Mom & Son Create ‘Comfy Cup’ Support for Young Athletes

This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.

[Music]

Hello, welcome back to Side Hustle School. I'm your host, Chris Guillebeau. Now, wasn't that a great story yesterday? Be sure you go back to it and listen, if you haven't already. It was about a woman who invents an IKEA delivery service, something that definitely meets a big need.

And when it comes to meeting needs, I think you'll like today's story too. It's actually about a Kansas City mom and son who together invent an unconventional but essential product for young male athletes. And the concept and much of the work for this product came from an eight-year-old. Well, he's now 11, but you'll hear more about that in the story. Now, just to be clear, this is not a pretend, "Hey kids, let's learn how to start a business project." This is a profitable project, just like everything you hear on the show, it's actually bringing in several thousand dollars a month.

And it reminds me that I would love to have more stories featuring kids and teenagers who start profitable side hustles. Now, if you have a story, or if you know someone, a young side hustler, we'd love for you to tell us about them. And on the website, sidehustleschool.com, there's a tab that says About. On that page, if you scroll to the bottom, there's a link that says Submit Your Side Hustle Story. And that's our first intake form where we get some information and we'll follow up with a person or with you with some more questions.

Anyway, great story today. It's coming up right after this. [Music]

Brandy Russell knows how to help kids with their day-to-day challenges. She's a pediatric occupational therapist and a mother of two. So it wasn't a surprise that last summer, Brandy decided she believed so much in her 11-year-old son, Kyler, that she would become his business partner.

Based on a concept he dreamed up a couple of years ago. The idea was a protective, yet comfortable, athletic cup for young male athletes, aptly named the Comfy Cup. But let's back up. Three years ago, Kyler was an eight-year-old baseball player in Lenexa, Kansas, a suburb of Kansas City. Kyler loved baseball but didn't love the bulky equipment that boys are required to wear when playing sports.

Brandy bought him every different athletic cup available on the market, from the shelves of their local sporting goods store to the depths of Amazon.com, but they were all, well, a pain in the crotch. After weeks of protest, Brandy finally told Kyler, if you don't like something, quit complaining about it and come up with a solution. Thus was born the Comfy Cup. Kyler came to his mom the very next day with the idea to invent an athletic cup that's soft, lightweight, and moves with your body. The mother-son duo crafted a one-of-a-kind, hand-sewn cup right in their living room using foam, fabric, and Brandy's trusty sewing machine.

The product testing was held right there in that living room, and Brandy assured us that both Kyler and Kyler's dad were excellent sports about the whole thing, and no Russells were harmed in the making of this product. This self-described, battle-tested, kid-approved arts and crafts project has come a long way since then. The Comfy Cup is now available from online retailers, including Amazon.com, as well as their own e-commerce website that launched this past April. One of those retailers, a Massachusetts-based site called The Grummet, specializes in products with a purpose invented by people with stories. The Comfy Cup fits this bill.

It's purpose-driven and created by unique people with a unique story. This wasn't just a learn-to-start-a-business experiment, this is a profitable side hustle. Sales are now consistently over $5,000 a month, and here's how that breaks down. The Comfy Cup is still a family project, so overhead continues to be quite low. They work out of their home office and they use their basement as a warehouse, having moved operations down from the living room.

They pay $2.79 per product, which is now manufactured in Hong Kong, plus 60 cents per product for shipping. And the Comfy Cup retails for $12.99. After other costs like seller fees and shipping charges, it comes out to a profit of just under $7 per product. And the entire Russell family has a job in the business. In addition to Kyler, his eight-year-old sister, Ellison, works to fill orders before school, and also in the evenings when mom and dad get home from work.

Throughout the day, Brandy runs the brand's social media campaigns. This work ethic and entrepreneurial spirit seems to come naturally to her. She's also written two children's books as a totally different side hustle. And Brandy says that the best part of this project is seeing her son's idea become a reality. She remembers when they produced their first 1,000 cups, and she thought to herself, "How in the world are we gonna sell all of these?" But they were sold in just a few months.

Now, Brandy's the first to tell you that they have experienced some obstacles along the path to providing young male athletes with the support they need. Startup costs came from their family savings, and were about $20,000 for product development and production. That included $5,000 on a CAD drawing that they ended up not needing. They were also unaware that they weren't collecting sales tax for their first three months on Amazon, so they're working on fixing that now. And additionally, the responsibility of running the business has limited the family's ability to take long vacations, which is something they love to do.

Still, it's been an amazing experience for all of the Russells, and one that's quite different from the typical American family story. So what's next? Well, the Comfy Cup brand is growing as a wholesaler and a direct-to-consumer retailer. They've applied to the TV show "Shark Tank," and they have a proposal into Walmart. The Russells also want to expand the product line to include sizing for tweens, teens, and even grownups.

And they're also thinking about venturing into other athletic equipment like shin guards. Whatever they do next, you can be sure it'll be as one-of-a-kind as this side hustle success story. [Music]

Awesome, congratulations to Kyler and Brandi Russell. I love this example of young entrepreneurship. And once again, I would love to feature more kids and teenagers on the show.

Please do send me your stories. A few episodes back, I told you when I was a teenager, I once drove around and stole election signs and then put them in someone's yard. That was a pseudo-entrepreneurial project, but I think Kyler's is much more productive and profitable. So kids, you should probably follow his example, not mine. As always, remember, inspiration is good, but inspiration combined with action is so much better.

Today's show notes are at sidehustleschool.com/146. Lots of other fun stuff is there and lots of other fun stuff is on the way as well. Can't wait to bring it to you. I'm Chris Guillebeau, this is "Side Hustle School." [Music]