know, from the
beginning.
And just I started reflectingon all the bit that I've gone
through in this.
You know my neighbor knockingme off not the neighbor from
China in a business park that Iwas in, that I was renting a
space in.
He completely knocked me offafter like refunding me and like
talking to me.
(25:50):
You know it's just there was somany things that had happened
and it was just kind of likethey all kind of came crashing
down and like what am I doingwrong?
And one of the chapters I saidEBITDA before, but one of the
chapters is effing EBITDAbecause as I was going through
this process, I didn't know whatthe hell EBITDA was and how
important it is when you'regoing to sell.
(26:10):
So I started writing about allthese things and it's called
Don't Get Bogged Down.
It's not out yet, but it's just.
You know about the wholeexperience, and where I left off
was not going through with thesteel, and then that was
probably in January, and Marchor April is when I heard from
this guy and we started thatconversation.
(26:31):
So it was like kind of like Ididn't really have time to
grieve the first one, but thenwe were like in it again.
So one I knew I didn't want todo majority.
I wasn't ready to give up yet,so this had to be a minority
share and I had to make surethat the infrastructure was
there.
Having said that, what I reallywanted from this prior deal
that we were looking at is right.
(26:52):
After that, all of them weregone.
So thank God.
I mean it was absolutely ablessing in disguise.
Again, it was a shitload ofmoney, but it was a blessing in
disguise because I could havepossibly failed the entire
business and everybody in it byhaving done this deal.
Speaker 2 (27:06):
So you know, everything happens for a reason.
Isn't that weird?
What do they say Like life'srejection is God's protection?
Not being a spiritual,religious or anything person,
but I totally subscribe to thatyeah.
Speaker 1 (27:18):
Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 2 (27:19):
The fall, the depression, the embarrassment,
the shame and having to act likedo-do-do it's no big deal and
you're still going back tomaking dinner, going to work,
going food shopping.
I often find that food shoppingis where depression hits the
most, because you're alone inthe aisle pushing the cart and
you're like it's like you'retotally alone then, and then
you're looking around and beinglike God, I'm still doing the
(27:40):
same thing and nothing's changed.
And I've done so much, I'veaccomplished so much.
I've accomplished so much.
I've got this business.
I have people relying on me.
People are buying my productbut like here I am.
Speaker 1 (27:53):
Nothing's changed.
Yeah, it's a tough thing and Ithink a lot of business owners
in general, but especially womenbusiness owners, it's really a
hard thing because you have totry and convince yourself or
anyway I did I had to convincemyself that, even though there
were some bad things thathappened or things that didn't
go exactly as planned, that Iwas still trying to do the right
thing.
By everybody that I dealt withand I'm like you know you start
(28:16):
realizing, like why do I have tokeep convincing myself of this?
Like you know who you are as aperson and what your values are
and you know how you want totreat people and that doesn't
change by a bad thing happening.
So it's.
You know there's a lot of thispush-pull that you go through.
You know it's tough.
Speaker 2 (28:37):
Can I ask you to change unofficial lanes.
Your aha moment to coming upwith this bag and realizing the
material, realizing the holes,realizing the strap, the drop,
all these terms you had toprobably learn.
You know what's a drop, Okay,oh it's the space.
(28:57):
The space from the strap towhere the opening is.
How was that process for you,like?
Did you sketch it on a napkin?
Did you do a mock-up?
Did you cut the holes yourself?
Like, how did you go throughall of that to get to?
This is what the sample shouldlook like.
Speaker 1 (29:15):
Yeah, so I went, it was one-dimensional, obviously
because I didn't know how I wasgoing to turn this into a 3D
right, but I actually bought afoam sheet from Michaels and
then I bought another foam sheetand constructed a strap out of
it and I drew in the holes witha pencil and then kind of came
up with dimensions that I put.
I still have it I don't knowwhere it is, but I still have it
(29:36):
somewhere where it's just thisone-dimensional foam sheet with
pencil markings on it, probablya couple of footprints on it,
and we've left it as is and justa strap on it.
And then it was a matter ofturning that into a box and that
was what was going to bring oursamples.
I would later get somebody todraw it up, because when I sent
it over to the factory Icertainly couldn't send a
picture of a yellow foam sheet.
Speaker 2 (29:58):
You could actually.
It might not be what you want,but you totally could.
I've seen less, I've seen last.
I think they would have gottenit.
Speaker 1 (30:05):
I think they would have gotten the idea.
Yeah, but that's how it wasdone.
Speaker 2 (30:10):
And do you remember the moment where you were saying
and usually when because yourbag is a solution item one way
or another, because it'screating a void that was missing
on the market as far as youwere concerned, now everybody
gets it what were you doing thatyou realized like, oh, I could
(30:33):
use something like this, becauseusually what follows is you go
on a shopping spree looking forit, and then you can't find it,
and then the idea germinates andthen you're like why don't I do
it?
How did all that come to be?
Speaker 1 (30:52):
Yeah, we were on the beach.
So my parents have a house inOrtley Beach and we were there
with the kids and we weresupposed to be going to Great
Adventure.
Speaker 2 (30:55):
How old were your kids at that time?
Speaker 1 (30:57):
Well, this is 2008,.
So nine and five, so they werestill little.
Speaker 2 (31:03):
Yeah, they were still little so you were still
schlepping crap to the beach.
Speaker 1 (31:06):
Oh, yeah, yeah, absolutely.
It's an all-day affair there.
You know, you go down, you setup, early in the morning you
claim your real estate.
Oh, God yep, yeah, you set up.
You have the chairs positionedjust such so that you can block
off this big you know plot ofland and you're going to sit
there all day but carryingthings back and forth.
I mean you had the cart, youhad the cooler, you had the
(31:27):
chairs.
So you know, I was alwaysbuying a cute bag, you know
something that was more of afashionable, like beach bag, but
they just didn't work.
I'm an obsessive coffee drinkerso I was spilling coffee on it
constantly or the kids weregetting their dirty hands on it,
the sand was getting into itand getting into all of the
seams and there was just no wayof washing them.
(31:49):
So you know, I had thisgraveyard of beach bags where I
would use them once.
Try to wash them, they would beall shriveled up and I would
just throw them in the bottom ofthe closet.
And I had been saying that Ineeded another beach bag and I
needed something a little bitbigger.
(32:10):
You know, looking at flip-flopsand shoes like Crocs everybody
was using that for shoes at thetime, so you would see them all
over the beach and then I wasplaying with one One of my kids
had one, and I'm just playingwith the material and I'm like
this is the perfect material fora beach bag Not the shoe, but
the material that they wereusing, right, because it kind of
, you know, had a little bit ofstretch to it and it got warm in
(32:31):
the sand, but it didn't get hot, and that's where the idea came
from.
It was kind of like that aha,and we went back that night,
after spending you know 12 hourson the beach, and started
looking on the internet to seelike hey, there's got to be a
bag like this out there.
And there just wasn't.
And that's what started thewhole rigmarole.
Speaker 2 (32:52):
I mean it's funny because I track handbag collabs
and Crocs did a collab I thinkit was with Balenciaga where
they did a bag, a tall tophandle bag no holes.
Speaker 1 (33:04):
With a shoe.
Speaker 2 (33:05):
Yep, yeah, yes, I saw it.
And did people mistake you forCrocs?
Did people say, oh, is this byCrocs, with Crocs?
Did you come across anythinglike that?
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Speaker 1 (34:50):
We've had a lot of questions.
It's the crock of bags.
They don't bother me, we're bogbag in their crocks and we're
both doing well, so it's totallyfine.
But yeah, I mean obviouslybecause of the material.
You know, before Crocs EVA wasreally not.
You know, some versions of itwere used in flip flops, but a
lot of times those are rubbertoo, but kind of Crocs was like
(35:13):
the big innovator in EVA.
Yeah.
And that's the material it'smade of.
That's the material it's anethyl vinyl acetate.
So Now you know that too.
Yes, exactly, very well.
Speaker 2 (35:21):
So now you know that too.
Speaker 1 (35:22):
Yes, exactly Very well, so that's the material.
And you know they were kind ofthe innovator.
So when you know, bog Bag cameout, it was almost.
You know, it wouldn't have beennatural to not look at the two
and say, hey, is this connectedin some way?
Speaker 2 (35:39):
And the name.
Speaker 1 (35:41):
Bog, mm-hmm, what's that story?
Oh, bog, what's that story?
Oh, so initially I just wantedto do something short and quick
and it's not a really good story, so I'm going to bore you for a
second.
But I was thinking about waterand the fact that the material
was waterproof and somehow gotonto frogs, lily pads, pogs, and
(36:01):
in an English accent I clearlydon't have.
I said bog, it's the new bag,and it just kind of stuck from
there.
Speaker 2 (36:08):
You know it's very random.
It's I mean again, beingsomeone who hangs out on the
USPTO site US Patent andTrademark Organization site.
It's something I tell mystudents to get very familiar
with, get comfortable with.
It's also an amazing place toresearch handbag patents and to
get inspired by bags that nolonger have their patents, that
you know they're dead, which issuch an awful way to talk about
(36:31):
something.
Speaker 1 (36:32):
But if you look it up it, says dead Like okay.
Oh goodness.
Speaker 2 (36:36):
Let's call it what it is, but did you actually do
research on the name?
Did you know to do research onthe name?
Speaker 1 (36:43):
I did at some point when we were going to trademark
the name.
So I didn't do any trademarkingearly on.
I was mostly focused on thepatents and then eventually we
would come to trademark and doall that fun stuff.
So you know, then you have tostart trademarking throughout
the world and do all thesedifferent things, it's so
expensive Jesus Christ, did youhave a lot of thought where the
(37:06):
name should go?
on the bag.
Yeah, so no, I kind of knewwhere I wanted to put the name
initially and it never changed.
It's been in that far rightcorner.
It's never changed.
It's on the opposing side aswell.
So, basically, what you seetoday is exactly how it was
dreamt up from day one, and then, obviously, we've expanded upon
(37:27):
it day one, and then obviously,we've expanded upon it In terms
of brand extension, lineextension.
Speaker 2 (37:39):
Was that something that, when your wild slash,
typical mind to me was like,okay, first we're going to do
the bag, then we're going to dothis, then we're going to do
that.
How did your process go forthat?
Because I'm sure it was there,I'm sure you knew like, okay,
well, once we do the bag, we'regoing to do this and then we'll
do that.
What was your process for that?
Speaker 1 (37:55):
You know, the greatest thing about not knowing
what I was doing is that Icould fly by the seat of my
pants with my ideas, right, so Icould just come up with
something and, depending on howmuch it was going to cost me,
then I could implement it.
So, you know, after we had thelarge one out, we thought about
(38:16):
having one that was a smallersize.
So we came out with the babybag, but it took a few years to
get to that point.
And then from there we wantedto go to the bitty bag because
we wanted it to bemulti-generational, and mommy
and me and we were seeing thatkids really wanted their
parents' bog bags.
They wanted to play in them,they wanted to be carried in
them, which we don't recommend.
Hashtag.
Thank God there's holes becauseso many people put their kids
in bags.
It's kind of ridiculous.
Speaker 2 (38:32):
Oh, it's terrifying.
Speaker 1 (38:33):
It is terrifying.
Speaker 2 (38:34):
Make sure those holes are too small.
Speaker 1 (38:36):
Yeah, exactly, oh, my God, so it was about that.
And then accessories right,coming out with accessories to
complement the bag, to turn itinto your full organizational
system.
Like do you need a divider todivide the cold stuff from the
package stuff?
There were just so manydifferent opportunities to do so
we're behind the eight ball onthat and we're really starting
(39:01):
to catch up now just becausethere was just so much going on
over the last couple of years.
Like right, I'm a little tired.
Speaker 2 (39:07):
But not allowed to be .
Speaker 1 (39:09):
I know, I know, but you know, accessories are king
and we need to be the providerfor all of the bog accessories.
So that's what we're reallyfocused on going into 2025.
We've already started theprocess, but now we really need
to amp it up.
Speaker 2 (39:24):
Okay, I have one more question Considering it is
theoretically a beach bag andhaving a very clear vision on
who your customer is, when itshould be used, how it should be
used, because you have to.
You realize, the more and moreyou do this, the more you have
to have a very clear focuspicture of all these key points,
(39:44):
as opposed to realizing, whichmost people takes them a minute
to say.
We can't be everything toeveryone all the time.
One could say that your bag isseasonal, right.
One could say it's for summeronly, it's for warmer climates
To get to that level of successand profitability.
You've been able to overcomethat and say, okay, how are we
(40:07):
able to convince people or wedon't need to to say you can use
this bag when you're not in aplace that requires the hold, so
things can go through?
Speaker 1 (40:17):
Right.
So one of the earliest thingswas this factory that I talked
about initially that I used.
We had received in my firstcontainer purchase which was
like a million dollars to me atthe time.
We had received bad product.
Functionality was great, colorwas beautiful.
They weren't cleaning thebarrels when they were changing
the colors and it would cause ablack fleck.
(40:39):
Having envisioned it always as ain Orly Beach was decimated by
Sandy like really, really bad.
Houses were completely missingoff the foundation.
I had these bags.
I had no recourse.
I had lost the money, but Iwanted to do something.
(41:01):
One for the victims of Sandy,and two I needed to move these
bags, so we ended up donatingall of them.
And two I needed to move thesebags, so we ended up donating
all of them.
And we lined up when peoplewere allowed to reenter their
homes and we filled them withsupplies, with water bottles and
bleach and gloves and masks andall these different things.
Their houses were filled withmold for a really long time
before they were able to get inthere and clean up and I gave up
(41:23):
on the idea.
I was like I'm done, I can't dothis, I don't have any more
money to spend, I don't knowwhat the hell I'm doing and this
is insanity.
And I was okay with that.
I was.
Everything was good in my world.
Speaker 2 (41:36):
I was good with the decision.
You were at peace.
I tried it.
I was all in.
Had you already moved forwardwith the?
Speaker 1 (41:41):
patents.
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
That was all done.
So everything was just sittingand I wasn't touching it.
So I didn't really know whatwas going to happen.
But I was not doing anything.
I went back to life as we knowit.
We were taking care of mymother-in-law and my
father-in-law, you know, thekids.
There was just so much going onand I was like okay, cool, come
a life.
Speaker 2 (42:00):
Went back the end?
Speaker 1 (42:00):
Yeah, exactly, and what happened was we had a
Facebook page letting peopleknow where we would be, and
about a year later I'm going tosay between 10 months and a year
later as people started gettingin and rebuilding a little bit,
or at least cleaning andgetting a plan, I started
getting messages from all thesepeople.
Now, these were not the typical, you know.
(42:22):
If it was in Ridgewood, wasn'tmy family and friends buying it
because they felt bad for me, ordid they really see the value
of this bag?
These are people that wereusing the bag, not for the beach
, that was gifted to them.
That was gifted to them not forthe beach because they weren't
going to the beach yet, but theywere using it to help organize
themselves, to keep things wherethey needed them, in their
(42:44):
homes, and they were findingreal value of it.
So that was the first indicationand that was way back in 2012,
that this is not just a beachbag.
They're finding use out of it.
Those comments that I receivedwere the comments that got me to
think about bringing Bob Bag tothe world, and that's what I
did.
And then, you know so, from2012, just looking for a new
(43:06):
factory, realizing flying toChina, realizing that my current
factory was not going to workwith us finding another one and
moving on, and then we reemergedin the market around 2015.
So there was a very big chunkof time there, but, yeah, that
was when we started realizing.
Speaker 2 (43:25):
So you went all that time without a new production.
So who went with you to china?
Speaker 1 (43:33):
my husband.
We got on a plane to china.
It was.
I don't even know how we did it, like I don't even remember,
like isn't that hilarious if youflash back like what, like,
okay, want to go to china.
Speaker 2 (43:43):
Sure, let me tell the police station I'm not going to
be in for two weeks.
Speaker 1 (43:48):
Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2 (43:49):
We'll be back.
We're just starting to shinenow.
That's basically what happened?
Speaker 1 (43:52):
Honestly, we went for four days, no, so it was like
this massive push to get there.
We went to the factory, we cameback.
I think we were gone three tofour days in total.
We literally flew there andflew back, because some things
you can't get done over email orZoom Things you can't get done
over email or Zoom.
Speaker 2 (44:08):
Yeah, so wait.
You were at this factory andrealized, whilst at said factory
, it's not going to work withthis factory.
And then you came home and said, now I need to find a new
factory.
Speaker 1 (44:17):
I had no plan B in China, I was just going there.
Yeah, we went there.
We saw the product.
He said you have to take allthis product.
I said I'm not taking thatproduct.
It's defective.
I can't do anything with thatproduct.
He says well, we're going tosell it.
I told him I was going to burndown his factory.
I probably should.
Yeah, respectfully, I will burndown your factory.
(44:40):
And we left and that wasbasically it, and we never had
dealings with them again.
We never recouped any of themoney that we had lost and you
know, it was a learningexperience.
And I moved on and found afriend that also does something
in bags, but she does a breastpump bag and she had been using
a factory and she recommendedthat I speak with them and I've
been using them since 2014, 15.
Speaker 2 (45:03):
And did that factory do anything with the busted
samples?
Speaker 1 (45:06):
No, no, I'm sure they sold them like they said they
would, and I haven't been backto burn down the factory yet.
Speaker 2 (45:12):
Okay, well, they need to look out Jesus Christ.
Oh my God, kim, I like thiscould go on all day.
I want to have like the Kim TVshow so I can get in really
deeper into Kimtopia and the Bobbag of phobia.
This was flipping amazing.
Like I want to know whathappened to the person who tried
knocking you off and did youburn down their factory also.
Speaker 1 (45:36):
Oh, that'll have to be a whole nother one.
I'm going to do a follow We'llhave to catch up again.
Speaker 2 (45:39):
We're going to do a part two, because this was too
goddamn good.
Oh, I would love to tell youabout him.
That's next.
We're totally doing a part twobecause I know our listeners
will go bananas over this.
Kim Vaccarella of Bogbag, howcan we find you, follow you, get
our hands on your amazingperfect product now.
Speaker 1 (46:04):
Yeah, so we're on Bogbagcom, which is
B-O-G-G-B-A-G, and then all ofour social is at Bogbag as well,
except for Instagram's has an S, because somebody stole my
BogBag one or they hacked myBogBag one many, many years ago.
So, yeah, it just has an S onthe end on Instagram, and then
to find me, I'm on LinkedIn,instagram, facebook.
Kim Vaccarella.
Speaker 2 (46:21):
Oh my God, kim, you've been an absolute peach.
We're totally going to have youback.
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Thank you so much, emily.
It was so great, totally goingto have you back.
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Thank you so much, emily, itwas so great.
Thanks for listening.
Don't forget to rate and review, and follow us on every single
platform at Handbag Designer.
Thanks so much.
See you next time.
I was a really good waitress so I can always pick up
a second job.
So he said you're not going togo back to working two jobs,
Like we have kids to raise andall of these other things.
But he was supportive in thatregard.
So I just, you know, spentmoney that we would have either
had in the kids' college fund orwould have put in the college
fund, and I was confident in oneway or another that I would be
(00:21):
able to recoup that.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Hi and welcome to Handbag Designer 101, the
podcast, with your host, EmilyBlumenthal, handbag industry
expert and the handbag fairygodmother.
Each week, we uncover thestories behind the handbags we
love, from the iconic brands andtop designers to the creativity
, craftsmanship and culture thatdefine the handbag world.
Whether you're a designer,collector or simply passionate
(00:45):
about handbags, this is yourfront row seat to it all.
Welcome, Kim Vaccarella of BogBags to Handbag Designer 101,
the podcast.
Kim, I am over the moon to haveyou.
Thank you for joining us, ofcourse.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
Thank you so much, emily.
I'm so happy to be here.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
I feel like I scored a coup.
You've got quite the protectivelayer to get to you.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
Yeah, it's been a little bit crazy, but it's all
good.
I'm glad to be here.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
Yeah, I mean talk about unsung heroes.
You know, having worked withhandbag designers for a really,
really, really long time, it'sfascinating to see someone and I
wouldn't even call it abackdoor, because I had a
handbag once upon a time and ittook me a long time to come to
the conclusion that it wasreally a solution item.
(01:39):
It really wasn't a handbag, andhaving something so unique and
interesting, it's always achallenge for buyers, for
retailers, even for people tounderstand where it fits within
their landscape of accessoriesand fashion.
And I think you know yourproduct, the Bog Bag.
It really kind of took a lot ofpeople by surprise, even though
(02:01):
you were not surprised at all.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
Yeah, absolutely.
I mean, you know it was one ofthose bags where we used to get
comments.
What the hell is this Like?
I don't know what it is.
I remember the first store Iwent into in Ridgewood.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
It was called Pink, new Jersey.
Speaker 1 (02:16):
Yeah, in Ridgewood, new Jersey and it was called
Pink Bundle-O and I went inthere with this pink bag and it
looks very similar to what thebag is today, but it wasn't as
refined, let's say.
You know, it was my first runout and she looked at it and she
goes I don't know what this isor what the hell this is, but I
feel like I have to have it.
And that was kind of like thewhole beginning of Bog Bag is.
(02:41):
Everybody had the same reactionlike what am I going to do with
this?
Like this is I going to do withthis?
Like this is so big.
And then, you know, it startedpicking up.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
You know it's funny because you start getting the
same, getting used to the samefacial expression.
When you give it to people,they make the huh Okay, Okay,
yeah.
Speaker 1 (02:59):
Like, oh, thanks.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
Yes, I want to get into the backstory, but I want
to talk a little bit real quickabout the connection with Crocs
and how you were able to usethat for you or use that as a
workaround, or was that part ofyour narrative and pitch?
Because you know it's brandswith fans and the only way we
get fans is the story and thebackstory.
(03:21):
And how are you able to workwith that the story?
Speaker 1 (03:24):
and the backstory, and how are you able to work
with that?
Yeah, so originally I did notthink that I was going to
manufacture this bag, bring itto market.
I had zero experience in this.
You know, I had worked in barsfor a good part of my life until
I started a career that I fellinto, which was commercial real
estate lending, which I did for26 years before retiring to take
this on full time.
But I had no experience one inbags, handbags, retail,
(03:48):
wholesale effing EBITDA.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
Like seriously, it's quite a sucker punch in the
stomach where you're going tothrow up being like okay, so
what was that again?
No, no, no, say that one moretime.
Okay, let me get back to Google.
What is this?
What is that?
Speaker 1 (04:04):
How do I set a wholesale price and what is my
retail price and what are mymargins?
Like it's just not stuff that Ihad any you know connection to,
but I was an entrepreneur sincean early, early age and I was
always looking for differentways to make money right,
whether it was, you know,selling daisies and styrofoam
(04:24):
cups.
So there was always something Iyou know I used to say that I
was kind of like a Lucille Ballwith these harebrained schemes
Like what can I sell to makemoney?
Yeah, exactly, and that's Istill have that.
I mean, I'm still buyingwebsites and stuff.
Like I don't have enough to do.
But it's just, it's inherentlyin me.
But again, I didn't think Ithought I was going to develop
(04:46):
this idea.
I really did think it was agreat idea, but I knew I didn't
have the background to be ableto do anything with it.
So my idea was I was going tosell it and I was going to sell
this idea for a bajilliondollars.
And once I had, you know, thiswas all in drawings.
I listened to all the booksthat I had read, which are all a
(05:07):
bunch of bullshit half the time.
Speaker 2 (05:08):
So much.
There's so much bullshit.
You know what I feel like.
If I was in my 20s, I probablywould have bought everything
that was sold to me.
But you know, the older you get, the more you deal with
day-to-day life and existence.
And you hear this.
You're like okay, this waswritten the way.
Chat GPT was pre-chat chat GPT.
(05:29):
I don't need this.
Like you're not telling me thatI can use.
I get that.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
Right?
Well, it was.
You know all the the become amillionaire or become a
millionaire, mom right, and allof these books.
I mean now that I laugh atmyself for reading them back
then.
But it was, you thought.
If somebody was writing it rightthat it was going to be, it was
going to be useful information.
But a lot of them were come upwith an idea, patent it and sell
it and I was like, wow, thatsounds super easy, right?
(05:56):
So this is.
This was the initial intentwith Bog Bag was to go through
this route.
Once I started getting a lot ofno's, I went into the city and
where I'm from in Ridgewood, newJersey, there's a lot of people
that work in the city.
They work in fashion, they workin all various facets.
So I would go out and visitsome companies and I would get
(06:16):
very resounding no's Like thisis too utilitarian, it's too big
, you'll never have the need tobuy more than one.
So all of these things Ilistened to but didn't listen to
right.
But I just knew that it wasn'tgoing to be as easy as me
selling the idea.
So I went ahead and made asample and then, once the sample
came in, I'm like, oh, wow,maybe I can do this.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
Okay, pause.
So, much to unpack.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
Sorry, we haven't even gotten to the need.
I'm from Jersey, girl I talkvery fast, Listen.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
I mean, people are going to have to listen to this
in the minus between you and me,it's like.
So hold on.
Did you end up getting a patent?
Speaker 1 (06:55):
I did.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
Okay, girl woman, after my own heart, I could talk
about handbag patent, utilityor designer, both, both.
I should have looked this up.
I apologize.
No, no worries, I have twoutility and two design.
Because I hang out on the USPTOsite, I linger.
I actually have done a fewtalks for them, just because
when I created my handbag Ipatented it as well.
(07:19):
I have four handbag patents,which is a rarity.
There aren't a lot of us outthere but let alone recognizing
that the patent for what youhave is actually something
usable, sellable and marketable.
Because most people who getpatents and again I've done this
scene, this work with enoughdesigners it's usually something
tech-based, and tech-basedpatents are always, to my
(07:41):
opinion again, just my personaland professional opinion are a
waste of money because it movestoo quickly, it changes and you
really have to do a deeper diveof who your customer is and if
you are your own customer, thendoing that kind of psychographic
demographic.
All of that information is kindof at your fingertips.
Did you start hustling itbefore the patent or while it
(08:04):
was in motion?
While it was in motion.
Speaker 1 (08:07):
So once I knew I had the applications in that's when
I started hustling.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
it Was that something hard to justify internally with
the expense.
Now you have a nothing andyou're protecting nothing and
you're going to start hustlingnothing and then to say, okay,
I've just dropped 20 grand on anothing, but I have a feeling
Was that hard to swallow,especially being a mom and
having kids 100%.
(08:31):
But it's not like you weren'tgoing to do it.
Speaker 1 (08:32):
That's the funnier part supportive and you know, do
what you need to do type ofthing, because you know he would
always come back to me with youknow well, how are we going to
handle that?
And I'm like, we'll figure itout, we'll figure it out.
And my comment to him alwayswas I was a really good waitress
, so I can always pick up asecond job.
(08:53):
So he said you're not going togo back to working two jobs,
like we have kids to raise andall of these other things.
But he was supportive in thatregard.
So I just, you know, spentmoney that we would have either
had in the kids' college fund orwould have put in the college
fund and I was confident, in oneway or another, that I would be
able to recoup that.
So you know, thankfully itworked out.
Speaker 2 (09:16):
But isn't that funny that you're like, okay, this is
terrifying, but it'll be okay.
It'll be okay, it's weird.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
It's weird, and I've had that odd attitude my entire
life Me too.
Like always, my husband laughsat it because I constantly
that's all I used to say.
When we bought our first house,he was in the police academy
and he was making, I think,$25,000 a year and I was working
I was not killing it by anystretch and I was like we have
(09:44):
to go.
Look at this house.
He goes, you realize I make$25,000 a year.
Right, I'm like it's fine, it'sfine, it'll be fine, it's a
good deal.
We can't pass it up, and thankGod we didn't.
It ends up being a great deal.
We lived there for nine yearsand we ended up, you know, more
than doubling our money on it,but it's just.
You know, those are the typesof things where I'm like it'll
be fine.
(10:04):
Or when he told me you can't doanything to this house because
we have no money, and I satthere with a hammer while in the
toilet bowl and broke up allthe tiles around me and said
well, we have no choice.
Now we have to replace the tile.
Speaker 2 (10:15):
So everything works out in the end.
Listen, everything, all thegood ideas happen in the
bathroom anyway.
So you know, especially with ahammer, how did you?
Because this is always one ofthese things that people want to
know.
So and we're going to get backto the idea how did you find
someone to make sed for a sample?
Because that's like finding ababysitter that you don't want
(10:37):
to tell her information or haveanybody see her with your kids,
afraid someone's going to poachit.
People do not give up thatinformation, right?
Speaker 1 (10:45):
Exactly so, coincidentally, my neighbor
happened to be from China he'sthe man we bought our second
house from and I said do youknow anybody in China with a
factory?
And I said I feel really badasking that question.
But he laughed it off and hewas cool about it.
But he said you know, you wouldthink I would, but I don't.
(11:06):
And then I guess he went homethat night and then called me up
either that night or the nextday and he's like you know what?
I do know somebody.
He introduced me to this guythat was doing manufacturing
mostly for like craft stores,for like Michael's, joanne's,
that type of stores, and he'slike I don't know.
(11:26):
You know it looks like yourproduct's pretty big, but let's
have the conversation.
So I had a conversation withthis gentleman.
He referred me to another girland I would then work with her
for a couple of years.
Speaker 2 (11:34):
Did you have them sign an NDA?
Speaker 1 (11:37):
No, not at the time.
I didn't, you know.
I did know what an NDA wasbecause I was in commercial real
estate lending, but I didn'tknow on that side.
And then I, you know, in mymind, I thought it's China, like
it doesn't matter, like what amI going to do with an NDA?
Speaker 2 (11:51):
Exactly Now.
If you were talking to you backthen, would you have had them
sign an NDA?
Speaker 1 (11:58):
It doesn't mean anything, right?
I mean it's how are you goingto enforce it?
So no, I probably wouldn't have.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
It's one of those things that again so many brands
businesses.
The first thing they want to dois sign an NDA and I'm like
what are you protecting?
You know, sure, I'll sign it,but that just shows to me,
honestly, how green you are.
Like, what are you going to dowith this?
Okay, sure, so I totally getthat.
So I want to go back in the wayback.
(12:27):
You know, kim Tobia machine.
So you, you're originally fromNew Jersey, you're from
Ridgewood, you know, respectBergen County.
I'm here for it.
You went to college.
Speaker 1 (12:39):
I only went to two years of college locally while I
was working and received anassociate's degree in accounting
, just because it's what Ihappen to be doing at the time.
But no, I didn't go away tofour year.
I don't have a fancy degree,barely made it out of high
school.
So yeah, I'm here.
Speaker 2 (12:55):
But would you take that same attitude with your own
kids?
Speaker 1 (12:59):
Honestly, I wanted nothing more, which is why I had
the college account so early,which thankfully helped me fund
this in the beginning.
But my husband and neither oneof us went away to school and
had the four-year experience andwe wanted it so bad for our
kids.
My son went to school for oneyear, absolutely hated it.
(13:19):
My husband just retired as apolice officer.
Mazel tov husband just retiredas a police officer, mazel tov,
thank you.
And we always laugh that my son,my oldest son, who was 25,
wanted to marry his mother andbe his father.
And he now he's had agirlfriend for five years who's
worked with me since day one.
She's my first employee.
They were in the same friendgroup in high school and they
(13:44):
weren't dating at the time, butthey would come to date later on
.
So she's like my ride or die,yeah, and he's a cop.
So you know that's what hewanted to do.
He tried it, he went away,didn't like it.
And then my younger son, who's21,.
He had a very long bout of longCOVID.
He's going to school locally todeciding whether he wants to go
away for the next.
He's about two years in anddeciding if he wants to go and
(14:07):
experience something for thebalance of the two years.
But you know, I did have thosebig dreams of them going.
I wanted to go.
Both of my sons were athletesso I wanted to go and watch
games on the weekend and Iwanted to fly here and go there
and do all these fun things, butit's all good.
You know what.
They're both around.
You know they want to hang outwith us, which is like you know.
(14:27):
I have a big birth, not a bigbirthday coming up at a birthday
, and they just keep going upand up and up and they start
counting down.
Oh my God, it's awful.
But you know they want to hangout with us, so we go to the
beach together.
We have a house in Tom's Riverand we go there and the kids
will have their friends orthey'll just hang out with us or
their cousins.
So it's a lot of fun.
Speaker 2 (14:54):
So you know, it's so interesting how things work
themselves out, isn't it?
It's just wackadoo, how youknow the goals and dreams, but
really at the end, you know, Iheard once a long time ago that
you end up doing what yourparents did one way or another.
It might not be in the exactsame shape or form, but you end
up repeating what they doProfessionally.
Personally, I can't speak tothat, but you know, maybe you
had someone in your family thatwas an entrepreneur.
(15:16):
I really even hate using thatterm because it's just such a
loose term.
It's like marketing or PR orwhatever all those terms
actually mean, but it's likesomebody somewhere must have
shown you that it's okay to dothis.
You know, that it's okay totake these kinds of risks.
I mean, you know it depends.
Speaker 1 (15:34):
I've looked at it that way.
You know, my mother was anartist, but not an entrepreneur.
She was just extremely,extremely creative.
I have not a creative bone inmy body, so I am yeah, I am not
there at all, but a lot of itwas.
You know, my mom was divorcedwhen I was very young and she
(15:55):
struggled and even after sheremarried still struggled a
little bit with money, and Iknow that you know.
You know Ridgewood in the townand it's great and all that.
Speaker 2 (16:00):
But you know, it's not a poor town.
Speaker 1 (16:05):
No, it's not, but there was.
You know, she didn't have herown, if you will like she wasn't
like able to do a lot on herown, when financially anyway,
have you always dreamed aboutcreating a handbag?
Speaker 2 (16:16):
Are you a handbag designer looking for sample
making or even production?
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(16:37):
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Speaker 1 (17:20):
So I think that was ingrained in me very early on,
that I will not have to askanybody for money and I will
always have my own money and Iwill do what I want with my own
money, type of thing.
You know, up until I gotmarried and then even when I
married my husband, you know Iknow a lot of people now they do
everything separate or theyhave separate accounts or they
do things differently and youknow we, from day one, just
(17:44):
pulled everything and everythingthat we've been able to
accomplish has been for ourfamily Collective.
Yeah, and you know.
So I think that's part of it is.
You know, I wanted to be ableto do the things that I wanted
to do and to have the money tosupport that without having to
ask for it necessarily.
So that was part of what droveme.
Speaker 2 (18:06):
That's a big deal.
It really really is.
And you know, you said pickingup an extra shift, you said
commercial real estate.
All of the things that you'vereferenced are very much career,
not career, working on your ownkind of income-based jobs,
right, You're still the one incharge.
Like hit or miss.
Like you can work a bunch ofshifts and make a lot of money.
(18:28):
You can work no shifts and makeno money.
You could sell lots of homesand make a lot of money.
You can sell nothing and havenothing.
So you know, it's like a huntwhich you kill is very much part
of once.
That's who you are.
It's like okay, no matter what,everything will be okay Because
I know I always can make up forit someplace.
Right, it'll be fine.
(18:50):
Exactly.
I think that's really importantand I think you know ironically
, based on what you're sayingabout your kids how you had
these big hopes and dreams forthem to do something else.
But I think, seeing what thepair of you have gone through,
why wouldn't they want to dothat too?
You know?
Speaker 1 (19:06):
No, no, it's great and again it's great to have
them here and with us and to beable to see what we're building
here and my husband actuallyworks here now too.
Well, he's got the time so heretired on the 31st of December,
but he's been here for a while,you know, coming in and
learning the day to day.
So that's been great too.
(19:27):
So it's a you know as much aswe've grown so much, it's really
still a family affair.
Speaker 2 (19:32):
Would you be averse to?
Because I'm sure at this pointpeople are like, hey, I'll buy
you out.
It's wild.
Once you start making money,the phone calls you get based on
the phone calls that you triedto have, that no one would take
Of course, of course.
Speaker 1 (19:46):
I actually I took on a private partner, was that?
Speaker 2 (19:49):
hard.
Speaker 1 (19:51):
It was such a random chance meeting through a guy in
Teaneck, coincidentally, yeah.
So yeah it was-.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
Where were?
Speaker 1 (20:01):
you when in Teaneck Were you like, were you I wasn't
in.
No, no, no, he's from Teaneck.
Oh, okay, I was not in Teaneck,new Jersey.
Yeah, in New Jersey.
I got a phone call and it was amajor recording studio artist's
manager or on his managementteam and they had wanted to talk
(20:21):
to me because they werebuilding a VC with their artists
, because some of these artists,when they're young, they make a
ton of money.
They don't know how to invest itproperly.
So I thought it was really cooland I talked to them a lot
until we realized that the VCthat they had would not be
enough money to buy me or buy aPorsche.
Speaker 2 (20:41):
Were you considering it, were?
Speaker 1 (20:42):
you considering it.
I was Listen, I listened toeverything.
I had just come out of a year'sworth of due diligence with a
major publicly traded brand andI know they had bought another
brand that I was very familiarwith and I was speaking with
them.
I loved the people, I thoughtthe process was really good, but
at the end of the day, I didn'tthink, you know, I needed help.
(21:04):
I needed help getting to thatnext level.
I needed infrastructure orsomething desperate.
We were still doing things onpaper and pen up until October
of last year, so there was a lotof things that needed to happen
.
I needed the right people inplace.
I did not know what I was doingin that regard.
I had six people working in theoffice At that time.
We were doing $50 million ayear with six people.
(21:25):
So, you know, I just knew Ineeded some help if I was going
to continue to grow the business, and at that point I was all in
.
So what else am I going to doNot grow the business?
So when I going to do Not growthe business?
So when I spoke to this groupanyway, you know I said you
don't have enough money for apiece of the business and the
deal that I had been coming outof was a majority.
(21:46):
It was a lot of money and amajority share, but I just
didn't think Did you buy themout?
No, I never did the deal.
Oh for the majority share.
That never happened For themajority share.
That never happened For themajority share.
I never did it.
Speaker 2 (21:59):
I was watching them, was that?
Speaker 1 (22:00):
hard.
They were watching.
You know what?
The hardest thing about it,honestly and this is not
something I have discussedbefore, but the hardest thing
about it is I stay very righthere.
Throughout this whole processit's the only way I know how to
do it.
Throughout this whole process,it's the only way I know how to
do it.
But when we were going to getthis $105 million at that time
(22:23):
which was, you know, today it'sa lot of money, but at the time
it was insanity and I was soexcited and I remember my son
saying like what are you goingto buy?
And I'm like I don't needanything.
Like what the hell else am Igoing to buy?
I don't want any more junk,because I have much younger
brother and sister.
(22:43):
So I have nieces that are four,six, eight, and then I have a
nephew who's one, and I'm likeI'm taking my sister and my
brother and their husband andwife and their kids, and I
invited my parents too, and mynephews, and it was like
(23:04):
16-something people and I'mgoing to take you all to Disney
world.
It's like, what do you do whenyou?
You know you get a windfall.
We're going to Disney world,right?
So that was the plan and thenthe deal didn't go through.
Speaker 2 (23:16):
So I went into kind of a depression for a little
while because I was embarrassedand I was, you know, even though
that wild, like embarrassed andI was, you know, even now wild
like, yeah, in hindsight, like,and, I think, as someone who and
I don't want to say lucky,because what you've done is not
luck on any stretch like, yes,right place, right time, but it
(23:37):
really comes down to the righthustle, the right.
You know, things don't happenby luck, things happen by.
I'm doing this over and overand over and over, at a rapid
pace that nobody will see, andwhen something falls through
it's like, oh my God, I had thaton my face and it sounds so
awful.
But I equate that to, you know,like going public with a
(23:57):
boyfriend, girlfriend, goingpublic with a relationship,
going public with I got intothis school.
There's so many things but atthe end of the day, nobody cares
about anybody but themselvesand people knowing you and who
you are and how kind you are andgenerous and thoughtful.
If anything, they'd probably bethere to support you and uplift
you, as opposed to say whathappened to her.
(24:19):
Isn't that, you know?
But you are your own worstcritic.
I can't even imagine like Iwould have been in a black hole.
Speaker 1 (24:26):
It was rough.
I went through the motionsimmediately following it.
I went through the motions.
This was about a week where Iwould go to work.
I don't think I showered theentire time.
I would literally brush my hair, brush my teeth.
I would roll out in leggingsand a sweatshirt.
I would go to work, go home, gothrough the motions again
Towards leggings and asweatshirt.
Speaker 2 (24:46):
I would go to work, go home, go through the motions
again Towards the end of theweek.
Did anybody notice this?
Was anybody aware?
Speaker 1 (24:51):
My husband knew my kids may have noticed.
We really didn't discuss it andI just kind of swept it under
the rug like, okay, it didn't gothrough.
Speaker 2 (24:57):
Well, you have to, you're a mom, I mean, the mom is
in charge of the peace in thehome, and if you went crazy then
everybody else falls apart.
So you had to kind of swallowit and just keep it there.
Speaker 1 (25:09):
It was.
Yeah, it was just kind of likea quiet depression, if you will,
and I don't remember what dayit was, but there was a certain
day where I just said I need to.
I don't write, I barely read,to be honest with you but I just
started writing and I wrote thegood part of a book.
I'm probably I don't know howmany pages I'm in I'm towards
(25:30):
the end and it was just aboutthat whole, you know, from the
beginning.
And just I started reflectingon all the bit that I've gone
through in this.
You know my neighbor knockingme off not the neighbor from
China in a business park that Iwas in, that I was renting a
space in.
He completely knocked me offafter like refunding me and like
talking to me.
(25:50):
You know it's just there was somany things that had happened
and it was just kind of likethey all kind of came crashing
down and like what am I doingwrong?
And one of the chapters I saidEBITDA before, but one of the
chapters is effing EBITDAbecause as I was going through
this process, I didn't know whatthe hell EBITDA was and how
important it is when you'regoing to sell.
(26:10):
So I started writing about allthese things and it's called
Don't Get Bogged Down.
It's not out yet, but it's just.
You know about the wholeexperience, and where I left off
was not going through with thesteel, and then that was
probably in January, and Marchor April is when I heard from
this guy and we started thatconversation.
(26:31):
So it was like kind of like Ididn't really have time to
grieve the first one, but thenwe were like in it again.
So one I knew I didn't want todo majority.
I wasn't ready to give up yet,so this had to be a minority
share and I had to make surethat the infrastructure was
there.
Having said that, what I reallywanted from this prior deal
that we were looking at is right.
(26:52):
After that, all of them weregone.
So thank God.
I mean it was absolutely ablessing in disguise.
Again, it was a shitload ofmoney, but it was a blessing in
disguise because I could havepossibly failed the entire
business and everybody in it byhaving done this deal.
Speaker 2 (27:06):
So you know, everything happens for a reason.
Isn't that weird?
What do they say Like life'srejection is God's protection?
Not being a spiritual,religious or anything person,
but I totally subscribe to thatyeah.
Speaker 1 (27:18):
Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 2 (27:19):
The fall, the depression, the embarrassment,
the shame and having to act likedo-do-do it's no big deal and
you're still going back tomaking dinner, going to work,
going food shopping.
I often find that food shoppingis where depression hits the
most, because you're alone inthe aisle pushing the cart and
you're like it's like you'retotally alone then, and then
you're looking around and beinglike God, I'm still doing the
(27:40):
same thing and nothing's changed.
And I've done so much, I'veaccomplished so much.
I've accomplished so much.
I've got this business.
I have people relying on me.
People are buying my productbut like here I am.
Speaker 1 (27:53):
Nothing's changed.
Yeah, it's a tough thing and Ithink a lot of business owners
in general, but especially womenbusiness owners, it's really a
hard thing because you have totry and convince yourself or
anyway I did I had to convincemyself that, even though there
were some bad things thathappened or things that didn't
go exactly as planned, that Iwas still trying to do the right
thing.
By everybody that I dealt withand I'm like you know you start
(28:16):
realizing, like why do I have tokeep convincing myself of this?
Like you know who you are as aperson and what your values are
and you know how you want totreat people and that doesn't
change by a bad thing happening.
So it's.
You know there's a lot of thispush-pull that you go through.
You know it's tough.
Speaker 2 (28:37):
Can I ask you to change unofficial lanes.
Your aha moment to coming upwith this bag and realizing the
material, realizing the holes,realizing the strap, the drop,
all these terms you had toprobably learn.
You know what's a drop, Okay,oh it's the space.
(28:57):
The space from the strap towhere the opening is.
How was that process for you,like?
Did you sketch it on a napkin?
Did you do a mock-up?
Did you cut the holes yourself?
Like, how did you go throughall of that to get to?
This is what the sample shouldlook like.
Speaker 1 (29:15):
Yeah, so I went, it was one-dimensional, obviously
because I didn't know how I wasgoing to turn this into a 3D
right, but I actually bought afoam sheet from Michaels and
then I bought another foam sheetand constructed a strap out of
it and I drew in the holes witha pencil and then kind of came
up with dimensions that I put.
I still have it I don't knowwhere it is, but I still have it
(29:36):
somewhere where it's just thisone-dimensional foam sheet with
pencil markings on it, probablya couple of footprints on it,
and we've left it as is and justa strap on it.
And then it was a matter ofturning that into a box and that
was what was going to bring oursamples.
I would later get somebody todraw it up, because when I sent
it over to the factory Icertainly couldn't send a
picture of a yellow foam sheet.
Speaker 2 (29:58):
You could actually.
It might not be what you want,but you totally could.
I've seen less, I've seen last.
I think they would have gottenit.
Speaker 1 (30:05):
I think they would have gotten the idea.
Yeah, but that's how it wasdone.
Speaker 2 (30:10):
And do you remember the moment where you were saying
and usually when because yourbag is a solution item one way
or another, because it'screating a void that was missing
on the market as far as youwere concerned, now everybody
gets it what were you doing thatyou realized like, oh, I could
(30:33):
use something like this, becauseusually what follows is you go
on a shopping spree looking forit, and then you can't find it,
and then the idea germinates andthen you're like why don't I do
it?
How did all that come to be?
Speaker 1 (30:52):
Yeah, we were on the beach.
So my parents have a house inOrtley Beach and we were there
with the kids and we weresupposed to be going to Great
Adventure.
Speaker 2 (30:55):
How old were your kids at that time?
Speaker 1 (30:57):
Well, this is 2008,.
So nine and five, so they werestill little.
Speaker 2 (31:03):
Yeah, they were still little so you were still
schlepping crap to the beach.
Speaker 1 (31:06):
Oh, yeah, yeah, absolutely.
It's an all-day affair there.
You know, you go down, you setup, early in the morning you
claim your real estate.
Oh, God yep, yeah, you set up.
You have the chairs positionedjust such so that you can block
off this big you know plot ofland and you're going to sit
there all day but carryingthings back and forth.
I mean you had the cart, youhad the cooler, you had the
(31:27):
chairs.
So you know, I was alwaysbuying a cute bag, you know
something that was more of afashionable, like beach bag, but
they just didn't work.
I'm an obsessive coffee drinkerso I was spilling coffee on it
constantly or the kids weregetting their dirty hands on it,
the sand was getting into itand getting into all of the
seams and there was just no wayof washing them.
(31:49):
So you know, I had thisgraveyard of beach bags where I
would use them once.
Try to wash them, they would beall shriveled up and I would
just throw them in the bottom ofthe closet.
And I had been saying that Ineeded another beach bag and I
needed something a little bitbigger.
(32:10):
You know, looking at flip-flopsand shoes like Crocs everybody
was using that for shoes at thetime, so you would see them all
over the beach and then I wasplaying with one One of my kids
had one, and I'm just playingwith the material and I'm like
this is the perfect material fora beach bag Not the shoe, but
the material that they wereusing, right, because it kind of
, you know, had a little bit ofstretch to it and it got warm in
(32:31):
the sand, but it didn't get hot, and that's where the idea came
from.
It was kind of like that aha,and we went back that night,
after spending you know 12 hourson the beach, and started
looking on the internet to seelike hey, there's got to be a
bag like this out there.
And there just wasn't.
And that's what started thewhole rigmarole.
Speaker 2 (32:52):
I mean it's funny because I track handbag collabs
and Crocs did a collab I thinkit was with Balenciaga where
they did a bag, a tall tophandle bag no holes.
Speaker 1 (33:04):
With a shoe.
Speaker 2 (33:05):
Yep, yeah, yes, I saw it.
And did people mistake you forCrocs?
Did people say, oh, is this byCrocs, with Crocs?
Did you come across anythinglike that?
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Speaker 1 (34:50):
We've had a lot of questions.
It's the crock of bags.
They don't bother me, we're bogbag in their crocks and we're
both doing well, so it's totallyfine.
But yeah, I mean obviouslybecause of the material.
You know, before Crocs EVA wasreally not.
You know, some versions of itwere used in flip flops, but a
lot of times those are rubbertoo, but kind of Crocs was like
(35:13):
the big innovator in EVA.
Yeah.
And that's the material it'smade of.
That's the material it's anethyl vinyl acetate.
So Now you know that too.
Yes, exactly, very well.
Speaker 2 (35:21):
So now you know that too.
Speaker 1 (35:22):
Yes, exactly Very well, so that's the material.
And you know they were kind ofthe innovator.
So when you know, bog Bag cameout, it was almost.
You know, it wouldn't have beennatural to not look at the two
and say, hey, is this connectedin some way?
Speaker 2 (35:39):
And the name.
Speaker 1 (35:41):
Bog, mm-hmm, what's that story?
Oh, bog, what's that story?
Oh, so initially I just wantedto do something short and quick
and it's not a really good story, so I'm going to bore you for a
second.
But I was thinking about waterand the fact that the material
was waterproof and somehow gotonto frogs, lily pads, pogs, and
(36:01):
in an English accent I clearlydon't have.
I said bog, it's the new bag,and it just kind of stuck from
there.
Speaker 2 (36:08):
You know it's very random.
It's I mean again, beingsomeone who hangs out on the
USPTO site US Patent andTrademark Organization site.
It's something I tell mystudents to get very familiar
with, get comfortable with.
It's also an amazing place toresearch handbag patents and to
get inspired by bags that nolonger have their patents, that
you know they're dead, which issuch an awful way to talk about
(36:31):
something.
Speaker 1 (36:32):
But if you look it up it, says dead Like okay.
Oh goodness.
Speaker 2 (36:36):
Let's call it what it is, but did you actually do
research on the name?
Did you know to do research onthe name?
Speaker 1 (36:43):
I did at some point when we were going to trademark
the name.
So I didn't do any trademarkingearly on.
I was mostly focused on thepatents and then eventually we
would come to trademark and doall that fun stuff.
So you know, then you have tostart trademarking throughout
the world and do all thesedifferent things, it's so
expensive Jesus Christ, did youhave a lot of thought where the
(37:06):
name should go?
on the bag.
Yeah, so no, I kind of knewwhere I wanted to put the name
initially and it never changed.
It's been in that far rightcorner.
It's never changed.
It's on the opposing side aswell.
So, basically, what you seetoday is exactly how it was
dreamt up from day one, and then, obviously, we've expanded upon
(37:27):
it day one, and then obviously,we've expanded upon it In terms
of brand extension, lineextension.
Speaker 2 (37:39):
Was that something that, when your wild slash,
typical mind to me was like,okay, first we're going to do
the bag, then we're going to dothis, then we're going to do
that.
How did your process go forthat?
Because I'm sure it was there,I'm sure you knew like, okay,
well, once we do the bag, we'regoing to do this and then we'll
do that.
What was your process for that?
Speaker 1 (37:55):
You know, the greatest thing about not knowing
what I was doing is that Icould fly by the seat of my
pants with my ideas, right, so Icould just come up with
something and, depending on howmuch it was going to cost me,
then I could implement it.
So, you know, after we had thelarge one out, we thought about
(38:16):
having one that was a smallersize.
So we came out with the babybag, but it took a few years to
get to that point.
And then from there we wantedto go to the bitty bag because
we wanted it to bemulti-generational, and mommy
and me and we were seeing thatkids really wanted their
parents' bog bags.
They wanted to play in them,they wanted to be carried in
them, which we don't recommend.
Hashtag.
Thank God there's holes becauseso many people put their kids
in bags.
It's kind of ridiculous.
Speaker 2 (38:32):
Oh, it's terrifying.
Speaker 1 (38:33):
It is terrifying.
Speaker 2 (38:34):
Make sure those holes are too small.
Speaker 1 (38:36):
Yeah, exactly, oh, my God, so it was about that.
And then accessories right,coming out with accessories to
complement the bag, to turn itinto your full organizational
system.
Like do you need a divider todivide the cold stuff from the
package stuff?
There were just so manydifferent opportunities to do so
we're behind the eight ball onthat and we're really starting
(39:01):
to catch up now just becausethere was just so much going on
over the last couple of years.
Like right, I'm a little tired.
Speaker 2 (39:07):
But not allowed to be .
Speaker 1 (39:09):
I know, I know, but you know, accessories are king
and we need to be the providerfor all of the bog accessories.
So that's what we're reallyfocused on going into 2025.
We've already started theprocess, but now we really need
to amp it up.
Speaker 2 (39:24):
Okay, I have one more question Considering it is
theoretically a beach bag andhaving a very clear vision on
who your customer is, when itshould be used, how it should be
used, because you have to.
You realize, the more and moreyou do this, the more you have
to have a very clear focuspicture of all these key points,
(39:44):
as opposed to realizing, whichmost people takes them a minute
to say.
We can't be everything toeveryone all the time.
One could say that your bag isseasonal, right.
One could say it's for summeronly, it's for warmer climates
To get to that level of successand profitability.
You've been able to overcomethat and say, okay, how are we
(40:07):
able to convince people or wedon't need to to say you can use
this bag when you're not in aplace that requires the hold, so
things can go through?
Speaker 1 (40:17):
Right.
So one of the earliest thingswas this factory that I talked
about initially that I used.
We had received in my firstcontainer purchase which was
like a million dollars to me atthe time.
We had received bad product.
Functionality was great, colorwas beautiful.
They weren't cleaning thebarrels when they were changing
the colors and it would cause ablack fleck.
(40:39):
Having envisioned it always as ain Orly Beach was decimated by
Sandy like really, really bad.
Houses were completely missingoff the foundation.
I had these bags.
I had no recourse.
I had lost the money, but Iwanted to do something.
(41:01):
One for the victims of Sandy,and two I needed to move these
bags, so we ended up donatingall of them.
And two I needed to move thesebags, so we ended up donating
all of them.
And we lined up when peoplewere allowed to reenter their
homes and we filled them withsupplies, with water bottles and
bleach and gloves and masks andall these different things.
Their houses were filled withmold for a really long time
before they were able to get inthere and clean up and I gave up
(41:23):
on the idea.
I was like I'm done, I can't dothis, I don't have any more
money to spend, I don't knowwhat the hell I'm doing and this
is insanity.
And I was okay with that.
I was.
Everything was good in my world.
Speaker 2 (41:36):
I was good with the decision.
You were at peace.
I tried it.
I was all in.
Had you already moved forwardwith the?
Speaker 1 (41:41):
patents.
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
That was all done.
So everything was just sittingand I wasn't touching it.
So I didn't really know whatwas going to happen.
But I was not doing anything.
I went back to life as we knowit.
We were taking care of mymother-in-law and my
father-in-law, you know, thekids.
There was just so much going onand I was like okay, cool, come
a life.
Speaker 2 (42:00):
Went back the end?
Speaker 1 (42:00):
Yeah, exactly, and what happened was we had a
Facebook page letting peopleknow where we would be, and
about a year later I'm going tosay between 10 months and a year
later as people started gettingin and rebuilding a little bit,
or at least cleaning andgetting a plan, I started
getting messages from all thesepeople.
Now, these were not the typical, you know.
(42:22):
If it was in Ridgewood, wasn'tmy family and friends buying it
because they felt bad for me, ordid they really see the value
of this bag?
These are people that wereusing the bag, not for the beach
, that was gifted to them.
That was gifted to them not forthe beach because they weren't
going to the beach yet, but theywere using it to help organize
themselves, to keep things wherethey needed them, in their
(42:44):
homes, and they were findingreal value of it.
So that was the first indicationand that was way back in 2012,
that this is not just a beachbag.
They're finding use out of it.
Those comments that I receivedwere the comments that got me to
think about bringing Bob Bag tothe world, and that's what I
did.
And then, you know so, from2012, just looking for a new
(43:06):
factory, realizing flying toChina, realizing that my current
factory was not going to workwith us finding another one and
moving on, and then we reemergedin the market around 2015.
So there was a very big chunkof time there, but, yeah, that
was when we started realizing.
Speaker 2 (43:25):
So you went all that time without a new production.
So who went with you to china?
Speaker 1 (43:33):
my husband.
We got on a plane to china.
It was.
I don't even know how we did it, like I don't even remember,
like isn't that hilarious if youflash back like what, like,
okay, want to go to china.
Speaker 2 (43:43):
Sure, let me tell the police station I'm not going to
be in for two weeks.
Speaker 1 (43:48):
Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2 (43:49):
We'll be back.
We're just starting to shinenow.
That's basically what happened?
Speaker 1 (43:52):
Honestly, we went for four days, no, so it was like
this massive push to get there.
We went to the factory, we cameback.
I think we were gone three tofour days in total.
We literally flew there andflew back, because some things
you can't get done over email orZoom Things you can't get done
over email or Zoom.
Speaker 2 (44:08):
Yeah, so wait.
You were at this factory andrealized, whilst at said factory
, it's not going to work withthis factory.
And then you came home and said, now I need to find a new
factory.
Speaker 1 (44:17):
I had no plan B in China, I was just going there.
Yeah, we went there.
We saw the product.
He said you have to take allthis product.
I said I'm not taking thatproduct.
It's defective.
I can't do anything with thatproduct.
He says well, we're going tosell it.
I told him I was going to burndown his factory.
I probably should.
Yeah, respectfully, I will burndown your factory.
(44:40):
And we left and that wasbasically it, and we never had
dealings with them again.
We never recouped any of themoney that we had lost and you
know, it was a learningexperience.
And I moved on and found afriend that also does something
in bags, but she does a breastpump bag and she had been using
a factory and she recommendedthat I speak with them and I've
been using them since 2014, 15.
Speaker 2 (45:03):
And did that factory do anything with the busted
samples?
Speaker 1 (45:06):
No, no, I'm sure they sold them like they said they
would, and I haven't been backto burn down the factory yet.
Speaker 2 (45:12):
Okay, well, they need to look out Jesus Christ.
Oh my God, kim, I like thiscould go on all day.
I want to have like the Kim TVshow so I can get in really
deeper into Kimtopia and the Bobbag of phobia.
This was flipping amazing.
Like I want to know whathappened to the person who tried
knocking you off and did youburn down their factory also.
Speaker 1 (45:36):
Oh, that'll have to be a whole nother one.
I'm going to do a follow We'llhave to catch up again.
Speaker 2 (45:39):
We're going to do a part two, because this was too
goddamn good.
Oh, I would love to tell youabout him.
That's next.
We're totally doing a part twobecause I know our listeners
will go bananas over this.
Kim Vaccarella of Bogbag, howcan we find you, follow you, get
our hands on your amazingperfect product now.
Speaker 1 (46:04):
Yeah, so we're on Bogbagcom, which is
B-O-G-G-B-A-G, and then all ofour social is at Bogbag as well,
except for Instagram's has an S, because somebody stole my
BogBag one or they hacked myBogBag one many, many years ago.
So, yeah, it just has an S onthe end on Instagram, and then
to find me, I'm on LinkedIn,instagram, facebook.
Kim Vaccarella.
Speaker 2 (46:21):
Oh my God, kim, you've been an absolute peach.
We're totally going to have youback.
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Thank you so much, emily.
It was so great, totally goingto have you back.
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Thank you so much, emily, itwas so great.
Thanks for listening.
Don't forget to rate and review, and follow us on every single
platform at Handbag Designer.
Thanks so much.
See you next time.
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