We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Chris And Kira Bailey. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Chris and Kira below.

Hi Chris and Kira, thanks for joining us today. How do you think about cost-management? Growing a business is always exciting, but often businesses run into issues when costs grow faster than revenue – have you experienced such an episode? Any advice for other operators around how to keep costs in line?

What’s helped us manage costs as we continue to grow our business, TheOddPropShop, is our approach to producing and sourcing materials. We first started making and selling props while traveling around the country in an RV, and that meant keeping operations as lean as possible. Fast forward a few years, and we’re sticking to that mindset even as we build our first 1000 sq. ft. warehouse in Hitchcock. This way, we’re able to put more of our resources into building better, and cooler, props for our customers.

Each one of our props goes through a rigorous trial-and-error process before we even consider selling it to a customer. In the early days of TheOddPropShop, the R&D process for a single prop would take months solely due to the hefty costs of materials and long shipping times. But lately, one of our go-to sources for prototype materials has been Temu. We’re able to get all of the items we need within days, and because it’s so affordable, we’re able to go through several rounds of testing with a prop to make sure it’s safe enough for even the most demanding performances. One prototype we’re working on right now is a glow-in-the-dark “flow prop,” using LED lights from Temu, that creates a spinning optical illusion for the audience. We’re still refining the design, but the affordability of Temu’s products have allowed us to experiment freely without breaking the bank.

We also actively partner with companies and local businesses to repurpose materials that would otherwise go to waste. For example, our practice sunwheels are made using hula hoop tubing. But rather than purchasing new hula hoops just to cut them into pieces, we partnered with Hoopologie to get tubing scraps they were already planning to discard. It’s a win-win—Hoopologie gets rid of excess material, and we get the supplies we need for free, other than paying for shipping.

We take the same approach to packaging. Many of our props have irregular shapes, so even if we were to buy new boxes, we’d still have to cut and reshape them. We instead collect excess cardboard from local businesses and we keep packaging minimal—only using what’s needed to get the product safely to our customers.

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?

We’re Chris and Kira Bailey, professional fire performers and owners of TheOddPropShop. For more than a decade, we’ve been partners in both life and performance, bringing our love for fire to audiences across the country. We’ve performed with Texas’ Solar Rain Performance Troupe and as a duo at major events like the Texas Renaissance Festival—the largest renaissance festival in the world—and Universal Studios’ Halloween Nightmare Fuel.

I, Chris, found my way into fire spinning more than two decades ago while growing up in upstate New York. My friends and I would go to parties together in high school and it was during that time when I met some people who were spinning glow sticks. I thought it looked cool, and there was little else to do in the area, so I picked it up as a hobby. Eventually I swapped the glow sticks for fire sticks and in a few short years, I had made a name for myself in the region as a fire spinner. Since then, I’ve performed around the world, including the Virgin Islands and in Texas, where I met Kira.

Kira’s background is in music, theater and dance. When I met her, she was already dabbling in fire spinning and I could see she had an undeniable talent for it. When we started practicing and performing together, all of that past expertise came in handy and allowed her to develop her own unique style to fire spinning.

Together, we built TheOddPropShop as a way to share our passion for fire performances. We create high-quality performance props, from our signature sunwheels to fire jump ropes and bubblers. Beyond selling props, we’re also focused on growing the fire performance community in the Houston area. With the opening of our new warehouse later this year, we hope it can be a place where people can learn, practice and share their art with the broader community.

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

Our biggest pivot—like so many others—was in 2020 when COVID hit. We had performances lined up for the entire spring season, and within days, every single one was canceled. On top of that, we lost all of our side jobs, leaving us with no income. That’s when we decided to shift our focus entirely to making sunwheels.

At the time, we had only been making them for close friends and family. But then, a French performer went viral for their version of a sunwheel. That was when we began to see a huge surge of interest. Since we were the only people in the U.S. making anything similar, demand for our sunwheels went through the roof.

Now, four years later, and we’re currently in the middle of another major pivot: opening our own warehouse that will serve as a living space, workshop and hub for performers. We hope to become the go-to place for aspiring performers to take lessons, test out new routines and equipment, and host art shows and other performances.

Can you talk to us about manufacturing? How’d you figure it all out? We’d love to hear the story.

Manufacturing our own props was never something we had planned to do. The first sunwheel we ever made was way too intricate and dangerous to be used by non-professionals, which is why we refused to sell them for the first few years. But over time, we continued refining the design, testing it with fellow performers and adjusting the weight until we found the right balance between style and safety.

At first, we only sold our sunwheels to people we knew on a personal level. But demand grew significantly during COVID and we found ourselves making a lot more, and for people all around the world. Soon, we started getting requests for other props, and it became clear that there was a real need for a business that manufactures high-quality, reliable performance equipment. That’s when we turned to our longtime friend Noah, an experienced welder and circus prop fabricator. We knew he was the only person with the expertise to help us scale production and manufacturing while ensuring every piece remained safe and durable.

Over the years, we’ve learned not to overcomplicate designs—every feature needs to have a clear purpose. But on the other hand, underbuilt props can be straight up dangerous. To find that happy medium, we test multiple variations of a prop—which we’re able to do affordably with Temu—so that we’re 100% sure we will be building props that are balanced between functionality, necessity and flair.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.theoddpropshop.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theoddpropshop/
• Other: TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@theoddpropshop

Image Credits

Matt Hellman Photography
Jeff Cohen, Moonshine Images