One Lady's Route With Pet Toys

While I do more than cat toys, I do like to search around online a bit for info on how others are making the same decisions in selling and crafting the same lines that I focus on.  Ok, that was a rather convoluted way of saying "I'm looking for other people's success stories". 

 

Found one today, when I was clicking on links about cat toy production.  A young lady had put up a project on Indigogo in 2013 asking for $25,000 to launch her cat toy business. She was already on Etsy (I recognized her stuff) and was trying to springboard further with production runs, scanner tags, etc.  I listened to her video which ran around 8 minutes - her name is Randi Warhol - and she mentioned that the Fashion Institute of Technology had classes that she did, they have a pet product design course. there. 

 

They've got it listed online, it's close to $300 and runs for one month. It can be done online as well as in person there in NY. 

http://www.fitnyc.edu/3046.asp

They also run a dog clothing class for just over $200 for one week.

 

Well, she didn't get the funding but she's still up on Etsy.  Her store is called Polydactyl and she has found a REALLY nice fabric printer that does up her photo images very nicely.  I don't think she's using Spoonflower.com, which is the more widely known 'do it yourself' design printing place for fabrics. 

 

When I clicked on her 'about' for the store the pictures that sequenced did show a full sized smoked/cooked duck, which followed her Chinese theme but she's not offering that one in her store so it may not have been a big seller.  The sugar packets and soy sauce packets are the cutest ones in the line and they probably are her best sellers.

 

It's nice to see how someone took their idea and ran with it. Even if they couldn't break past the plateau we all hit with our range of items.  I'd never have thought about going to a fashion institute to update my skills when it comes to a pet toy (fashion, to me, means clothing).  And even though she didn't get funded on Indigogo, it's worth reading/listening to her story to see what she's tried and what worked or didn't work at that point in time. 

 

I wonder if she'd expand past the Chinese food theme at some future date?  A line of photo-realistic birds would be nice for instance.   

A Door Closes - Another One Opens

Well, the Milwaukee cat store PurrTosa closed permanently in mid-January. She sold all but some of my animal paper dolls. I offered to buy them back from her but she said to just go ahead and take them. I was there to pick up anything not yet sold so she didn't have to be in the red on me.  I can turn around and sell my items elsewhere with no problem.

 

The store will be missed. It was there for 2 years. Her lease came due and she looked at the economy and the sales over the past year and made a decision.

 

BUT while I was there she let me know that one of the vets from the Cat Doctor over on the east side was looking for local stuff and she'd given the vet my card.  I called and made an appointment to bring in a sampling of my things and was told that anything 'cat related' would be looked at.

 

The Cat Doctor is in an old warehouse building in the 'arts' section of the east side, south of the freeway. All those old buildings have been converted over to retail stores and the parking potential down there is very slim, however I did manage to find a spot in spite of the snowstorm that came through 2 days earlier.  They had the roads reasonably clean but I couldn't climb over the waist high snow bank to get to the meter so I had to walk down the road and find a way 'in' to the sidewalk.

 

My stuff was all contained in a cat carrier, I got there and liked their setup, huge windows in front and bright colors. They showed me to one of the examining rooms.  One of the vets came in and liked what she saw, took a few of the carrier pads and four of the catnip toys out of the room to check with one of the other vets, came back and said they'd take half a dozen of the carrier pads and 1 1/2 dozen toys.  Pretty much what I had with me, so to save a trip I said the 'samples' were for sale too and I packed them up into a plastic bag and added my business card and she got me cash from the register and said to give a call in a month to restock.  And that they liked holiday themed items too.

 

Cool!  We'll see how fast they can sell these.