About Us
How It All Began
It was a wonderful day! I was with my daughter, and a good friend who brought her daughter. Our daughters were best friends. We were having an awesome day! I brought just enough money for a couple of ice cream cones, a memento for the day and lunch. Earlier that morning before leaving, I had mentally shuffled through my handbag options. I could go by the drug store and pick up one of those belt bags. But since that whole idea of “let me add inches to my waist” has never been my style, I decided I that was out of the question. Next I could bring a back pack. But I didn’t need to carry a ton of stuff and I didn’t like the idea of my money being “behind” me. I could take my regular purse, but that meant I would need to clean it out and I didn’t have time to go through every old receipt amidst the mist of unrecognizable crumbs at the bottom of it. Besides I had lost more than one purse in my lifetime so I know the likely hood of getting it back was not in my favor in case I forgot it somewhere.
So it was lunch time. That morning I came up with a brilliant plan. Forget about bringing a purse. I would just put my money in my pocket and stuff a few extra items including my (Bonnie Bell) lip gloss in there as well. No purse. No keeping up with it. No worries! That plan seemed golden! How did I get so smart!
So imagine I’m at the food window and my little girl is munching on her fries and sipping her drink. I reach into my pocket to get out my money and voila! It is not there. Completely amazed, I stand there patting myself down turning my pockets inside out searching for my hiding cash! Well it was gone. At some point, although the jean shorts I had on looked practically painted on, the money was gone! It had crept out! Fortunately my friend had extra cash to loan me. It was enough for lunch and a gift for my little daughter.
It did not ruin the day. It was just money. A year before I had accidentally left my purse with a paycheck in it and about $200.00 in cash at a mall. Although I remembered where I left it and had gone back within 10 minutes, it was gone. The person who took it could have taken it to the lost & found. Instead they kindly mailed me back the contents of my purse (without the money I might add) a few months later. Fortunately this time I had been smart enough not to bring other personal items such as my license or credit cards (my friend drove!) But on the way home, I decided” This is the last time I deal with this. There has to be something I can make to fix this problem.”
About a billion prototypes later, and after teaching myself how to sew…the iotapak™ was born!
The goal is simple. You can keep a few essentials with you where you can see them, be cute and be hands free with out the constant worry of keeping up with your purse.
My husband Zak joined in on my enthusiasm and brushed off those old sewing skills his Mama taught him years earlier. Together we learned things like putting in zippers and checking for quality. For 5 years I had worked for a manufacturing co. Although I worked as the accountant, because of the atmosphere I picked up some manufacturing lingo and understanding of staging etc. So today the iotapak™ you purchase from us is designed by me and the actual sewing together of parts is done by Zak. We love working together.
People ask us all the time why we don’t just have them made in China for cheap. The answer is easy. We don’t want them made there. We take pride in our work and look forward to growing an American company.
That’s the story! We’d love to hear from you about your purchase.
Thank you
LeAndra & Zak
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