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

Hi Pascale, thanks for joining us 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 name is Pascale Valles Fisher and I am the owner and founder of DroolBox,llc. I am a proud wife and mother of two amazing little boys. When I was pregnant with my first born in 2016, I dreamt about him all day. I had so much fun putting his nursery together and I was excited about filling his closet with fun and cool clothing. While shopping for him, I was a little disappointed at the lack of variety and quality of male/boy clothing available. The baby girl sections were full of the cutest accessories, but the baby boy sections were lacking. I found myself sketching, designing, and creating. I realized that trendy additions to the basics, made an enormous difference. From there, DroolBox was birthed. I created a unique and trendy bib line. When I realized how expensive it would be to make this new found dream a reality, I placed it on a shelf and threw myself into motherhood. Two years later, the dream was still well and alive and my husband and I were expecting our second son. We made the investment and started with a bib line. As my boys keep growing, my inspiration also grows. We now have graphic tees, sweatshirts, and track sets. Our next project will be a hat line inspired by my boys. My youngest is obsessed with hats; he does not leave home without one and he insists on choosing one himself. How amazing would it be for him to proudly boast one day, “My mom made these hats for me!” only for him to later grow up and say “My mom created this business for me.” My eldest in on the spectrum. He is intelligent, sweet, loving, and even a little goofy. Some of my graphics were made especially for him. I love celebrating the beautiful things that set him apart. These graphic shirts promote uniqueness and inclusion and although, I created them for him, the message rings true for every child. While playing a charades like game in play therapy one day, I tried to describe “Friendly” without using the word. As I described a person that interaction easily with other my son said, “Mommy your BRAVE.” For him, being “friendly” requires bravery. The day-to-day socialization of just going to school and interacting with his teacher and peers followed by therapy requires him to be brave every day. I am is awe of my beautiful brave boys; they are my inspiration and the driving force behind DroolBox.

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 Pascale Valles Fisher and I am the owner and founder of DroolBox,llc. I am a proud wife and mother of two amazing little boys. From the moment I found out that I was pregnant with our first son, I started daydreaming about him and I also started shopping for him. Whenever I didn’t find what I was looking for, I created it myself. DroolBox started as a trendy bib line. Now that my boys are older with very big and distinctive personalities, I have so much inspiration to expand. My youngest, Logan (3) is strong willed and he knows what he likes. He dictates what he wears every day, down to the shoes and hat. He loves dinosaurs, music, wrestling, and super heros. Lo is true to himself. It is so beautiful to watch him fight for what he wants (even if it is just one baseball cap over another). My eldest, AJ (5) is on the spectrum. He is kind, thoughtful, and silly. AJ LOVES music; you’ll often find him adding his own little beats to whatever song is playing, or creating sounds of his own. During therapy we often play a charades-like game describing different emotions. I tried to portray “friendly” by describing a person that interaction easily with others. When I finished AJ said, “Mommy you’re BRAVE.” For him, being “friendly” requires bravery. The day-to-day socialization of just going to school and interacting with his teachers and peers followed by therapy requires him to be brave every single day. I am is awe of my beautiful brave boys; they are my inspiration and the driving force behind DroolBox.

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

Before DroolBox (DB) became a reality, I had no idea what I was doing. I did tons of online research and definitely stumbled along the way. During the initial launch, our only product was a pack of baby bandana bibs. I found a manufacturer over seas who was able to take our designs and mass produce them for reasonable price. Today, we still order bulk shipments from overseas, but we use a local printer to add graphics to our products. Finding the right vendor took a lot of trial and error. I used Alibaba.com, reached out to several vendors, and researched the ones that I considered ordering from. I ordered samples, talked it over with my husband and we took a leap of faith with the vendor we felt was the best option for DB. We have been very pleased with our manufacturer and will continue to order from the.
Along this journey, we learned that the timeline for a start-up was much longer and more rugged than we anticipated. Also, when producing baby/children’s items, product testing is tedious and expensive. Overall, turning our ideas into something tangible has be worth it. We are proud of DB.

How’d you think through whether to sell directly on your own site or through a platform like Amazon, Etsy, Cratejoy, etc.

When we initially started, DB bibs were sold on Amazon. While it was extremely convenient, Amazon was just too competitive and expensive. In order to gain any visibility on Amazon, we had to spend too much money on advertisements. The fees eventually did not justify the platform, so we used shopify to build our own store. With shopify we are in complete control of customer service, but we also have to store and mail out our own packages. With our own site, marketing is also a huge endeavor that we are facing. Overall, having complete autonomy has allowed us to grow more easily and has been the better option for us.

Contact Info:

• Website: shopdroolbox.com
• Instagram: @drool_box
• Facebook: DroolBox,llc

Image Credits
Andrew Hoo from Hoo Designs