In this episode of the Harvest Growth Podcast, Jon LaClare speaks with Trent Hughes, founder of AthletiPack, who bootstrapped his brand to success by selling at live, in-person events, where he got invaluable customer insights that inspired product improvements, new developments, and innovative marketing ideas - insights you likely struggle to get from customers on Amazon or your store and insights on why they buy or why they don’t. Today, Trent joins us to share the inspiration behind AthletiPack, his strategic approach to prototyping, evergreen tactics for selling at live events, and tips for succeeding as a young entrepreneur. If you want to bootstrap your product company to success, tune in now.
In today’s episode of the Harvest Growth Podcast, we’ll cover:
Why in-person selling at live events is crucial to business growth in a digital world.
Pro tips on finding the best events to attend and how to smash your sales goals there.
How selling at in-person events enriches you with priceless market and customer information.
Benefits of a mentor and unique tips on finding one.
And so much more!
You can listen to the full interview on your desktop or wherever you listen to your podcasts.
Or, click to watch the full video interview here!
Frustrated with typical pant pockets that are too small and can’t keep your items while on a hike? Then visit www.AthletiPack.net to learn about AthletiPack’s comfortable and effective custom backpacks and bags that come with a unique modular strap system, allowing for different uses, in multiple versions.
To be a guest on our next podcast, contact us today!
Do you have a brand that you’d like to launch or grow? Do you want help from a partner that has successfully launched hundreds of brands that now total over $2 billion in revenues? Set up a free consultation with us today!
Prefer reading instead of listening? Read the full transcript here!
Jon LaClare [00:00:00]:
Live in person selling events can be a game changer for your business. Oxiclean used them in their very early days. In fact, that's how the company originally met Billy Mays. And then we were still using in person events for new product market research, even after we were a $250 million retail giant. Today's guest shares great advice on how to incorporate live selling into your business. Whether you are a startup or a large enterprise.
Announcer: Are you looking for new ways to make your sales grow? You've tried other podcasts, but they don't seem to know harvest the growth potential of your product or service as we share stories and strategies that'll make your competitors nervous. Now here's the host of the Harvest Growth podcast, Jon LaClare.
Jon LaClare [00:00:48]:
Today I'm talking with Trent Hughes. He's the founder of AthletiPack, and I'm going to show you. He's got one on he's wearing. He'll talk about it in a second. You'll see it. I love this product, and we're going to talk more about what it is. I'm a huge fan of backpacks in general, but especially ones that are unique and have true purpose behind them, that are really different in the marketplace. When we dive into what this product is, you're going to love it, and we're going to have a good conversation about the story of this relatively new brand, how it's been successful, what they've learned so far. I'm really excited for this conversation. So, first of all, Trent, welcome to the show.
Trent Hughes [00:01:21]:
Thanks. Glad to be here, John.
Jon LaClare [00:01:22]:
So let's talk about the AthletiPack. You're wearing one you can maybe show the audience, and I think you got some samples near you. Tell us about what the product is, how it's different from other packs.
Trent Hughes [00:01:33]:
Yeah, so we make custom backpacks and bags, and we're based in Suffolk, Virginia. And what makes us unique is that we have a modular strap system, so you can switch out the straps depending on what you're using the pack for. So, for example, I'm wearing the elastic webbing, which is a harness that wraps around your body and it keeps it extra secure so that if you're doing anything active, like running, hiking, biking, that sort of thing, it doesn't bounce around or move too much. But when you want to use the pack like a traditional crossbody, you can detach the elastic webbing using our buckles, and then you can attach the non elastic strap, which looks like this, so you can wear it like a traditional bag, like a cross body, a fanny pack, a shoulder bag. So it's just overall a fanny pack that you can wear in multiple ways. I'll continue just on the different types of packs we offer as well. So we have the athletic lite, which is our minimalist version. And then we also have our athletic tactical, which has a secret pocket on the back, which is intended for either concealed carry or if you just want a bigger pack, because it's about 10% bigger than our regular packs.
Trent Hughes [00:02:44]:
And for those of you who are just listening, just kind of like explaining how you can visualize the pack. It's basically a jansport backpack with a u shaped zipper, but it's just in a mini format, so it's just like a fanny pack sized Jansport backpack has a divider perfectly sized for your phone. And lastly, you can also use the elastic straps on the bottom to strap a water bottle or other bulky item to the pack. So that's just kind of like an overview of all our different packs we offer, and we have ten different fabric options and all kinds of fun add ons you can include to make your pack unique and yours.
Jon LaClare [00:03:22]:
And as I mentioned, I'm a huge fan of this product. I love it for a couple of reasons. For me, I like it for travel and for hiking specifically. So when I travel, we just did my daughter's senior trip this summer to New York City and Boston walking around. So I have a little, like, patagonia. Before I got this, I had a Patagonia fanny pack that I put in my front, you know, just for safety reasons and as I sit down on the subway or wherever it might be just my phone or wallet falling out of my pocket, I don't. I don't want to worry about it, right. But I never like wearing it.
Jon LaClare [00:03:51]:
I think it's. I love that this sits higher on my body, especially as I'm walking around, you know, in travel scenarios and especially while working out or hiking, really keeping it firm against me. Super easy to access and much bigger. Right. So my little fanny pack that I try to keep out way, but it doesn't hold that much other than, you know, a phone and maybe a wallet or whatever it might be. The other thing I love about this, as you mentioned, is the fact that it has that water bottle holder on the bottom is so cool. That is, you know, unless you've got a big pack with you. Thanks for showing.
Jon LaClare [00:04:25]:
Unless you got a big pack with you, you just can't have water. You're sitting there holding something in my hand. Well, I've got my fanny pack. It sort of does it all without having a big, sweaty backpack. The alternative, really, to do all of this is stick it on your back, and then, as you know, on a hot, muggy day, it can be terrible. You take it off, and you're just dripping in sweat. So it's much more comfortable. I think you might get into this as we talk about the origin story.
Jon LaClare [00:04:48]:
But for me, I love it for hiking as well. So I'll be brief on this side. But, you know, wearing a big pack is in Colorado, we do something called 14 ers. So 14,000 foot mountain piece, and it can be an all day, sometimes multi day. But for me, not that I'm fast, I just do the easy ones. But it could be a few hours, right? Almost a half day to a full day hike, and you've got this big, heavy pack on. And if I want to get just my water bottle or just a snack without stopping, I love that I can put this on the front combined with my big pack in the back that has my coat and everything else. So it combines really well as well.
Jon LaClare [00:05:18]:
So a little segue there. Tell us the origin story. So a great idea, great product. How did you originally come up with the idea?
Trent Hughes [00:05:26]:
Yeah, so, like most entrepreneurs, you just identify a problem and you just try to solve it. And so the problem that I had was with pants pockets in particular. So before athletic pack, I pretty much lived my life in my pockets. So every time I left the house, you know, I do the old check and make sure I have my phone, my wallet, keys. And then whenever I did something active, like running or hiking, I would carry the water bottle in my hand. So phone in one hand, water bottle in one hand, and then I would go running that way. And that worked up to a point. But I distinctly remember a moment when I was hiking up a mountain with my full size backpack, and I was scrambling up some rocks, and I tried to access my phone in my pocket, and it was just digging into my leg, and I couldn't reach in and grab my phone.
Trent Hughes [00:06:11]:
So it was just, it was kind of like that was kind of the moment where I decided I wanted to change something. And so, obviously, this is not a, you know, new problem. So I tried some chest rigs on the market to see if they were a good solution for this, but I found they weren't really designed to be worn with a backpack, and they bounced around a lot whenever I ran. Even though they did have a cross body, like an x shape harness system, it still just didn't keep it secure like I wanted it, and so I knew there had to be a better way. And so using my engineering background, I started thinking about possible solutions, and I decided to ultimately make a prototype. And with the help of some mentors, which I can get into later, I bought a used sewing machine off Facebook marketplace and just started making prototypes. And from there, I made the crudes, you know, minimal viable product MVP. And I just started making improvements from there.
Trent Hughes [00:07:06]:
And then, seeking a new challenge, I decided to start a company. And I thought athletic was a good, catchy name, and it kind of encompassed what we did pretty well. And I started from there, and then we had lots of ups and downs, obviously, but overall, it's been a great experience. And since then, we've made over 500 packs in our us based workshop. So that's kind of the origin story there.
Jon LaClare [00:07:29]:
That's awesome. And I think it's a great example of being able to get started and really bootstrap, not just from a money perspective, but from a speed. When you're developing your own, when you bring in your own used sewing machine, it's really genius. Cause if you try to. I've got some experience in the sewn product space trying to hire, especially here in the States, it can be tough, or overseas, it's slow, right? It's either expensive or slow, or there's issues along the way and making minor tweaks. If you can figure out how to make simple, minimum viable product, as you said, it can be rough, it can be ugly in the beginning, but figure out the functionality and then perfect it. Now you've got a beautiful pack that has all those sort of kinks worked out and things figured out. And I know one of the ways you sell it, I'd like to talk about the marketing of it, because I think the way you do it is really helpful, can be helpful to our audience.
Jon LaClare [00:08:18]:
So you do a lot in terms of in person events. Can you talk about that and how that works and has helped your business?
Trent Hughes [00:08:24]:
Yeah, sure. So obviously, the bag market is a very saturated market, so, and you can have a great product, but if no one knows about it, then you ultimately won't be successful. And so starting, you know, as a bootstrapped, as we said, a bootstrap company, we just started going out to different shows. We started with craft shows, gun shows, festivals, basically any in person event we could find. And obviously you have some winners and you have some losers, and you just try and find that market that really appeals to you. And what I really like about these in person markets is that you get instantaneous feedback. So if you are just selling online, for example, it can be tough to know exactly how people are using your product, what their initial first impressions are, and just kind of understand what their I, you know, what their perspective is when they first see the product. And so that's ultimately how we first got started, was at these in person events.
Trent Hughes [00:09:18]:
So gun shows, festival crash shows, as I said. And then from there, we've just started iterating. And that's honestly where athletic pack really started. Pick up speed is when I started to go to these events and hear people saying, oh, man, I wish I could carry a water bottle. And then that's how the water bottle holder came. Or, you know, I want to use this for concealed carry, but it doesn't have a secret pocket, so what can I do about that? Or, you know, the zipper isn't. Isn't quick access enough? So, because we have different variations of the tactical, but, yeah, so, like, it's just been a very great process because it's, you get that instantaneous feedback and you're not left wondering, scratching your head, exactly why people are buying where they're not buying. And you just hear, you know, first impressions.
Trent Hughes [00:10:02]:
Obviously, as an entrepreneur, when you're working on something for years at a time, even, it's hard to know what the market, you know, like, that first impression that you get from the, from the person is just so critical. And it's so awesome to hear that when you go to these in person events. So that's my favorite part about them.
Jon LaClare [00:10:19]:
Yeah, they're extremely valuable, I think, especially at the very early stage of a business. And again, I love the fact that you can take a learning at an event and go back and make a sewing change. Right. A design change on your own. That's the way you've built this. To be so flexible in these early days of your business is crucial. And I will say, when I was with Oxiclean many years ago, we did in person events. That's really how the company started.
Jon LaClare [00:10:44]:
That's how originally that company met Billy Mays. The original pitch man for the business is through home shows, just like you're doing. And it scaled, it got off the ground. But even when we started to hit 200, $250 million in annual revenue 20 odd years ago or so, we were still doing in person events just like what you're talking about. The difference was it was a minor blip from a revenue perspective for the company at that point, when retail and direct response had really taken over. But we learned so much. So I love that you're starting from day one at these in person events, getting those learnings. And then I would encourage your audience, whatever stage you're at, early or late, incorporate these in some way.
Jon LaClare [00:11:27]:
Trade shows can be good. They can be great ways to meet retailers, etcetera. But when you're truly selling directly to the end consumer like you are at these events, man, you learn a lot. It's a fantastic place to really learn how. You mentioned how some shows have been good, some have been bad, and you've been to a lot of them. Have you learned yet what helps you figure out, maybe as you look for new shows to go to, which ones are more likely to be successful now that you have some experience under your belt?
Trent Hughes [00:11:54]:
Yeah. So primarily how I find these events is I'm part of a couple groups. I'm part of, like a Facebook group and an Instagram vendor chat, local vendor chat. And how I determine a good show is typically by listening to other people's feedback, especially for products that are similar to ours. And I just, you know, I shoot them a message. I'm like, what'd you think of this show? Was it good? Was it not? And so that's one way, and another way is going to specifically paid events. So, for example, the gun shows, you have to pay, I think, like $10, $12 to get in. And, I mean, it sounds kind of cheesy, but, like, the people, when you pay, you have more of an incentive to buy because you're there.
Trent Hughes [00:12:36]:
You're. You're right there. You know, you paid to get in here. So people, there's less lookers per se, you know, even though I don't mind the lookers because, you know, they gave you feedback, as you said, but they have a greater incentive when they go to these shows and they have to pay to get in to make the purchase right now. And so. So, yeah, that's how I look at it. Just talk to people, get their feedback, and then sometimes, you know, you got to take a risk and you just got to go to a new show and see how it goes. And sometimes it doesn't go great.
Trent Hughes [00:13:04]:
Sometimes it does go great. But that's how, you know, you just gotta try. You gotta do it.
Jon LaClare [00:13:10]:
Yeah, that's good advice. And some will sell more than others as well. But as long as you've got traffic at a minimum, you'll get learnings, right? You'll get conversations with people face to face that you just can't get in any other way. You know, we do a lot on website sales, right? That's where most of our business lies with a lot of our clients. But, man, when you get these learnings in person, whatever your business is, whether it's selling from a Walmart store shelf, selling from your website or Amazon, or a combination of all the above is eventually, as you grow in a business and these in person events can be super helpful along the way. How about any learnings or advice you have in terms of maybe booth setup? Or do you need to be really fancy at these shows in general when you're selling direct to consumer? Or what do you recommend as a minimum starting point for look and feel and stuff around you?
Trent Hughes [00:13:59]:
Yeah, it's interesting. I have invested in a pretty extensive booth setup. When I have the ten by tens, I got a big poster printed. You know, I got like little Hank, you know, like signs that show you how the pack's being used. The different use cases, you can use them. But what's interesting is that, like at the gun shows, for example, it's only pay by a six foot table. So you buy one table and it's super minimalist. You know, I literally just have the packs on a table and people come in and I explain it.
Trent Hughes [00:14:29]:
And it doesn't necessarily have to be fancy. I mean, sometimes the fancy, you know, setups don't really get as much sales as just the basic setup. So I think at the minimum, you should really just focus on having all of your products there so people can try them on, they can feel them, they can touch them. Maybe have like a mirror setup. We've tried that before where we have a mirror so that people can try on the packs and look at themselves as they're wearing the pack to see if it's right for them and see how it looks with them to wear it. So that that could be a good tip for, for you. Just really get them to invested in experiencing the product and how they look with the product. And then.
Trent Hughes [00:15:07]:
Yeah, just like asking them what they would use the product for. You know, what are their interests? Like when people are looking and touching the product, I usually ask them what they like to do. And then from there, we just kind of narrow it down. Like, what would be the right pack for you? So maybe someone who likes fishing would like a waterproof pack that we have and wants these different attachment points to hook on their different tools that they use for fishing. So it just. That's how I like to get started is just have all of your products out, have people look at them, touch them, feel them, and then just understand what their pain points are and what they really, you know, what they would use the pack for or whatever the product is. And then from there, just envision them using the product to solve that problem.
Jon LaClare [00:15:57]:
It's great advice. I want to pull out a couple of nuggets from something you just said. So one is having them experience it. We often talk about benefits when we sell via video. In my business, it's really about getting the benefits across in a way that people understand the beauty of live or in person selling is they can experience those benefits. So for you, having the mere genius, that's fantastic. Anybody who's been to these in person shows, whatever they are, right. Home shows, gun shows, the boos that get a lot of attention are like the vitamix, you know, the mixers, blenders, snack nuts with samples.
Jon LaClare [00:16:31]:
Right. Because they can experience the benefits. So finding a way that's harder to do with a pack, you can try it on, et cetera. But the mirror is a genius way of really delivering that experience to people so they understand the benefits and whatever your product might be for listeners, think of ways, if you go to these in person events, to how do you convey that benefit so people truly have that personal experience. So. Love that example. The other one I would mention is attention. So it's what you were saying.
Jon LaClare [00:16:56]:
I just would add a word to it, I guess. Right. So, similarly, in video marketing, it's about getting the grabber, we often call it, but grabbing the attention of your viewer, whether it's on tv, Facebook, or whatever. Same thing goes for in person selling events. Sometimes at the right event, as you said, that could be a big booth behind you, graphics, etcetera. And sometimes it might be the mirror, it might be giveaways, it might be how we display the product on the table, but some way to capture their attention, to stop, basically. Stop. You know, on digital marketing, we call it stop the scroll in in person events.
Jon LaClare [00:17:30]:
I don't know what the right terminology is, right. But stopping the traffic as they walk by. I'm sure there's a industry term that they use that I've probably forgotten from many years ago, but, yeah, that's great advice. Well, is there anything, Trent, that we haven't talked about, you think that would be helpful for our audience?
Trent Hughes [00:17:44]:
Yeah, sure. We could get into some resources or I guess kind of like general tips. I guess I could go into how I found my mentor and how that was so helpful for me. So when I first got started, obviously, I had no idea how to operate a sewing machine. And so what I did is I just went to Reddit forum r myog and I just talked to people there and I connected with my mentor Matt. And so when I was flying to the west coast, I was actually by his workshop. So I literally just stopped by his workshop. I met him in person.
Trent Hughes [00:18:15]:
You know, he had all kinds of industrial sewing machines. Like, man's been doing custom backpack work for years. So just to pick his brain for, you know, a day or 3 hours, whatever we did, it was, it was just incredible. And that really jump started my, my sewing journey was just seeing it in person. I really think it's a cheat code, honestly. It's just find that mentor who's been through what, you know is at the level that you want to be at and just reach out and just use that as a North Star to, to get you to the next level. And I also wanted to mention just something that's helped me with growing, at least especially on our e commerce side of things, is there's a website called Gromit or thegromit.com. and I don't know if you've heard of it, John, but it's basically like, absolutely, yeah, it's an app.
Trent Hughes [00:19:06]:
It's actually genius how they did it. It's an app that you integrate into your Shopify store. And then they have like a very beautiful website, honestly, that has all kinds of innovative products and they've developed a community of millions of shoppers and they, and they advertise their product for you and they have product launches every week and they send emails to their audience and they have all kinds of other things. They do live shows. And so that's been a great way to help kickstart my e commerce journey as I don't really do any paid ads. I am all organic at the moment. And so building that organic traffic through Gromit has been a game changer. So if you are, if you do own a physical product, I highly recommend your listeners out there to apply for the Grommet and get your product on there to get the word out.
Jon LaClare [00:19:53]:
That's great advice. And we've had a few guests and clients over the years certainly, that have had a lot of success on the Grommet. They used to be very different five, six years ago and changed their business model. So it's different. If you are familiar with them from years ago and haven't been there recently, check them out. It's different. Like you said, they do have a lot of followers. It can be a great way to get a product off the ground especially, but really a good partner to grow with as well.
Jon LaClare [00:20:16]:
I do want to encourage our audience. Please check out athletipack.net, if you're driving it's in the show notes, as always. So check us out at harvestgrowthpodcast.com or any of the platforms or on YouTube. That link will be in all of these as well as you look up this interview athletipack.net to check out Trent's full line of products. And as always, I want to mention, did you know you can meet with a member of my team absolutely free for a 30 minutes? Strategy consultation over the years, we've launched and grown hundreds of products since 2007 and learned some of our strategies while growing oxiclean back in the Billy Mays days. We're here to help, so please go to harvestgrowth.com and set up a call if you'd like to discuss further.
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