Episode #127: Toy Lessons Learned From My First Fashion Company Part 2
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The Toy Coach’s entrepreneurial journey didn’t start in toys, but instead it started in fashion. In 2012 Azhelle Wade, aka The Toy Coach created a fashion brand called Costumize Me. What started as a made to order costume company, evolved into a convertible event wear brand with the tag line 1 dress 100 ways to wear. The story of Azhelle building a brand in an industry she knew nothing about is one that she is excited to share with you on the podcast today, because it’s one that you can probably relate to as a new-ish toy creator. Listen to how Azhelle conquered that fish out of water feeling and dove into an industry she knew so little about.
This two part episode series details a toy designer’s entrepreneurial journey in the world of fashion. And because this is The Toy Coach podcast, every lesson learned and mistake made is packaged into a lesson that you can take and apply to your toy journey today. From naming your brand, filing your trademark, testing your concept, changing your idea, flipping from inventor to entrepreneur…this story covers the highs and lows of entrepreneurship in great detail with your favorite toy coach as your guide.
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[00:00:00] Azhelle Wade: You are listening to making it in the toy industry episode number 127.
[00:00:05] Hey, there toy people Azhelle Wade here and welcome back to another episode of the toy coach podcast, making it in the toy industry. This is a weekly podcast brought to you by thetoycoach.com. Welcome back to part two of the toy coach's entrepreneurial journey with Costumize Me. I'm sharing lessons learned and how they relate to your journey in the toy industry. Where we left off in the story last week I had purchased a surger and I was creating inventory myself and I decided it was time to have inventory produced by a factory. So next up, we're going to find out how and if I made that happen.
[00:00:58] In case you haven't listened to part one yet I am going to insist that you go to thetoycoach.com/126 and listen to part one first and then join me back here for part two. So I started looking for some factories to help me produce some small runs. Granted I didn't have a lot of proof that people were going to buy enough of my product to warrant really a factory creating it. But I knew that I just couldn't handle the stress anymore and I'd rather have inventory and then just focus on the selling and the marketing of it. So, first I looked up a use this tool called makers row. Found a factory in Pennsylvania and this factory was called like the Jakarta factory.
[00:01:39] And I went there while on a road trip with a friend we stopped over. I met the people that own the factory. I looked at what they were creating and I was like, yeah, they can totally make this stuff for me. They did a lot of small run orders. They could do all my different fabric materials. It was, it was perfect. And I said, okay, great this might be it. When I started to like really do the math, I was like, okay, so I'm either going to, in order to hit their minimums, I was either going to have to order more than I wanted to, of each dial or I was going to have to order less of the styles I wanted. Cause I had like different costume themes.
[00:02:09] And I would have to order more of one style and just like, you know, instead of having six styles, like I'd want it, I would have like three and have a lot more inventory of the three. And while that was an option, I just didn't know what was going to fly off the shelves. And unlike at the time, I didn't know that, you know, one option would be to just run a bunch of surveys and see which styles and fashion looks, people would be most interested in. Had I done that because that's something I teach my students to do now. Run surveys, find out what your customer wants, what are they looking for? Had I done that I would have been able to choose best themes for my market and then run with those.
[00:02:44] But I didn't know better at that time. That's why I teach what I teach in eighth graders academy. So you don't make the mistakes that I did. So after a while I said, you know what? I can't work with this factory, I just don't want to order that much product. What are my other options? So I started looking on Craigslist actually and. Indeed. And I started looking for sewing contractors. So in the toy industry, if you were going to do something like a product, you were going to hire someone local to create it for you. Depending on what the product is, you might be looking for a seamstress. If it's a plush or you might be looking for a local plastics manufacturing house.
[00:03:20] But usually to make it cost-effective, you can only use a local manufacturer if you're making a really simple part or a really small part. So I decided, I was like, okay, I just have to find somebody who will, so these items for me, I just need someone who is a sewing contractor. And that has experience with the surger and they won't cry. And, you know, as they're trying to build these outfits for me. What I did is I created a job posting. I went to Craigslist. I went to indeed and I said, you know, excellent sewing contractor needed. I explained what the project was. I even had I'd done some research and they figured out about how much they should get paid.
[00:04:00] Honestly did a couple of tests where I posted some posts with a little bit less pay and some with more, just to see the difference of the quality of vendor or the quality of contractor that I would get. And every person that contacted me I interviewed them. I said, okay, let's have a talk. I actually had some preset questions that I would message them and then they would answer those questions. So preset questions would be like, do you have your own studio? How many years have you been doing this? How is the price rate for you? Do you have another price rate? Are you able to do a sample project if I send it to you and pay you for it?
[00:04:31] Questions like that, where is your studio located? Since we were searching for people online. Once they answered those initial kind of like screening questions, I would say, great, can we have a phone call or a zoom call? And when we had the phone call or the zoom call then I would get to see them talk to them or see their space. And in those phone calls, I can't tell you how important it was that I took the time to vet all of these people individually. I got seamstresses that, you know, when I saw their space on zoom, I could see it was very cluttered. It didn't look that clean. And I was like, that's not the space that I want my product to come out of.
[00:05:08] I had one seamstress who told me that, you know, she smokes. But don't worry. It doesn't get into the smell of the clothes. I do it somewhere else entirely, but we're not going to take a chance on that. And you know, I had a varying degree of how much each person would charge where, it got to the point where I was like, you know what, I'm not going to be cheap. I'm going to go with somebody who I really can trust. So I met this woman named Yvonne. She ended up living, 30 minutes away from me. I got to go to her studio space. I got to meet her. We talked about, why she does the work she does? How she started? And I was like, okay, great.
[00:05:43] Like here's my product. I brought her what I call spec sheets, product specification packets. She was quite impressed with how prepared I was for most of her clients. And my product spec sheets had illustrations of the product, renderings of what color and material the product should have. It had details of how big the elastic bands on the waist should be the length of the elastic bands per size, all that information. I also provided her of course, with the patterns of the fabric. And she helped me turn out my first, super tiny run of like twenty-five pieces per style. My super tiny first run. And then I would go back to her for refills as I needed them. And I remember my premiere item, which was like my favorite item.
[00:06:26] And to this day, my sister gives me a really hard time to this day because I never sent her one of these pieces of clothing and I just don't make them any more at this moment. But it's my sequin leggings and they were selling, he sold so well. Regardless of the price point I put them at they sold so well, but they were also so hard to make the process of making these leggings and the way that I wanted them to be made just destroyed so many needles for Yvonne, that like, she had to charge me a lot to make these leggings, but I was able to charge a pretty penny for them, myself. But they were really hard to keep in stock.
[00:07:00] After a while, I started to realize something that I try to tell my students, social media selling your product, creating this brand has to be something that you love to do. It has to be something that you're not doing because you have to, you've got to figure a way to integrate it into your everyday life. So that's what I started to do. I took a piece of my Costumize Me clothing from every category that I loved about it. And integrated it into my own personal wardrobe so that I would be wearing Costumize Me pieces out, and people could ask me about it. I even designed cause I got really into yoga at one point while I was working on costumize me, I designed a yoga legging pant with these dual tone led colors that had a padding in the knees because I often like to do yoga without a mat.
[00:07:48] And I often like to do yoga outside and this padding in the knees would allow you to do like a lunges and Cobar poses things where, you know, your knees are hitting the ground without hurting your knees at all, actually feeling pretty comfortable. So I started integrating and creating product that would fit my everyday life. So outside of that, I was also going to trade shows to sell this product. But it got really overwhelming trying to sell this product week after week in between my full-time job in the toy industry and my salsa hobby on the side of all this. So one day I realized if I want to be successful, if I want to keep this going, something has give or combine. So I realized I could combine Costumize Me and salsa.
[00:08:32] Whenever I would go to a salsa event because I was a bachata dance performer. Whenever I would go to a salsa event, I would bring my Costumize Me clothes. At first, I would just bring them so I could wear them. And if somebody was interested, I would sell them. And that worked. I did sell some pieces because people said, oh my gosh, where'd you get those pants? And I'd say, oh, I actually make them and sell them. The brand is Customized Me. I have a couple of my room. Do you want to buy some? And that worked. But also I started, eventually I found out that these events would let me rent a table and I could be a vendor at this event. So it started to happen, I would rent out a table, be a vendor at these events, sell my clothes, get a discount for attending the event.
[00:09:09] I would also be performing at the event. And what would happen is sometimes performers would come to where some of my Costumize Me clothes on onstage because they forgot some glitzy outfit at home. And I just happened to have some really loud clothing that they could wear. So it started to be a really symbiotic relationship between my salsa dancing and my costume eyes, me company. And my own personal fashion taste and fashion needs. So I always encourage you. If you're starting a new venture in the toy industry or in any industry, make sure it's something that you love. You know, if you work in the field of cooking and you want to make a cooking toy.
[00:09:46] Make sure that you love what that toy stands for. And you can integrate it into some part of your life that already stands because you already have a full-time job. If you want to throw this you know, entrepreneurial business venture into the mix of it. You've got to be able to integrate it almost seamlessly into all of the things you already post about, care about, talk about, because that's how you're going to generate interest for your brand or your hobby. Eventually over time I got more knowledgeable about online marketing, but unfortunately by the time I got knowledgeable about online marketing, the whole world got knowledgeable about online marketing, so it got a lot harder.
[00:10:24] But I did learn a little bit better how to utilize Facebook ads and Instagram ads to start conversations with the people that were interested in my product. Because of that, I pulled away from any trade shows that weren't part of the salsa scene, because if I didn't already have to be at that event because I was performing there, I wasn't going to go there just to sell clothes. Over time, I kind of shifted my focus back to online. The struggle that I definitely noticed, something that might help you to here is the biggest struggle with online is the returns. So people see a picture of something. They expect it to fit them a certain way. Or they just expect it to feel or look a certain way.
[00:11:05] They get it. They don't like what they see. They don't like how they look, whatever. Or maybe they get it, they wear it for the event and they try to return it. So to safeguard against that, I had a few things. I had tags that I would strategically position on the clothing. So you couldn't just tuck them in and hide them. And if that tag was removed, you couldn't return it. But one of the softer ways I found to reduce return rates for physical products is to include a handwritten note, a handwritten that says, you know, thank you so much for buying this product here's what it means to me does wonders. If you can't do handwritten for every order, you can actually do preprinted.
[00:11:46] With Costumize Me you know, I had a lot of like brand missions and brand values that went along with that brand. One of the things I did is I donated money from my sales to Memorial Sloan Kettering cancer center, which is the cancer center that saved my life when I had cancer. So when someone would place an order, they would get an insert that said, thank you so much for buying this product, there are three amazing things you just did. One, you just helped a small entrepreneur, his dreams come true. You're supporting local business. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Two, you just supported cancer research, you know, portion of your sales goes to blah, blah, blah.
[00:12:23] And three, I don't remember what three was. I want to say it was like you were going to look amazing at your next event or something like that. But essentially I had a thank you card that was thanking the person for purchasing this in a very, very personal way. In the very beginning of using these thank you cards. I would add an additional note handwritten into the open space and sign it. But toward the end, when I got busy I would just send out the thank you cards on their own. When I started using those thank you cards, returns completely stopped for me. And instead of having a message come through my Etsy or my online store that said, I want to return those. It would more likely be, I want to exchange this. Like, do you have something else?
[00:13:03] They had this connection, like a personal connection with understanding that you are a person just like them because the internet can be such a faceless place. It's really important that you humanize yourself to the people that are buying product from you when you were selling product online. So that is definitely one of the biggest things that I learned. Aside from that another lesson that I'd love you to take away is just don't overinvest in too many different styles or types of products early on. Especially when you're a one man show. So for Costumize Me, like I said, we had six different styles, like a circus, a mermaid, 4th of July, we had like a yoga pant.
[00:13:44] We had Valentine's day. Honestly, we had more, now that I'm thinking about, we had goddess, we had unicorn, we had a plenty, too many. With each of those styles of clothing there were three sizes, small, medium, large. And eventually I introduced extra large. So there were four different sizes within those seven plus styles that we had. So you can just imagine the amount of inventory that I not only had to manage, but sell through in able to justify a reorder. Right. If I could do it all again, and I honestly, I will, I'll be doing it all again soon. But if I could do it all again, I would start with the item that sells the most. I would have started and focused on sequin leggings, I would have started and focused on padded yoga leggings.
[00:14:31] There were a couple other items like dresses. I have this like neon dress and this kind of Wakanda inspired dress that I would have focused on. The circus outfit in full, I would have focused on instead of having so many different styles and trying to please so many, because when you are an entrepreneur and your focus is everything, you are the salesperson, you are the marketer, you are the business person. You are the designer. You've got to limit what your going to put your energy into and the most important thing once you have the inventory is the marketing. And even if all you're doing every day is marketing, trying to market 10 products versus three products is a very different story.
[00:15:16] People need repetition. Have I had the time to be able to consistently post about circus costumes, circus costumes, circus costume. I would have gotten a lot more traction on that circus costume, even more than I already did when I never posted about it, or I very rarely posted about it. When I saw the reaction that people were having to my Wakanda inspired dress, I was in a situation where I loved that dress. People loved it. They would pay $125 for that dress with this like African print. However, I had too much inventory for me to justify investing in creating more of a different style.
[00:15:55] So my big advice to you is if you were thinking about starting an entrepreneurial venture first, make samples of whatever it is you want to create, whatever styles you think you want to create, and then survey your audience, find out what they think about all of the different styles. Get them to rate which styles are their favorite get like 50 to a hundred people to rate. In order, if you have six different products, or six different styles of the same product, get your ideal customer to rate from, you know, the one they like the most to the one, they like the least your product assortment. And use that to determine which one, two or three products you start with.
[00:16:34] Honestly, I wouldn't go more than that. Cause you can tell such a more impactful story when you are hyper-focused on what it is you were selling early on, and then you expand later. At this point you might be wondering, Azhelle, this all sounds so amazing. One, where can I buy Costumize Me? And two, why are you not talking about this more? Well, okay. So I got a VP level position in my toy career around, 2018. And when that happened, you know, my focus entirely shifted to being on the company I was working for. There really just wasn't a lot of free time unless I wanted to like never see my then boyfriend, now fiance again. There really wasn't a lot of time for me to devote to Costumize Me.
[00:17:21] I would work on it on weekends. And I would bring it to every event that I would go to like salsa events. But in order to get to the next stage, I was going to have to invest a lot more time into marketing that brand. And I just didn't have the time. And then the pandemic hit the pandemic hit. And then I started this company, the toy coach, and I left my full-time job, started this company. And I have to tell you, I initially did intend to build both companies simultaneously. As I was following the marketing plan that I set up to start this business and to refresh costume eyes, me, I quickly realized that I just did not have the creative bandwidth or the time to do both companies at once.
[00:18:07] I tried for about two weeks. And then I realized, I was like, oh no, I can't do this. I cannot possibly launch a new venture that would have to have to replace my income while simultaneously doing another venture, which is still kind of in this experimental phase, we're trying to figure out what it is, where it is, why it is right. So I had to put, Costumize Me on hold. I was so sad. I was devastated. My fiance will tell you I was really, really upset that I had to put it on hold, but I have to say having seen how the toy coach has grown. I think it was the best decision and I fully, fully, fully intend on going back to customize me. And I've decided there may be a little bit of a toy element if, and when I go back to that business.
[00:18:55] If you would like to check out Costumize Me, you can go to costumizeme.com. There is a link to the Etsy store and you can see some of the fashions there I believe. Honestly, I still think that you can order stuff. Sometimes I put it on vacation mode and I forget, but I think you can still order stuff. I don't have a lot of inventory it's kind of all sold out. But if you love what you see, I would still love your feedback. I'm still in customer survey gathering mode. So I would love to hear what you think of Costumize Me. Before I wrap up this whole journey with Costumize Me, I realized now I was about to miss out on a super important part of that journey and that was acquiring the trademark for Costumize Me.
[00:19:38] So let's talk about that. I told you I started this idea 2012. That's when I first had this idea for Costumize Me and. I actually did not get the trademark until I don't know the exact date, but it took several years for me to get the trademark. I want to tell you a little bit about why and how that happened that it took me so long to get a trademark and the luck that played in to my getting the trademark. So I'm a very DIY it person. I did some research and how it can I file my own trademark. I started reading everything online. I dedicated a day. It was like one Saturday. It was in my apartment. I'm like, I'm going to focus on this trademark.
[00:20:19] So I read through all of the information or at least I believed I read through it. There were so many steps there weren't a lot of guides and FAQ's out there for filing a trademark in the U S. I read through everything. I was trademarking the name and my logo design. I submitted this trademark and it takes about four months to get an initial response. Once you submit a trademark, that initial response is, you know, either yes, you're granted. They might ask for more information. My initial response was actually that I had submitted my information correctly. Now if you're trademarking a logo, you have to describe the logo in the trademark application and describe it in plain English.
[00:21:01] I had somehow mixed up colors. Cause my logo had pink and black and white. I had somehow mixed up the color of what was pink and what was black. The logo was like the word Costumize Me and kind of a scripty, almost comic Sansi type font. There were horns like devil horns and an angel halo on the word customized me. So the horns were pink and the halo was white. And somehow in writing it all out, I like flipped those two words. Like I said, that the horns were white and the halo was pink. Just because of that, it could not be approved. Not only could it not be proved. I had to resubmit my application and I had to pay to resubmit it.
[00:21:42] So I made some adjustments and made some changes. I paid to resubmit it, but it had more issues. All these issues I realized later on after now having trademarked many a thing I realized later on where, because I was trying to trademark such a specific mark. And in doing so I was just making a lot of mistakes in defining what that mark is compared to what it visually looked like in the JPEG I attach. Cause you have to attach a image of your logo if you're trying to trademark a specific logo. I kept replying to all of these like office action memos and things from the U S pto.gov.
[00:22:20] And I tried really hard to fix everything, but it kept getting rejected and I kept having to pay these fees. I was beyond frustrated. I was too busy for this. I just gave up. And I was like, you know what? Like, I don't even care. It's just came up. I was like, I'm not even going to do this. I wasn't in a position to hire a lawyer. Back when this happened, I wasn't at Toys R Us yet. I was still climbing the ladder in the industry. So I wasn't making a ton of money. I was like, I can't afford a lawyer. I'm not gonna do this. Fast forward. I got really lucky. It looks like some examiner had come across my application and took pity on me for how many, I guess, back and forth submissions I had and how it was hanging in limbo.
[00:23:03] And she literally just reached out to me and via email. And I didn't believe it when I got this email and she was just like, Hey, I see you have some issues with your application, call this number. So I call this number. And the woman on the other end is like, yeah, I see you have some issues with your application. And I'm like, yeah, I just don't, you know, I submitted this and I don't understand why they, you know, responded this way. I don't, I just kinda gave up. And the woman on the other line who worked for the U S pto.gov obviously felt so bad for me. And she was like, I'm going to fix it. She's like, I'm going to help you.
[00:23:35] And I at the time didn't understand like what a strange occurrence this was. Cause it was so this is just not something that happens. And I was like, okay, sure. Yeah, you can help me. No problem. And she like does a couple of clicks. I don't know, sends me an email. And then like all of a sudden my trademark is approved and it's filed and it's done. Since then the next time I filed a trademark, I did hire a lawyer not in the beginning. And I teach my students this, that if you are savvy enough, if you can pay attention to details, if you can read, you can file a trademark on your own. And if it gets rejected, sometimes it's actually more cost-effective to bring in a lawyer after you have a rejection.
[00:24:17] Because what happens when you get a rejection at the U S PTO, honestly, if you get any office action, a bunch of lawyers are going to start contacting you. I don't know why they make it this way. Your information is there. It's public. Everyone can see it. All these legal firms start contacting you and offering to help. I found a firm through all these people, contacting me who had a really good personal touch. And I felt like they weren't trying to take advantage of me. Some of these firms will tell you, like you have to pay $3,000 right now to file your trademark. And it's a lie. Some firms are honest and they're like, Hey, we want to help you file your trademark here's our rate list.
[00:24:50] And you know, we're an honest upstanding business. I found a a lawyer who is fantastic and she helped not for Costumize Me, but for the future brands that I started trademarking, she fixed any applications, issues that I had and she taught me. A lot about the trademark process. So she charged me $400 to fix an application and keep in mind having a lawyer file an application from you for the get-go can cost you like 1500. So she charged me $400 to fix the application. And taught me so much that when I went to file another trademark and I got a similar response that I had hired her to help me with, I understood what the response meant.
[00:25:32] And I was able to respond on my own and file it on my own. And I'm not saying that, you know, I filed trademarks perfectly, you know, I could very well be missing things. That a lawyer would have done differently, but when you don't have the funds and you want to get some sort of protection for your brand name, you know, it's always helpful to know that you can have little work arounds to save you money and to DIY it until you can afford to, you know, tell your toy brand blows up and you can afford to have a lawyer on staff to just make everything protected and all perfect as it should be.
[00:26:07] So I did want to share that story because in my program into a creators academy, I share my trademarking process, because I had such a nightmare trying to trademark Costumize Me my brand. And as I mentioned earlier, after filing the trademark, I learned. That you actually don't really want to file a trademark for a logo. You more so want to file one for the name, because the more specific your trademark and this is not legal advice, just stuff I've read and heard after making all these mistakes. But when you file a trademark and it's specific, it gives room for people to create products that is similar to your or maybe even has a similar name to your trademark, but say, oh, it's not confusing because it doesn't look like this mark that they use.
[00:26:58] So yeah, so that was something really interesting to learn. And I definitely just want to make sure I shared that whole trademarking process because it was so overwhelming. And it does feel really special once you finally get it processed and you get that amazing piece of paper with the gold seal and you officially have a trademark filed. If you are outside of the U S and you're looking to file a trademark in the U S you do need a lawyer here in the U S to file it for you. You can't file it on your own. They need an address here. Business here. So if you're thinking like, oh, I'll just go to the U S pto.gov from my country and file. Can't do that.
[00:27:36] Your homework for today's episode is to survey your audience with the idea that you have, whatever that toy, game, idea you have. I want you to go and start asking people questions to determine. The best price point for that product to figure out the best place to sell that product. Is it Etsy? Is it your own site? Is it a store? I want you to start hearing from the people that you would be creating this product for, because I think that's going to inspire you to actually go to that next step like I did with Costumize Me. Don't be afraid to make the first batch of your product for your friends or your family like I did.
[00:28:12] It gives you a lot of room to like make mistakes and feel safe because you know, these people want to protect you, but after you go to friends and family with your idea. You've got to go to strangers. I can't tell you how excited I was the first time I got a sale by somebody, I didn't know. I definitely stocked that woman online. I was like, who is this? Where she gonna wear it to cheat, post a photo? So I, you know, that is definitely a step you've got to go to next. And I hope you enjoyed this episode today, kind of a deep dive into my entrepreneurial journey with Costumize Me.
[00:28:48] And there you have it. That concludes our second part of this episode series. If you want to grab the links from the things I mentioned in today's episode, head over to thetoycoach.com/127. As always thank you so much for spending this time with me today. I know your time is valuable and that there are a ton of podcasts out there. So it means the world to me that you tune into this one. Until next week. I'll see you later toy people.
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