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.