We recently connected with Robert and Robin Sanzi and have shared our conversation below.
Robert and Robin , thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today To kick things off, we’d love to hear about things you or your brand do that diverge from the industry standard
WELCOME TO SANZI PERFORMANCE ORGANICS WE WANT PEOPLE TO ENJOY –
THE BENEFIT OF OUR PRODUCTS HAIR WISE AS WELL AS HEALTH-WISE
BECAUSE IT’S NOT ONLY WHAT’S IN
OUR PRODUCT THAT MAKES IT GREAT
IT’S WHAT’S NOT IN IT THAT MAKES IT SPECIAL
ROBIN SANZI, CO-CREATOR
SANZI PERFORMANCE ORGANICS is family owned and began in 2008 when Robin Sanzi suggested to her husband, Robert Sanzi — award-winning master stylist for over 30 years and
4th generation hair stylist — to create his own line of
hair care. Robert wasn’t happy about the products on the market, he was concerned about the amount of chemicals in them and
he knew he could design
a sulfate and paraben-free shampoo, completely color- safe — their original product became an instant winner.
THERE ARE ORGANIC PRODUCTS OUT THERE BUT THEY’RE NOT HIGH-PERFORMANCE.
THIS IS A HIGH-PERFORMANCE ORGANIC LINE.
OUR CLIENTS SAY:
“YOU WANT TO HAVE
THE BEST HAIR OF YOUR
LIFE — USE SANZI.”
And it’s true, you can see your hair transformed in about 2 weeks because of our anti-aging, multi-fruit complex.
About 98% of our clients purchase our products and 95% of them come back for MORE because it works and it’s safe.
ROBIN SANZI, CEO & CO-CREATOR
3
OUR MANIFESTO
PROVIDE THE WORLD A BETTER, MORE EFFICIENT, SAFER AND HEALTHIER
PRODUCT ALTERNATIVE WITH OUR EXCLUSIVE HIGH PERFORMANCE LINE OF HAIR AND BODY CARE PRODUCTS — COMPLETELY TOXIN FREE, 100% VEGAN, 70% ORGANIC —
SULFATE, PARABEN, UREA, BHT, GLUTEN AND CRUELTY FREE.
SANZI PERFORMANCE ORGANICS IS COMMITTED TO THE CONTINUATION OF RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT OF NEW, SAFER, HEALTHIER, NON-TOXIC, HIGH PERFORMANCE HAIR AND BODY CARE; PRODUCTS TO BETTER SERVE THE GROWING DEMAND FROM HEALTH CONSCIOUS CONSUMERS THAT CARE ABOUT THEMSELVES, THEIR FAMILIES, NATURE — AND EXPECT EXCEPTIONAL RESULTS.
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
Company Introduction Zi Sanzi Performance Organics from the first bottle was born around the creators: Robert and Robin Sanzi. Robert is a fourth generation hair stylist with 30+ years under his hands in the salon industry and as a platform artist for household names Paul Mitchel, ABBA, TiGi, Pureology, ect. Robin Sanzi studied and worked as a brand developer and an esthetician. Together their magical expertise lies within years of experience in the salon+spa business plus ongoing endless hair and body care R&D for Zi Sanzi Performance Organics. Robert and Robin unofficially established their company in 2008, and began searching to secure a lab for production. Their first product, the shampoo, came to the market in 2010. Subsequent to the introduction of the first product, they became incorporated in 2011 when an investor expressed interest in the company. At that time they also established IP documents with their labs and trademarking the brand.
Mission
Zi Sanzi Performance Organics mission is to provide the world, through its proprietary, high performance line of hair and body products, a better safer, more efficient healthier alternative to similar products currently available in the marketplace. Zi is accomplishing this mission through its complete major toxin free line of products, all of which are not only vegan, non-toxic and made with organic ingredients, but also Sulfate, Paraben, Urea, BHT and Gluten free. Zi’s mission also includes total commitment to the continuation of research and development of safer, healthier, toxin free, high performance hair and body care products to further enhance its already expanding proprietary formulas to better serve the ever growing population of “informed” and educated customers for generations to come.
SANZI FAMILY HISTORY
1897 – Robert’s great grandfather, Nunzio Sanzi, immigrated to the USA from
Pantone, Catanzaro, Italy with his young wife Carmelia, on his naturalization
documents he listed Barber as his profession, hence leaving Robert an Official United States Document that he is indeed a 4th Generation Hairstylist.
They had 5 children and one of these was Robert’s grandfather Nick Sanzi. He also
chose barber as his profession, seeing an opportunity to expand business, he
went back to school to get his cosmetology license. At that time men and
women were segregated and men went to the barber shop and women the beauty salon. His grandfather was the first in his county to be licensed in both Barbering
and Cosmetology which allowed him to work on both men and women in the
the same salon.
1940’s – The Sanzi name was synonymous as the premier hair salon in a
bustling county seat during the coal/coke boom in Western Pennsylvania. Nick
unfortunately suffered a massive heart attack and passed. Ann, his wife
(Robert’s grandmother), had 3 young boys at home to take care of. She moved
swiftly to put them into boarding school and she went to beauty school to
become a licensed manicurist to keep the family business thriving, which she
continued until her passing in 1999.
Two of Ann’s three sons went on to have lifetime careers as hairstylists; Ron had
several salons and multiple beauty schools where many of his children went to
learn the craft and work. Ray, the youngest son, also had a long and successful salon and platform education career. His three sons were also hair
stylists.
1960 – 1980’s Fran Sanzi (Robert’s Mom) is recruited and begins
working for Ann Sanzi, a prestigious hair stylist who was working at the
time in Cleveland, Ohio and Pittsburgh, PA. It was here at Sanzi Hair
Fashions that Richard (Robert’s dad) was home on break from the Air Force
and met Fran, they fell in love, married and had two boys and opened up their own salon called Fran and Marci’s (Robert’s Aunt).
1988 – Robert withdraws from engineering classes at the University of
Pittsburgh and is convinced by his father and cousins to give his uncle’s
beauty school a try. Catching on quickly, he soon begins to win haircutting
awards and wins the Pennsylvania State cosmetology Grand Champion Award 3
years in a row in Male and Female hair cutting. During this time he is a
platform educator for Paul Mitchell and Abba products and managing a very
large salon.
1989 – Fran Sanzi opens Expressions in Hair in Morgantown, West Virginia and convinces Robert that West Virginia needs his skill set, Robert still owns and operates the salon to this day. Robert is also a third generation hairstylist on his Mom’s side.
1992 – Fran Sanzi is diagnosed with breast cancer and undergoes extensive
surgeries and treatments for several months. It is at this time that Robert
begins to research healthier safer alternative hair care and body products
for use in his salon for a safer environment for both staff and clients. He
soon found out he was at the forefront of a new movement in the beauty industry.
2007 – Robin Sanzi (Robert’s Wife) a well respected esthetician with an eye for beauty and co-creating hair and body products convinces Robert that with all the family history and knowledge he has it’s time to begin our own product line and use the family name. Robert knows this is no easy task but begins the process. After several failed attempts, he fires the first lab and moves on to a very successful formula (color true shampoo) the first high lather sulfate and paraben free formula on the market. Zi Sanzi Performance Organics is born. Robin and Robert began to evolve the product line into using organic, cruelty-free ingredients for a vegan formula and the staple of the brand still to this day – High Performance Sulfate-Paraben-Gluten-Free Organic Vegan formulas – so everyone can have a great hair day! Zi Sanzi Performance Organics is an exclusive line of hair and body products co-created by Robert and Robin Sanzi. Zi Sanzi Performance Organics has products your audience will absolutely love, and share the same important message: to keep our Earth clean and safe, to use products that are organic and healthy, and provide non-toxic, high performance products for themselves and their families.
Can you talk to us about manufacturing? How’d you figure it all out? We’d love to hear the story.
Our initial product and lab was a complete mess and failure. The first lab was not professional and the final production product that arrived did not match our lab sample that we approved for production. With some help from our attorney we had the product returned and refunded albeit we still took a loss of about 15 thousand dollars. Extremely disappointed and upset we te grouped and reached out to a manufacturer that we had a relationship with for purchasing other products but had not yet manufactured with them. We sent them samples of the failed production run and after a few calls explained what had happened with the first labs failed formula and how we can fix it and deliver the product we had originally intended. After a 2 year process of re-formulation , new packaging design and lots and lots of formula testing. We finally delivered to market our award winning formula Color True Shampoo to consumers in December of 2010.
It became and instant hit and consumers immediately began asking for the matching conditioner, so we immediately began work and testing our conditioner formula and delivered that to market in early summer of 2011. As one of our long time friends said “having a shampoo without a conditioner is much like a hug without a kiss” they must be hand and hand together. The most valuable lesson we learned was to partner with a first class lab that has credentials such as FDA approved, INCI certification, and in our case our primary facility is also Health Canada Certified. Don’t cut corners testing or anywhere if you want to deliver a world class product. The proof is in the always in the pudding.
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
After the failure of our first product formulation and legal battle that followed we were visibly shaken….but we didn’t give up. After 2 years of r&d to get it right and delivering successful shampoo and conditioner formulas to market our first investor came calling and admired our “never give up ever” spirit and our passion and tenacity to make Sanzi a success. With his investment we were able to continue production of new products and formulations that we had talked and dreamed about but didn’t quite have the funding for ourselves to produce. With this funding and our passion we were able to bring a total of 8 products to market that continue to be customer favorites and they ask for more, more, more….
Contact Info:
- Website: www.Zisanziperformanceorganics.com
- Instagram: Zi Sanzi Performance Organics
- Facebook: Zi Sanzi Performance Organics
- Linkedin: Robert F. Sanzi
- Twitter: Zi Sanzi Performance Organics
- Youtube: Zi Sanzi Performance Organics
- Other: TikTok Zi Sanzi Performance Organx
Image Credits
Bob Williams Photography Washington Talent Photographers April Singleton Photography