We recently connected with Sakura Yokoi and have shared our conversation below.

Sakura, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. 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 idea was sparked back in 2021 as a dog mom to my French Bulldog, Waffles. He is the first dog that is 100% mine and naturally SO spoiled! My partner and I would take him out with us on trips and typically always be missing something whether it was treats, wipes, or a bowl. We envisioned a cooler way to carry his stuff and keep it all in one place and thus, The Dog Bag Co. was born. With the pet industry booming post-pandemic as well as a growing trend of dogs being included as fully integrated members of the family, we were confident that it would be a great idea.
Fast forward to 2025 and we were able to launch our first collection featuring our Dog Bag, which was inspired by diaper bags for babies, as well as associated accessories such as our travel mat, bowl, and treat pouch.

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.

Personally, my business partner and I have backgrounds in event production consulting and fitness management. However, we were always brainstorming what type of business we could run ourselves. Once we got our first dog, Waffles, and then second dog, Frank, everything clicked as we were spending weekends taking them to the park or beach. Especially with two French Bulldogs, they needed a bag exclusively with their stuff.
We wanted the design aesthetic to be upscale and high-quality with a sleek, minimalist feel.
The first collection was designed to be timeless with a quiet luxury vibe, geared towards the chic dog parent. Our most popular product is our Dog Bag Bundle which includes the backpack, travel mat, bowl and treat pouch. The bag is equipped with thoughtful storage pockets, padded straps, water bottle holders on the sides and a poo bag dispenser with a roll of poo bags included that come in super handy!

We’d really appreciate if you could talk to us about how you figured out the manufacturing process.

In 2021, when we were first brainstorming ideas for a business, we had no experience with manufacturing or design. As the idea for The Dog Bag Co. continued to take shape, we anticipated the manufacturing process to be our biggest hurdle. The first product we had in mind was actually the mat. At restaurants, cafés, wineries, etc. we would bring an old towel or sheet for Waffles to lay on. We didn’t want him laying on a dirty, rough surface. We began by sketching some basic designs and visiting fabric stores. We took the fabric and materials to a basic dry cleaners and had them sew it together. We ordered patches with a very basic logo, and we still have these initial prototypes!
Next we tried to tackle a backpack. Again, we did basic sketches and took some measurements from some promotional backpacks we had from working events. From here we had someone online make us a tech pack to send to a factory we found in the U.S. Unfortunately, our measurements were off and overall, we were going to have to find someone with more extensive experience designing and manufacturing a backpack with the type of quality we wanted.
Luckily, at the dog park one weekend we happened to meet a contact from the pet industry who had created and scaled multiple pet brands. He referred us to a designer he thought could help. We were able to partner with the designer and ultimately work hand in hand with her and her manufacturing contacts to develop our first product line.

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

Throughout my career, I have had many instances where pivoting was involved. I began working for larger companies such as Nordstrom and Bank of America and realized after a few years, that wasn’t a good fit for me. Around 2015, I began working in the fitness industry part-time and it progressed toward more of a full-time career. Fitness, however, was also not without its challenges and pivots. I worked with a few brands where ownership changed, management roles were cut and ultimately I was selling someone else’s concept and running someone else’s studio. Although I do still work in the fitness industry today and have learned many valuable lessons over the years, it is through these experiences that I knew I was destined to be running the show myself.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://thedogbagco.com
• Instagram: @thedogbagco
• Facebook: @thedogbagco