Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to LUZ ZAMBRANO. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

LUZ, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. One of the things we most admire about small businesses is their ability to diverge from the corporate/industry standard. Is there something that you or your brand do that differs from the industry standard? We’d love to hear about it as well as any stories you might have that illustrate how or why this difference matters.

The leather goods manufacturing industry historically waste over 800,000 tons of leather in excess leather and trimmings. I noticed all the factories I visited had a surplus of leather that brands left behind and never tried to use again. When I started Casupo in 2020, I decided to source from all these factories in Los Angeles and repurpose all these beautiful and unique leathers to make limited edition bags and wallets. The result is a brand that is has repurpose 2 tons of excess leathers.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I worked in the footwear industry for 10 years, as a footwear developer I worked to make designs into real life shoe and I loved working with factories all over the world. I love working with the sample makers, production managers and material vendors. That part of the job stayed with me as I run my brand now. I studied Industrial Design and still use the skills I learned then for designing products, displays, tradeshow booths. As a brand owner I wear all the hats and I love that I can choose which one I want to do each day.

I am a very proud Venezuelan designer who was able to work in large companies like Fila, New Balance and Burton and then decided to dream even bigger and start my own brand. I now use my business to give a portion of the profits to a charity cause that helps children with cancer in Venezuela.

Can you open up about how you funded your business?

My story on how I got my initial capital started accidentally, I moved to California to work for a footwear brand and I in one of my work trips to Hong Kong I met a very creative woman who loved sewing, she took me to a local spot where she found cute fabrics and right there I thought that I could bring these fabrics and make something with it, I was not an expert seamstress but I thought I could keep it simple by sewing things like cushions and crib sheets.

I decided to start an Etsy business and make baby crib sheets with my sewing machine and fabrics I found on my trips to Hong Kong and China. The variety and quality was hard to find here so I knew I was offering something different from other vendors on Etsy.

Little by little I started to make enough money to raise $10,000 from that Etsy business. I would come home from work and sew the orders that came thru, it was fun and I learned so much about sewing as I was making things for for other people.

After 2 years I realized that it was not sustainable for me to keep making each order and my love for leather goods was creeping in as I started to collect leather swatches here and there, that’s when I decided to close my Etsy business and start searching for a manufacturer in the USA that could make my leather goods so that I could focus on designing and selling.

The first $10000 went towards making my first production batch, paying for a craft fair booth and a small tradeshow booth. That got my business started and I quit my job 3 years later!

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

In 2020 I relaunched my brand with the name Casupo and with the mission of making products using excess leathers from other brands, the support from my customers was great but when the pandemic shut down hit I noticed a big decline in sales and the factory workers didn’t have any work. We were all uncertain about when we would be able to do craft fairs again and how I could offer work to my staff.

In April of 2020 I decided to design a new face mask that had more features that the maks that were available in the market. I wanted a mask with a filter pocket, with adjustable ear loops and that could convert into a mask for behind the head for people with hearing aids, on top of that I wanted it to be durable and reversible for more color options.

My sewing skills paid off and I started to make them, I trained my parents who were also home and needed something to do. The 3 of us worked for 3 weeks straight while the factory workers were figuring out how to produce the masks with their machinery. Orders were coming at a rate that I could no longer fulfill alone so eventually I was able to train 3 different factories in Los Angeles to produce them so that I could focus on shipping, marketing and sourcing.

It was the most amazing and rewarding time of my life, I was so happy to be able to provide work for so many people who really needed it. I learned so much about production, logistics and management.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.casupo.co
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/casupo.co
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/casupo.co
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/casupo/
• Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/CasupoShop
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@CASUPO