Tote-ally Functional Bags for Women on the Go

Tote-ally Functional Bags for Women on the Go

Have bags jumped the shark? Are we oversaturing the market of Side Hustle School stories that feature homemade or custom-made bags of some kind? Also—how many bags do you own?

Even though I try to be intentional about what I bring into my life, I realized that I actually own a lot of bags myself. I have three different messenger bags that I rotate between, my traveling bags, and two smaller bags that I sometimes carry on short errands. (And probably more, to be honest.)

In today’s story, a New Yorker designs tote-ally functional bags for women on the go. After struggling with her bags on the subway one too many times, she takes the problem into her own hands and makes over $100,000. Keep calm and carry on!

The infamous salad incident happened on the New York City subway one morning in the spring of 2015. Every day, Hannah Fastov took the subway to her job as a product developer at Brooks Brothers. Between her purse, lunch, and a change of clothes for the gym, she needed to take three bags with her each morning. As she was passing through the 6-train turnstile at 33rd Street, one of the straps of her bags got caught, launching her salad from that bag into the darkness of the subway.

Although disappointed in missing out on lunch, Hannah ended up with something better: a big idea.

She started asking the women in the locker room at the gym if they liked their gym bags, to which she was met with a resounding, NO! Hannah probed them further, asking what they would change about those bags if they could. She hastily scribbled down notes, and then continued to ask around each time she returned to the gym.

After a few weeks, Hannah designed a more formal survey, which she sent to her friends and family on Facebook. Then they shared it, and more people saw it, then those people shared it, and so on and so forth until Hannah had a large pool of responses.

She learned that women wanted bags with more pockets. They especially wanted ones with pouches dedicated to footwear and water bottles. Plus, many urban women, like Hannah, wanted bags that were hands free.

This led Hannah to her first design, the Infinity Bag. It would have the pockets her survey sample asked for and would be a tote. She would include a strap so women would have the choice between wearing it as a cross body and as a shoulder bag. Hannah got out a plain, pocketless tote bag and began to tape pieces of paper to the inside to represent all the pouches and pockets that she wanted to implement. When she finally finished her mock-up, she took it to a factory in New York City.

It was there that she experienced her first rejection.

Although all her tape and paper made sense to her, it was gibberish to the people she showed it to. Plus, she had no specs sheet, which is what outlines the purpose of the design.

Hannah was crushed. For months she didn’t touch her idea. Then at the beginning of 2016, after a trip to India, she was motivated to revisit her idea—but this time, she’d get professional help.

With the help of a designer she found on Upwork, she created the first real design—including a spec sheet—and sent it around to factories. A month later, her first prototype was finished. For seven more months, she revised the design until finding the perfect prototype. She also came up with the official name of her new company, Go Dash Dot.

A month after that, in October of 2016, she hosted a launch party, but didn’t make any sales. Another discouragement.

Then, a few weeks later, a woman overheard Hannah talking about Go Dash Dot at the gym asked her about purchasing a bag. At that point, her website didn’t have an online order feature, so she and Hannah met up in a hotel lobby to complete the sale.

But in yet another discouragement, the woman contacted Hannah a week later to return the bag. Hannah was crushed and felt like a failure. But, through that experience, she realized that not everyone was going to like her product. Not only that, but this forced her to create a return policy, which she hadn’t thought of before.

Then, in January of 2017, she started taking Go Dash Dot to trade shows. During her second one, an accessories buyer for Free People approached her. She said that she liked the bags, and that she’d pass on Hannah’s information to their handbag buyer. Hannah didn’t hold her breath - she had been approached by other buyers in the past and nothing had ever come out of it.

Then in April, she got an email that changed everything. Free People wanted to work with her. Hannah was incredibly excited and her confidence in her bags reached an all time high. She realized that she had two choices: keep Go Dash Dot as a side hustle and let it grow slowly, or go all in and see what she could do.

With another big trade show coming up, she knew she wouldn't be able to take off work for it because it coincided with an important week for her job.

Her decision was made. She took the leap.

At that trade show, she opened 20 new accounts, including Nordstrom. It was revolutionary for Go Dash Dot. In 2018, her first year of working on Go Dash Dot full time, the business grew 78%, and in 2019 it’s projected to do at least that much.

By paying attention to what her audience wanted, Hannah is building a successful business, one that brings in six figures annually while she’s still in her twenties.

Since starting Go Dash Dot, Hannah feels more independent and confident. She loves getting to do a job that she’s passionate about. Who knew that selling tote bags would actually lift a weight off her shoulders!