We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Tiffany Willett a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Tiffany, thanks for joining us today. Risk taking is something we’re really interested in and we’d love to hear the story of a risk you’ve taken.

Hi! First off, thanks for the opportunity to share how remi + lola began!

when this business venture began, I was actually a graphic designer + marketing designer. i am a designer at heart, but now, thanks to my pups and my determination to create strong, functional, affordable and adorable gear, I now consider myself a maker AND designer. custom work makes my heart happy! on to the story of how it all began…

let me preface by stating, my entire life, I’ve had dogs. I don’t remember a time in my life there wasn’t a pup in our house. I liked them fine, but never absolutely adored them, if that makes sense….fast forward to 2017. we had just lost one of our Brittany spaniels and my husband handed me $100 and told me to save it for our puppy fund. a good friend of mine had a pup, Fergus, who was a cavalier King Charles spaniel and we all loved him. he was the sweetest most chill dog I’ve ever met. the search began for us to find our very own cavalier. we decided a tri-color is what we wanted (black, white and brown). we researched and finally found a breeder nearby and they had one pup left, a tri-color boy. a few days later, we drove up to meet him and instantly fell in love. once we brought him home, I bonded with him like ive never bonded with another. we named him remi. six months later, I saw a gal rehoming a blenheim cavalier (red and white) so my father and law, daughter and I drove to Illinois to meet her. she is the sweetest girl, she came home with us, and that is what got my business started.

I was buying remi + lola so many dog toys, bandanas, collars, leashes, etc. my father in law suggested I learn to make them myself. keep in mind: I had tried for years to learn to sew. it was comical really. however, I practiced and watched videos, tutorials, researched the safest types of harnesses, collar webbing, hardware, etc. and kept practicing. my very first in person show was a few months after I had finally become confident in what I was creating. I went to said show with about 30 collars and some bandanas. and I sold completely out on the first day. it was a shock to say the least!

over the years, my confidence grew, as well as my customer base. I absolutely love going to shows, seeing pups and their owners who have supported me since day one and some who have become treasured friends. I gave up focusing on graphic design/logo/marketing to jump feet first into dog gear production. while the pay is a bit different (okay, a lot haha!), I dont think I would change it for the world. I have learned so much about dog gear safety, meeting pups who wear my gear, etc. it’s been an absolute blessing to discover the world of handmade dog gear and hope I will be creating for years.

Tiffany, 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?

we love working one on one with customers to create the perfect collar/tag/etc. for them. all of the materials I purchase for creating collars and such has all been as locally sourced as possible. I get my webbing from one of two places, my hardware comes from a small shop in the US, and the fabrics I buy, some locally, some on custom fabric sites to support other small business owners. I do my best to keep everything I purchase supporting another small shop like my own.

I have spent years perfecting my sizing and design as well as offering discounts to ‘brand reps’ to test out any new gear ideas I have (because let’s face it, creatives have brains that go 90 to nothing). another bonus about purchasing from remi + lola is that all of our handmade collars have a one year warranty on them : if anything were to happen to the collar (fabric tears, stitching issues, hardware issues), just send it back to me and I will send you a replacement collar for 1/2 price. I stand behind my products and make sure they’re safe, functional and adorable for you.

we have also started to be as sustainable as possible, using compostable mailers, tissue paper and paper labels so that everything we ship to you is recyclable or compostable.

some of the products we offer:

over the collar slip bandanas (which our customers LOVE) so that you don’t have to worry about them coming untied, getting hung, etc. we also, in the fall, do offer tie on flannel bandanas which are perfect for fall photo shoots and more!

doggie waste bag holders : we create these using scrap material from our collars and bandanas to create cute yet functional little bags for your doggie disposable bags can be stored.

bowties : because who doesn’t love a bowtie on a pup?! our bow ties keep their crisp shape when your pups wear them for extended amounts of time. my fingers aren’t a fan of folding them but they hold up so well its worth it!

sweet bows : these are a bit more girlie, they’re knotted bows that clip on to the collar with wrap around velcro so your girl gets to be fancy too!

leashes : our leashes are offered as special order. we can create them to coordinate with your collar, bandana, bowties, etc. or you can get JUST a leash in the fabric of your choice.

harnesses : also offered as special order. our harnesses require certain measurements for us to be confident that they fit your pup well!

tote bags : these are brand new and SO fun to create. being a designer as well, I can create custom ‘patches’ to go on the tote bags. currently our best selling tote says “so apparently I can’t adopt ALL the dogs….rude, but okay” and our locals love them!

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

I’m not usually one to give myself much credit for anything, because it takes a village to build a business and grow. I take every comment, suggestion, critique to heart and if it’s something I can improve, I do.

I credit my customers and family both for giving me new ideas to try and test out, I stand 100% behind my product and if there is ever anything that needs to be improved, I do what I can to make that happen. just recently, I learned I was going to have to change my hardware due to supply and demand, so instead of jumping in and ordering a ton of metal hardware from a company ive never used without proper testing, I have gone back to my military grade plastic buckles until I can find a metal buckle that I can test, trust and distribute on our collars to our customers. I won’t sell anything untested. sure, it may make my sales drop just a bit for a while because the metal is definitely *stunning*, however the safety and well being of the pups and their owners is much more important than my rushing new hardware on my gear.

I would like to say that the way I care for my customers helps me grow as a human, and as a business.

We’d love to hear about how you keep in touch with clients.

I try to stay as active on instagram and Facebook as I can with my customers and clients. I also give the option to sign up for text alerts at in person shows so that I can let them know where ill be setup in the future as well as sending out sales and discounts.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.remiandlola.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/remiandlola
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/remiandlola
• Other: TikTok : @remiandlola

Image Credits
credit : Tiffany Willett // remi + lola