A San Clemente entrepreneur is looking to put a stylish twist on the much-maligned fanny pack.
Kathy Dahl Crifasi is behind Hipzbag, a sort of a mini-purse that wraps around your waist or hooks to your pants and holds your keys, cell phone, money and other things.
“My friend says they are the reincarnation of the fanny pack,” Crifasi said. “Only hipper, cooler.”
Retailer Diane Silverstein of Absolutely Fabulous in Huntington Beach has been carrying the line since it debuted last year.
The bag “hooks on to jeans, gives you easy access to your cell phone and is big enough to carry the immediate things you need, but you can still be hands-free,” Silverstein said.
Inspiration
The idea for Hipzbag came from a problem Crifasi had: She always was losing—and sometimes dropping—her cell phone.
That led her on a hunt for a hands-free bag in 2008.
The closest thing she found was a burlap bag in Mexico that had a string, something for little girls there. She bought it, cut the string and wore it around her waist. That worked for a bit. Eventually Crifasi started thinking about designing her own bag.
Crifasi, who at the time was running a computer consulting business in Minnesota, had a seamstress friend work with her to design the bag. After about eight months of tweaking, Hipzbag was born.
After securing trademarks and patents and creating a logo, Crifasi officially started her business in early 2010.
Hipzbag, which first came in a faux leather look and now has more designs, can be worn against your hip or waist with a belt-like strap or hooked on to your belt loops with swivel hooks.
Along with faux leather, the bags come in patent leather, velvet, a sporty version and passport size.
They’re made in China.
“One of my goals was to keep the price low so people could afford it,” Crifasi said. “The cost of the swivel hooks in America was the same cost for the whole product in China.”
South County Base
Crifasi runs the business from her home in San Clemente, where she has a nine-car garage to store the bags.
Sales are expected at about $800,000 this year.
Breaks have come with QVC, the home shopping channel, and Target Corp.’s online site picking up the bags.
QVC ordered 170,000 bags to start selling in the fall, Crifasi said. It’s the second order from the home shopping channel, which sold the bags earlier this year.
The bags are convenient “without compromising style,” said Karl Schroeder, director of merchandising for QVC.
Breaking Even, Then Some
First-quarter sales of the bag surpassed expectations, according to Schroeder. New styles are due in the fourth quarter, he said.
QVC sales should allow Crifasi to “have my investment money back and more,” she said.
The 47-year-old funded the company herself, she said.
It cost her a couple hundred thousand dollars to start Hipzbag.
The bags sell for about $15 to $30. They are sold locally at Absolutely Fabulous and Whim in San Juan Capistrano as well Century 21 department stores in New York.
More designs are on the way.
The passport-size Hipzbag is new. Bags with studs are set to come out next month as well as a silver and gold Hipzbag with a jewel.
Crifasi has been the sole designer up until now.
She’s tapped local designer Marina Shailos to help create newer and younger designs. She has one full-time worker and one part-time worker.
More hires are planned.
“I’ve really just been waiting to get a big break like a (deal with) QVC,” Crifasi said. “Now I have some room to hire someone.”
Crifasi said she hopes to see sales near the $2 million mark next year. She also hopes to take a paycheck soon.
“It’s just so fun,” said Crifasi, who kept her computer consulting business in Minneapolis and has someone else running it. “I’m using a totally different part of my brain that I would never use in my computer business.”
Gomez is a former Business Journal editor and freelance writer based in Long Beach.
