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

Hi Erika, thanks for joining us today. What was the most important lesson/experience you had in a job that has helped you as a business owner?

The most important lesson I learned from a prior job is everything. This lesson stems from my parents. They taught me to be kind to everyone because you never know who will be your boss one day and to pay attention. With every position I ever took, I put myself in a position to be challenged and pay attention. I learned the most from the times when I had to be creative because I didn’t have all the answers. Now I pride myself on being the jane of all trades but master of none. I learned early on that you get out what you put in.

Erika, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

After graduating college I packed up and moved to New York City and did costume design for movies and commercials. It was a magical time of learning, and growing not only as a professional but as a person. The excitement of thinking on my feet and my office in a new location every day expanded my world. During my time on the east coast, I also became a wife and after shoveling my car out of the snow one too many winters, we packed up and moved back to California. Yes, I had a car in Manhattan, crazy I know. Once back in California I took a year off to become a mom and decided to return to work full time but this time utilizing my degree in Fashion Design. Since starting my company, becoming a mom, traveling the world, putting costumes on celebrities, attending award shows, and helping a women’s brand start up where I was given the opportunity to travel to China and visit factories, I did fabric work for the Walt Disney Company where I started their tech department in character costumes and did fabric development for all the Disney walk-around characters for the theme parks worldwide. After Disney, I was a designer and was quickly promoted to project manager at TravisMathew. Over my 6-year stent at TravisMathew, we went from a small company, the hours were long and hard but I always paid attention and learned whatever anyone was willing to teach me. Once again I was blessed with the opportunity to travel to the factories this time in Peru where I continued to expand my knowledge of fabric development, which was my true love. I left TravisMathew to be the sportswear men’s designer for O’Neill and peruse my design roots.

It was Christmas when I had my final concept for my company laid out for my family to see in its entirety. Although the thought of wanting my own company had always been in the back of my head my entire life, it was like a constant nagging. I came up with the idea for my company because of my mom. She is a social worker for orange county mental health and works with the homeless population getting them housing and back on their feet. In my personal life, I would clean out my closet and bring her all my old clothes as a donation to her clients. One day she said, “it’s great you bring me all your clothes but they are in need of bags because they don’t have any way to carry the clothes”. That was my lightbulb moment when I realized, I can fix this problem, and I know how. I dwelled on it for about a year in my head as to the who, what, where, when, and why finally formed. I knew starting my own company had to be authentic to who I was, and I wanted to give back where ever and whenever I could because my true passion in life was to be helpful. One of the hardest parts of this whole process was coming up with a name. I liked the idea of a statistic, something that made people ask, what or why. I started looking at statistics and found 4.4 children on daily basis enter the foster care system.

We were determined to make our product with purpose. With my past companies, we would do a ton of travel international and domestic. Going straight from the airport to a meeting became the norm but it was all boring/looked generic or cute/not functional. I wanted a product that was fun, functional, and looked great. Our line is meant to be multifunctional and you’ll find yourself thinking “how did I ever live without this” We have duffels, totes, backpacks, and toiletry bags.

Recently we partnered with CASA OC which feels like a big milestone in our progress. They are a big part of our mission and support youth in foster care.

Our short-term charitable contribution is 4.4% of our profit goes back to getting a bag in the hands of a child in foster care giving them a way to travel from place to place with dignity. Our long-term charitable goal is to do job training for kids 18-26 who are aging out of the foster system. We want to give a hand up, not a handout. We want them to take these skills and get better-paying jobs to support themselves in life. The fact is 1 in 5 youth will become homeless by the age of 18. For former foster youth, by the age of 24, only half will be employed creating a staggering statistic that one in four foster youth will be involved in the justice system within two years of leaving the foster care system.

How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?

Funding my business hasn’t been easy. I really wanted total control and didn’t want to answer anyone. I saved for years for a downpayment on a house and when push came to shove, I decided to start a business over buying a house. It’s nerve-racking and liberating to fund everything myself.

How’d you meet your business partner?

Laura is my co-founder/partner who also happens to be one of my closest friends. We worked together at one of my past jobs. One day we saw each other at a yoga class after work and realized we went to the same gym. After that class ended she looked at me and asked “you want to go get nachos and beer after this?” Obviously, I said yes and that became the start of our weekly meetings that turned into a partnership and the birth of FourFour co.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.fourfourco.com
• Instagram: @fourfourco
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Fourfourco
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/fourfourco/

Image Credits
We took all the photos and did all the editing ourselves.