Welcome Back for day 2 of our
Zippy Pins review and interview. Today is the interview I got to have with the owners!
I had the opportunity to ask Jamie, one of the owners, a few questions that I would like to share with you.
1. What is your company’s message or slogan?
Zippy Pins is a unique button – badge emporium that offers a world of way to express yourself with pins, magnets, key chains, zipper pulls and mirrors in a variety of sizes. Zippy pins helps the world speak true and celebrate the fun, fantastical elements of your. Say who you are, what you think, create more opportunities to meet like-minded people. Open dialogues, broaden views, make connections, it’s up to you, witty remarks, clever retorts and political sparks, wearing a Zippy Pin Shouts it out.
2. What first made you and your daughter start Zippy Pins?
Zippy Pins had an accidental humble beginning on my kitchen table; here is the story of Zippy Pins:
Several years ago, one of my daughters, Logan, was on a crew team and her time commitment to the sport was so great that she had no life outside of rowing. I had purchased a used button maker and she asked me to make her a pin that said “I Can’t, I Have Crew” so she could put it on her book bag and point to it every time someone asked her to do something after school or on the weekends. Girls on the rowing team liked the pins and started asking her for them. When I found out the team needed to raise money, I created some new crew designs and started making hundreds of pins and selling them at regattas and donating the money to the rowing club. Sayings such as “Fast Girls Finish First”, “Some People Party, I Erg”, “Rowers Do It Backwards”, “Kiss My Stern” as well as more than 70 other sayings proved to be very popular. In December of 2007, on a whim, I created some knitting themed button – badges as Christmas gifts for my friends in the guild. They suggested listing the crew and knitting pins on eBay, which I did in January 2008, trading as Emblazon Yourself. From the beginning, there was great demand for the pins. I decided to create pins about things my kids were interested in like geology and Irish Dance plus things I was interested in like bigger arts, gardening, antiques and collection. Very quickly, my eldest daughter, Jenna, saw the potential for growth and we decided to go into business together. Wanting to establish an online marketplace dedicated to celebrating people’s interests, it because apparent that to take our business to the next level we should create and e-commerce website and rename our business Zippy Pins. The specialty website
ZippyPins.com was launched in October 2009, offering a broader selection of designs and a variety of products in many sizes, as well as Create Your Own Designs and Buy in Bulk pricing. In September 2010 we found
ArtFire and realized it offered a unique opportunity to reach more customers in a creative, new way. Customers have requested our saying and designs as bumper stickers, so in October 2010 we began offering knitting bumper stickers in our
ArtFire Studio.
3. What is your business background and how did it prepare you for running this business?
I (Jamie/mom) am the creative force behind
Zippy Pins. I was a business and marketing major at the University of Delaware, but I have never worked in the field. I am a homemaker with 6 children. I have a lifelong interested in the arts and crafts, gardening, I have raised sheep and goats, I am an avid spinner and I belong to a fiber guild.
Jenna (my daughter) is the organized, business minded force behind
Zippy Pins. Jenna has a strong entrepreneurial spirit combining her sales and marketing experience with her communications and journalism major.
4. Is there a meaning behind the name of your company?
While searching for a name and an available dot com for our business we came across the word “zippy”. “Zippy Pins” became the obvious choice since it captured our vision for the business and it was memorable and fun.
Zippy literally defines both the strikingly fresh, lively, and appealing products we sell, as well as the speedy, friendly service that
ZippyPins.com delivers.
5. Is it hard running your online business?
I think the hardest part is trying to figure out a way to let people know that Zippy Pins exists and to be seen on the World Wide Web. We have a unique product, and an incredibly designed website and we strive hard to please our customers, but we haven’t broken through for search engines to return Zippy Pins as a result when people are looking for pin back button – badges.
6. Is it hard running a shop on Artfire?
Setting up the
ArtFire Studio took some time, but was not very difficult. ArtFire is very easy to use and the people from the company I’ve emailed or spoken with have been very helpful.
7. What fiber festivals can we find you at?
In the past we’ve had the opportunity to share a booth with friends, but primarily our pins are resold by vendors at fiber festivals in the USA. Over the years, they have been sold at the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival, NYS Sheep and Wool Festival, Wooster Fiber Festival, Sock Summit, Southeastern Animal Fiber Fair (SAFF) and even at the first Fiber Festival of New England this fall. Most vendors sell our line of pins with popular knitting and fiber arts sayings, while others do giveaways of customized pins to promote their products and create brand awareness.
So as you can see this is a home-based family run American business that offers fun and value to its customers! Since
Zippy Pins was so excited about doing this interview and review of their products they wanted to do a giveaway too! Zippy Pins is generously offering two $20 Gift Certificates that can be redeemed in their
ArtFire Studio.
So I know you are asking “How do I win one?” Just go visit their
website or
ArtFire studio and then come back here and leave a comment on this blog post with your favorite Zippy Pins saying. The winner will be picked by Random Number Generator dot com on December 9th. Also go check the post from yesterday for a 2nd chance to win which will be drawn on December 8th!
