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Style with Substance: The Unique Approach of Four.Four Co.

Erika Opalski, Founder/ CEO at Four.Four Co.

Dive into the inspiring journey of Erica Opalski, the visionary behind Four.Four Co. is a sustainable fashion brand with a heart. From her background in design for Disney and surf brands to her mission-driven approach to crafting stylish yet functional bags, Erica shares her story of resilience, creativity, and giving back. Discover how Four.Four Co. blends fashion with philanthropy, making waves in the fashion industry while supporting at-risk youth in foster care. Join us as we explore the intersection of style, sustainability, and social impact with Fo

Four.Four Co. merges stylish, functional travel bags with a mission to support foster care youth, driven by sustainability and social impact.

Erika Opalski
Founder/ CEO at Four.Four Co.

I’m Stephen Bland, your host with White Labs, an e-commerce marketing agency. Today’s guest is Erica. Erica, feel free to introduce yourself and tell our viewers about your background.

Hi, I’m Erica and I have a brand that I’ve started from the ground up called Four.Four Co. We donate 4.4 % of all of our proceeds to CASA, which is an organization where that helps children and supports children in foster care. A little bit about me, I’ve been in the design industry for years and years and years.

I don’t want to say how many years, Botox, so you don’t know how old I am. But I’ve been in the industry for many, many years. I used to design fabrics and costes for Disney. I worked for many surf brands here. I’m based out of Southern California, so I worked for many surf brands I always knew I wanted to do something on my own. And if I was going to do it, it needed to have a product that I enjoyed, and then I had to have a reason to do it. So when I created this company, the timing was a little off. I had this idea in 2018, I worked on it in 2019, and in 2020 I was ready to launch, and then the world shut down. Talking about it, we had some challenges from the beginning, but it’s been a very fun ride so far. A little bit about me was that I’ve been in the industry forever, I started a brand, and I’m very excited to share it with people.

Awesome. Can you tell me more about the brand?

Yes, so we have basically how it started was a couple two things two factors one I used to travel a lot for work and so I would get off an eight-hour flight overnight flight and arrive and I’d have to go straight from the airport to a board meeting and visit factories and be on the go and so I we had an I had some bags and a suitcase and a duffel bag and I had the things. But they were also techy and they were ugly for my designer brain. And so I wanted something aesthetically pleasing and also functional. And I’ve done a lot of traveling through the years. I’ve lived overseas and I’ve been in 25 countries. And so I thought about, okay, well.

when you travel places, there are pickpocketers. So we have secret compartments where you can hide your passport and luggage on you. Easy in and access, easy in and out access for your laptop, and things like that with our backpack. So I wanted stuff that was gonna be geared for your everyday life. And then I’m also a minimalist of a person and I don’t like to change my purse. So I wanted anything that I, I know it’s weird for a girl but I wanted anything that I did, I wanted it to be functional and be able to travel from my everyday life and then just be on the go and take it to an airport if I had to. So I thought of all of my favorite essentials. We have a great tote bag and backpack. I call them Dopp kits. I was a military brat. So we call them Dopp kits, but they’re toiletry bags, makeup bags, and backpacks. So when we started this, I wanted it to be as sustainable as possible. We, in the design industry, I don’t know who knows this lot, but we spend so much waste on dyeing our fabrics, sourcing our fabrics, and making fabrics. There were times that I would design something, we would run a sample roll of 200, 300, 500 yards of something and then they cancel it and then it just goes to waste and it sits there in a warehouse. And meanwhile, you’ve created all these yarns and dyes and it’s just really the apparel industry can be very wasteful. So everything that I did, I wanted to make sure that it was already made in this world. So all of our fabric comes from stock fabric that already exists. So we’re not making anything new and putting any new waste into this world. But that’s, so that’s a little bit about our brand in a nutshell.

Awesome.

I feel like it depends on which social media platform you choose the information comes from. But I, right. Ideally, it’s, you know, it’s 25 to 45-year-old, maybe the younger mom or the young working professional, somebody that just really gets wanting to not be a name brand household, like somebody that wants to shop small business understands what they’re buying because that’s, I think, where the power of our story kind of comes in is we do work hard to be sustainable. We give back and we have cool, we make cool stuff that makes you happy. So I think our target is just it’s women, although we do have some male backpacks coming out and dot kits. And it’s women 25 to 45, but obviously, it changes, you know, there’s always, that’s kind of who we created it for, but there’s always people that we see outside of that demographic.

The world is ever-changing, right? So what makes you different, or my favorite thing, what makes you better than your competitors?

What makes us better than our competitors? Well, what I think we do well is creating things that make you, like the quality that you get, you’re surprised by when you get at home. Over and over again, I’ve seen videos, like unboxing videos that we’ve had, and people are just taken away with like the detailing, the level of detailing that we go through with our quilting.
all of the extra pockets that we put into it. And what I hear time and time again is they thought this through. And so I think it’s not just, it wasn’t just like, I’m going to create this bag business and I want to make money. And it was, it was being intentional. And I think that it comes across that way when you receive our product. So, you know, you’re buying for a good cause because we give back. You’re buying because of all the details and we have fun.

I love prints everywhere in my office, bathrooms, and house has some sort of fun print. So we love, I love the details and the prints and you’re, and you’re buying because they’re solid and they’re going to last. We guarantee our product too. Some brands do that, but they’re more technical and they’re not as soft and clean as our aesthetic. And so I think that’s where we have an edge to compete. So I’m guaranteeing what we sell.

I want our customers to be happy for a long time and keep coming back.

Awesome. What are your, I mean, you’ve talked a lot about your products. What is your best-selling product?

You know what’s funny? It goes in waves. There will be like, there’ll be months where it’s just like our Duke, we have a hat that’s just says do good. There’s also a sorority, Delta Gamma, that that’s their slogan is Do good. So there’ll be like waves where we’ll sell like tons and tons of hats and then we’ll sell duffel bags and for days and weeks and then I don’t know, it’s like the algorithm just puts us on a little path. But we do sell a lot of the duffel bags are a really good seller and our adopt kits are a really good seller and they’re really good packaged together. I feel like the backpack is something that started the brand. And so I thought, oh, we’re going to be a backpack company. And it’s just kind of funny when things evolve and we just randomly decide, you know what, we like to travel with a hat that you can like to throw in the washing machine or it doesn’t, it’s okay if it gets shoved in a suitcase. So we just threw that hat in there and were surprised at how well that hat did. So even though you like want to start it as one thing, it’s pretty crazy that it can evolve into something else.

Awesome. Well, most of our viewers and listeners are entrepreneurs like yourself. What are some challenges that you’ve faced in the past few years and how are you able to overcome them?

Oh gosh. Well, I feel like it’s just a, like, obviously there’s so many challenges that I’ve been faced with when starting a business, whether it’s from finance to logistics. Like each step is its struggle, right? And I was prepared for that. I think that as an entrepreneur, you’re prepared for that. But it’s the little things that when we decide, I think, for us, the biggest thing was being as sustainable as possible because it is a really big mission, not only for us but also across the world. Buyers and consers are more educated than they’ve ever been. And so how are you going about doing that? And so we wanted to, so all of our packaging when we mail stuff is in home compostable packaging. All of the, like, any mailers or anything, marketing materials are printed on recycled paper with soy-based ink. And so we, you know, it was a little bit more expensive, but it was really important to us. So in the beginning, what they don’t tell you is in the home compostable packaging, it’s very, very delicate and you edit, it would arrive at people’s homes and the package would be opened. And so we’d have to send another package because their item was messed up the packaging was breaking down as we were sending it to them. And so we have to, now we, then I had to go back on the website of the place that we bought the packaging from and they sell home compostable tapes. So now everything is taped up and extra secure. But it’s just those little things where you’re like, how is this, you know, how do I fix this? And, and, you know, maybe they sent us old materials cause it does have a very, very short shelf life. And so In the beginning, when we weren’t selling as much, we weren’t going through the mailers as fast. And so you’d go to grab one and they would just disintegrate as you’re trying to put all the product in. So that was kind of, I think just as a whole, like you have this great idea of like, yes, we’re going to be sustainable. But then in execution, it could become a little tricky and also a little bit more expensive too, because you’re doing trial and error through it as well.

But we’ve figured out the formula on how to buy our packaging and not buy too far ahead so that it doesn’t disintegrate. So it’s a very tricky game. But I feel like we’ve got that down.
Awesome. Well, most of our viewers and listeners are entrepreneurs like yourself. What are some challenges that you’ve faced in the past few years and how are you able to overcome them?

Oh gosh. Well, I feel like it’s just a, like, obviously there’s so many challenges that I’ve been faced with when starting a business, whether it’s from finance to logistics. Like each step is its struggle, right? And I was prepared for that. I think that as an entrepreneur, you’re prepared for that. But it’s the little things that when we decide, I think, for us, the biggest thing was being as sustainable as possible because it is a really big mission, not only for us but also across the world. Buyers and consers are more educated than they’ve ever been. And so how are you going about doing that? And so we wanted to, so all of our packaging when we mail stuff is in home compostable packaging. All of the, like, any mailers or anything, marketing materials are printed on recycled paper with soy-based ink. And so we, you know, it was a little bit more expensive, but it was really important to us. So in the beginning, what they don’t tell you is in the home compostable packaging, it’s very, very delicate and you edit, it would arrive at people’s homes and the package would be opened. And so we’d have to send another package because their item was messed up the packaging was breaking down as we were sending it to them. And so we have to, now we, then I had to go back on the website of the place that we bought the packaging from and they sell home compostable tapes. So now everything is taped up and extra secure. But it’s just those little things where you’re like, how is this, you know, how do I fix this? And, and, you know, maybe they sent us old materials cause it does have a very, very short shelf life. And so In the beginning, when we weren’t selling as much, we weren’t going through the mailers as fast. And so you’d go to grab one and they would just disintegrate as you’re trying to put all the product in. So that was kind of, I think just as a whole, like you have this great idea of like, yes, we’re going to be sustainable. But then in execution, it could become a little tricky and also a little bit more expensive too, because you’re doing trial and error through it as well.

But we’ve figured out the formula on how to buy our packaging and not buy too far ahead so that it doesn’t disintegrate. So it’s a very tricky game. But I feel like we’ve got that down.

That’s good. It’s good. I mean, that’s a heck of a challenge. I would say.

I was just saying, I think that was one of the biggest things, which is kind of silly because I think that’s just something you’re not prepared for.

For sure, yeah, I can see that. What are some successful activities you’ve done to promote the brand?

Oh gosh, we’ve done so many things. I think in general, it’s just taking advantage of every opportunity possible. We’ve had lots of pop-up shops and stores just knocking on doors in general. Anybody that there’s an event, can I sponsor you? I think it hasn’t been just one thing. I think it’s as a whole just keeping your finger on the pulse and what events are coming up. And even, you know, any exposure, like this podcast is great, right? So it’s, when you guys reached out, I thought, yeah, why not? Even though this is my first video podcast. Yeah, just any reaching out to the press, reaching out, doing pop-up events, in-store events, just anything that would give us exposure, and especially in the beginning, anybody that would take a chance on us, that was hard. But I don’t think it’s been one particular like this event and this specific like thing is thing that launched us or made it all work. But, you know, like even going back to my college and saying like, Hey, do you guys have any tournaments or events or whatever it is that they’re coming up? Can we sponsor you or just have exposure across the board because there are so many, you can keep doing the same kind of event, but it’s not going to get you exposure to a new audience.

100%. What is your plan for yourself and the brand?

My plan, you know, I’ve thought about this from the beginning. Like, what are my intentions? Is it to grow it so that I can sell it? Or is it to grow it and then this becomes my home forever? And I think that that’s what I landed on. I think that’s kind of double negative there, but yeah, that’s what I landed on I want to, this is my home, this is my baby, this is what been wanting to do my entire life. And I have, I’ve had the luck of being able to do it, right? A little luck, and a lot of hard work. But yeah, and the next couple of years, I’ve thought about like part of our mission is to give back. Even in the beginning, when we weren’t profitable, I still made a point to donate 4.4% of all my sales to CASA because I felt like it was really important. And so for me, I want to, but I’m not, I can’t just do this brand or build this brand without going back to my initial mission. And so I want to do in the next couple of years here, I need to get more space for it like a bigger office want to do job training. So part of, yeah. So, well, part of, I guess I need to go back to the very beginning. I missed step two of why I started this.

My mother is a social worker here in Orange County. Okay. , my mom’s a social worker here in Orange County and she works for Orange County mental health and, actively takes homeless people off the street she gets them housing and gets them, takes them to the DMV and gets them their driver’s licenses. And, so I used to, I mean, I still do, but I used to in the beginning, clean out my closet, kids’ closets, all my friend’s closets, whoever was getting rid of stuff and I would take it all to my mom’s office and I would give her these, all of the clothes or whatever it is that we were getting rid of. And she told me, she’s like, Erica like it’s great that you do all this, but what they need are bags. Like they don’t have anything to carry this stuff home. And so that kind of, we started talking about that and my mom had been involved in CASA and volunteering. And so then I decided to volunteer and see what this program was. And we talked about you know, like where I know I wanted to start this, where do, where do I want my donations to go to? And so that was kind of my light bulb mama where it was like, Oh wait, people need bags. I’m a designer. I know how to create a brand. I can do this and that was one of the moments where I was like, okay, I wanted to work on at-risk youth and then in foster care cause that’s kind of where our name came from 4.4 children on average in the U.S. foster care system daily. And that’s where 4 .4 comes from. So when diving into where I want this brand to go, it’s also the giving back and part of being in foster care is that 18 years old, you don’t get as much support anymore. And so from 18 to 24, they have a very high risk. It’s more than 50% I have their little thing, their little cheat sheet right here that they sent me because we partnered with them. More than 50 % of former youth end up either incarcerated or on the streets because they don’t get support after foster care. So what I’d love to do is job training and have like a six-month, one-year, whatever it is paid internship program to encourage people to go to school and then give them some real tools. So that’s kind of one of my big pushes to grow the brand even more the more I can grow it, the more I can give back and help too. Cause that, you know, I’m not in it to make millions of dollars. I’m in it to grow a brand and also give back where I can. So that’s kind of for me, yeah, I can grow this thing, but then it needs to be, there needs to be a reason why I’m growing it too. And I want people to come along with me.

That’s an amazing story. Where can our viewers find you? Your website is fourfourco.com. Anywhere else online that you’re at or retail?

Yes, we are. We’re on Instagram. We’re in a lot of boutiques throughout the US. And then we’re in mainly country clubs. So if you are a golfer or go to some resorts, we have, yeah, I know. Oh, you are? Okay. Yeah, I’ve worked for, well, how it started was I designed, do you know Travis Matthew? I designed it for him.

Of course, I was just, I was wearing a Travis Matthews shirt before this call and I just changed it. That’s so funny. That’s hilarious.

No, I probably would have recognized it. I designed them for them for six and a half years and I was there before they got bought by Callaway and became, you know, a little bit bigger. But yeah, I was there on the ground floor.

That’s hilarious. I put this, I was like, I’m just gonna wear something a little more.

Funny. So close. But yeah, so I started, I was in that industry for a long time. So being able to make those connections was a lot easier because, and I also think that that’s a great space that isn’t being tapped into for travel bags across the board. Now.

No, it’s not. It’s not at all. So yeah. All right.

Yeah, so that’s where that’s been successful.

I appreciate you coming on the podcast and hearing your story and your brand. It’s been amazing and thank you for coming on.

Thank you.

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