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FEATURE
MAD By Design’s Vietnamese Handbags
D
OUG STEIN operated restaurants and night clubs in Asia for many years, and anyone who has ever been involved in that business know that it
is exhausting. T at’s why, when he returned to the United States early in this decade, he needed a long break from the business. He and his wife, Marta, looked around for a new business idea. With all of his experience buying for restaurants and night clubs in Asia, the couple, living in Chicago, decided to open an Asian-inspired furniture and art gallery, and call it Asian Essence. Stein returned to Asia every 90 days on buying trips. T e fi rst gallery was such a success that the couple opened four more similar stores, from 2001 to 2004, for a total of fi ve stores. T en in 2004, when the Steins were expecting a child, Doug Stein decided that he no longer had any desire to spend his time on air- planes and tracking around Asia. T e couple sold the stores, and for
the second time in just a few years, they were again looking around for another business. “As we considered what to do next, what caught our at ention were the beautiful handmade handbags from Vietnam that we had been purchasing since the Vietnam embargo was liſt ed in 2003,” says Stein. “We were bring- ing back these handbags 50 or 100 at a time on our trips. We put them in our stores and they sold easily. Frankly, I never really saw myself as a handbag kind of guy, but it was something my wife was extremely interested in and knowledgeable about.” What about selling the furniture he
had been importing? “Furniture is very bulky and takes up a big footprint in a warehouse. Handbags take up a small footprint. So we came up with the idea of starting an online handbag business and calling it MAD Bags, which is actually an acronym for Marta and Doug, or Mom and Dad.” T e Steins admit that the fi rst year was a struggle. How do you at ract cus- tomers on the web for handmade Vietnamese handbags with a fi ve page catalog? “By the end of the fi rst year, we had found some great rep groups that wanted to sell our line. We also found terrifi c groups in Canada and the U.K. who wanted to be distributors for us. In one year, we literally went from virtually nothing to needing a warehouse, for a lot of product and needing to do the various trade shows. “We quadrupled sales the second
year. We went to about 200 diff erent pieces the second year, and added eve- ning bags and some other bits and pieces. By the end of the second year we had 120 reps on the road, 14 showrooms and we were in 20 to 30 trade shows a year. We doubled the size of our off erings the third year, and more than doubled revenue the third year. We have been growing ever since. We carry about 800 pieces and a 28 page catalog, and doubled sales volume again. We have 5,000 retail customers across the U.S., and we sell
to a lot of resorts and a lot in Canada and Hawaii.” MAD By Design bags are in shops in large hotels and boutiques, as well as mom and pop apparel stores as well. “We are in our sixth year, and we cover about fi ve categories, including handmade
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April 2010
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