We were lucky to catch up with Charlie Croy recently and have shared our conversation below.

Charlie, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

My partner Caleb and I created Hand Tied Pride while living in my mom’s spare bedroom during the quarantine at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. We had decided on a big life change in January of 2020, planning to move to Florida from the Midwest that Spring.

By April 2020, as you can imagine, our transition looked different than we had initially anticipated. The world had drastically changed in such an unpredictable way, and we were forced to confront that same question facing everyone: “now what?”

I came out as bisexual in high school, polyamorous in college, and nonbinary transgender in my late 20s. I have always been a passionate advocate for the LGBTQ+ community, and I always look for a way to connect with other queer people. From my own experiences as well as those that have been shared with me, I have learned the importance of uplifting identities that face erasure and discrimination, even within the queer community.

Queerness. Comfort. Visibility. Celebration. Feeling seen. These were the things circling in my mind as the business concept began to form.

Caleb and I had been reminiscing about this old tie-blanket we made in college when we first got together (which we still have, by the way!) and that’s when we felt the creative spark hit. What if we could make a pride flag blanket? What if we could make any pride flag into a blanket?

It was a simple concept that has continued to expand in so many unexpected directions. We started with high-quality handmade pride flag blankets, inspiring our name: Hand Tied Pride. From the fabric scraps, we started making pride-themed cat toys, which we call Purride Packs. And when my partner Meredith joined the business in May 2023, our creations really took off.

The more we saw people excited to have their flags and identities represented, the more we experimented with new products – and we continue to add new customizable options all the time, including one of our more recent (and now best-selling) products: pride brick accessories, created as a nod to our history in the Stonewall Uprising.

Sure, rainbow products occasionally make an appearance in big box stores in June – but that’s nothing compared to the experience of connecting with other queer and trans people who see and celebrate all flags and identities, offering comfort and representation at a time when we need it most. Connecting with our community has been the fuel for our business from the start.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

My name is Charlie, and my pronouns are they/them. I am a trans and queer business owner, activist, and artist. My business, Hand Tied Pride, crafts high-quality handmade pride gifts and gear with an emphasis on comfort.

We make pride flag blankets, cat toys, aromatherapy packs, trinket bags, and pride brick accessories, continuously adding new items. In addition to our current products, we are in the process of expanding our website, which includes original art and community resources. In the near future, we hope to include additional services that utilize our massive variety of skill sets and interests, including (but never limited to) photography, digital graphic design, cosplay patterns and accessories, remote tech assistance, and more.

Any flag and every identity is celebrated, and we embrace personalization and customization. Everything we do is to help LGBTQ people feel seen. We have started doing giveaways and have big plans for fundraising raffles as well, so the bigger we get, the more we’re going to be able to do for our community.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

Hand Tied Pride’s first time as a vendor at a craft market was in May of 2023 – only a couple years after I came out as nonbinary and transgender. This is also around the time that Florida’s openly hostile anti-trans legislation earned it the reputation as the least safe state for trans people in the country. Several prominent civil rights organizations, like Equality Florida and the Human Rights Campaign, issued travel advisory warnings, and several LGBTQ people and families fled the state.

We feared for our safety, but we still showed up.

Attending this market wasn’t just a business decision, it was a declaration to all the attendees, to the state of Florida itself: we are openly queer and trans; we deserve comfort, safety, and visibility; we belong here – we’re not going anywhere.

We are resilient, not just because we showed up for the first market in that time of turmoil, but because we keep showing up and fighting for our rights to exist. Our resilience is in being visibly and openly queer and trans while living on the frontline in the battle for trans rights.

Okay – so how did you figure out the manufacturing part? Did you have prior experience?

I have explored creativity in various forms throughout my entire life. As I previously mentioned, my partner Caleb and I had made a similar (but much more simple) blanket back in college. We took that simple concept and refined it for a more complex design, measuring and altering in our initial creation phase.

With each new product, we’ve learned new skills and enhanced existing ones. We practice with designs and prototypes, invest in new equipment to enhance processes, and consistently research the best methods for creating high-quality handmade goods. We make everything we sell and take pride in the hours of craftsmanship it takes to create the best products possible.

The biggest lesson I have learned about manufacturing a product is that, especially when you have a smaller team, you have to balance creative ambition with realistic time commitments and investment – and that occasionally means tabling a project that feels really exciting, but isn’t viable – either financially, or within the given timeframe.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://hand-tied-pride.square.site/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/handtiedpride/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HandTiedPride
• Other: https://linktr.ee/HandTiedPride