Adventurous Couple Designs & Sells Fashionable Backpacks

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

I haven't been everywhere, but it's on my list. You may have heard this popular travel quotation by Susan Sontag. It's a favorite of nomads and travel junkies everywhere. The right kind of travel can broaden our horizons, bring us greater understanding, and not just of the world, but also ourselves, and perhaps even give us a big idea to take home. My name is Chris Guillebeau.

This is Side Hustle School, and every day on the program I'm telling a different story of real people out there who are creating freedom and security for themselves through the form of an income-generating project. Today's story is about backpacks that bring fashion to the mountains. These backpacks are part of a side hustle that earns a Colorado couple an additional $2,500 a month while also feeding the homeless. If you think it might be expensive to manufacture an item such as backpacks or that the startup costs would be really high, well, you haven't been listening to Side Hustle School for long. We are all about frugality, lowering risk, and using the resources that are already available to you.

So stay tuned to hear about this couple. You'll hear how they met, how this idea came to be, and how they've made it a reality in less than one year. But first, a short message from our sponsor. Waiting for a trip is exciting because the possibilities are endless. You could go anywhere, stay anywhere, and eat anything, since everyone knows calories don't count on vacation.

But with all this choice comes a little stress, too. What will you pack? How will you pack it? And of course, what will you pack it in? Kelly Bocknap was working as a full-time Lyft driver in Colorado when he met Matilda Sandstrom, a nanny.

They bonded over a shared passion for travel and adventure. His passion led them to a relationship, a marriage, and eventually a round-the-world backpacking trip to experience new cultures. It was during their travels that they witnessed the hardships of families that were struggling with hunger. In particular, there was one experience that shook their foundation. While backpacking in Bratislava, Slovakia, Kelly and Matilda happened upon a family of two parents and three young children.

Less than a year earlier, they were living in a house, working multiple jobs, and able to put food on the table each day. But as work became scarce, the lack of income forced them onto the street. It was seeing this experience firsthand that opened Kelly and Matilda's eyes to a situation they'd heard about but hadn't been able to imagine or relate to. Wanting to do what they could to help, they prepared meals each morning from their hostel and began handing them out to anyone they encountered throughout the day that needed food. They started doing this in every country they visited.

And when they returned to the U.S. with a new awareness, they started noticing similar situations at home in Denver. Their experiences around the world, combined with Matilda's Swedish origin, inspired them to begin turning a budding idea in their heads into reality. See, Matilda grew up in Sweden, and she and Kelly still spend three months a year there. As a foreigner, Kelly noticed that Scandinavians used backpacks as a form of expression and personal style.

Backpacks were an accessory for their outfits, not just a tool to carry things around. After their round-the-world trip where backpacks were a key feature of their lives, Kelly and Matilda knew they wanted to bring this idea of a fashionably functional backpack back to the U.S. It also helped that they struggled to find a nice-looking, high-quality backpack under $150. They wanted to make something that was more affordable. So inspired to get the ball rolling, Kelly and Matilda got started on their first prototype.

They spent hours drawing up all the details of their dream backpack on a piece of graph paper. Matilda's degree in interior decorating helped with being able to put the vision in their heads onto paper, allowing them to map out all the dimensions and technical aspects in about a weekend. With their designs completed, they sent them off to several manufacturers in China that they had found through their website Alibaba. They were able to get samples back within a few weeks, and all but one was what they called "laughable at best." But one manufacturer had potential. They tweaked a few details of the prototype, and within a month, Kelly and Matilda had a bag similar to what they sell online today.

This new side hustle, adventurous backpacks, was now in the bag. Minimalist Scandinavian design was about to blend with the rustic elements of Colorado to make a backpack that looks good with any outfit. They knew they needed to start by building a solid foundational bag that would function as a daypack for the everyday explorer. They included features like a built-in laptop sleeve, water-resistant padded shoulder straps, side water bottle pockets, and a front pocket. From their round-the-world travel experience, they also knew they wanted to guarantee a constant flow of meals to those in need in their communities.

So for every backpack sold, they decided they'd provide 25 meals to families in need across America. This idea and the side hustle took off. Since their launch in fall 2017, they've been able to provide over 13,000 meals to families in need, and they've gotten their backpacks into 23 retail stores throughout Colorado, Arizona, Oregon, and other states. Why 25 meals? Well, it seemed like a nice, even number to donate.

They thought that people would be more likely to be interested in a cause when they knew exactly how much they're helping. They researched different charities online and found out about Feeding America, which provides meals to over 200 food banks across the U.S. Feeding America also offered a way to keep track of exactly how many meals they were providing, which would be great for their customers to know exactly how they were helping. It seemed like the best choice for both adventurous backpacks and their customers. The business started with a $4,000 loan from Kelly's parents to cover their first order of backpacks and the initial cost of meal donations.

They quickly paid that back, and almost a year into their side hustle, their monthly profits hover around $2,500 a month. Expenses for production and meals come to around $35, so since their backpacks retail for $60 online, they have a profit margin of around 40% per unit, or about $25 a backpack. They keep marketing costs low by focusing on Instagram and influencer marketing to reach customers. Just help them share their story with a wider audience and help them with social proof and really nice images. When they first started out, Matilda tried to take cool photos of their backpacks while traveling and hiking, and she focused on making their account fun, visually stimulating, and engaging.

They knew they were on the right track when they had a few influencers reach out to them asking to collaborate before they'd even started selling their backpacks. Kelly also recommends engaging with your audience. Most people know how repetitive and annoying it can be on social media when brands try to promote themselves and their products nonstop. But they found when you actually try to make friends and have a positive impact on others, your Instagram presence will function more smoothly and easily. Kelly and Matilda know that business never sleeps, especially when you're married to your co-side hustler, but the focus on growing their business has been worth it.

They've learned that there's never a perfect time to start a company, and they've been able to translate their "do it now" attitude that they learn from traveling into learning as they grow the side hustle. This attitude has already helped them provide all those meals to families in need, get into more than 20 retail stores, and be on the front page of a magazine. Again, all in less than one year, and their goals don't stop there, because next they want to provide 30,000 meals and be stocked in over 40 retail stores by the time they hit their official one-year business anniversary. Ultimately, they want to have the freedom to take their side hustle full-time and keep doing their part to further their social cause. Kelly and Matilda have a few more backpacks and product designs in the works that they're planning on introducing to the adventurous line.

These Denver residents feel like the best reward, besides the additional monthly income, of course, is the ability to be passionate about both their business and the benefits it brings to families who need assistance. The adventure is in the bag, but it's also just beginning. Well, just in case you were curious, these backpacks do look really good. I am personally not a backpacker when roaming the world, however, when roaming around town, I do sometimes carry a backpack, and I would actually use this one. It's not huge, it does have that minimalist Scandinavian design I mentioned, and not only would the startup cost for this brand lower than I expected, the retail cost is much lower as well.

$60 for a legit, nice-looking backpack is a good price. In addition, I think their mission of connecting this for-profit business to a non-profit cause is well-aligned. And I don't always feel that way about projects because I'm actually sometimes skeptical when I see things like this, like here's our business, and when you purchase something, we're also going to help somebody else out. Sometimes those things get muddy, and it's almost like, well, you should have a business or you should have a non-profit, just pick what you want to do, both are good things. But when it's right, when it's aligned, then it can work really well.

So here they've used their personal story, like their own travel experience going around the world, meeting different families and kind of gaining this awareness, this knowledge, especially that experience they had in Slovakia, and they paired that with a specific donation. Like when you purchase a backpack, 25 meals are provided through non-profit organizations who are good at those things, which is also important, right? Because they wouldn't be good at providing those 25 meals themselves. That's definitely not sustainable or scalable or efficient in any way. But they know all that, they've really thought it through, and so I think it's a nice touch.

So great design, great mission, well done, and I hope they get into those 40 stories. So actually, that's another good point. If you have a retail store, or if you'd be interested in stocking these yourself, or if you know somebody, maybe take a look at this as well. I hope you enjoyed hearing about how they're pursuing that mission. Don't forget inspiration is good, but inspiration with action is so much better.

Do you have a mission? Do you have a project? Do you have a cause? Do you have something that you are working on? I know you're busy.

I make this show every day for busy people. So just try to find some time to do one thing, maybe just one small thing to get you closer to that goal of building more freedom for yourself. Today's show notes, including links to adventurous backpacks and everything else I mentioned are at www.citusleschool.com/522. That is for episode 522. You can also send me a note, you can follow me on social media, check out some other free resources.

I am now going to sign off for the day, but I will be back tomorrow. Much more is on the way with episode 523 and beyond. Thank you for listening. You are a rock star. This is Chris Guillebeau for Cytosis School.