Minimalist and Socially Responsible Adventurist Backpack and Accessories Company – Matilda and Kelly Belknap

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Hey there entrepreneurs. My name is Sushant and welcome to Treptalks. This is the show where I interview successful e commerce entrepreneurs, business executives, and thought leaders, diving deep into their business journey and uncovering the strategies and tactics that they have used to build and grow their businesses.

And today I’m really excited to welcome Matilda and Kelly Belknap to the show. Matilda and Kelly are the co-founders of Adventurist Backpack Company, a brand on a mission to create stylish, durable, and affordable backpacks. while tackling hunger relief by providing meals to families in need with every purchase.

And today I’ll be asking Matilda and Kelly about their entrepreneur journey, the challenges of building a purpose driven brand. And the strategies that they’ve used to grow adventurous backpacks into a recognized name in both the outdoor gear and social impact spaces. Now, before we dive deep into, into this interview, if you enjoy this kind of content, please make sure to hit the like and subscribe button.

And for more interviews like this, please visit treptalks. com. And with that, Matilda and Kelly, welcome. Thank you so much for joining me today at Treptalks. Really appreciate your time. Hey, thanks so much, Sushant. We’re happy to be here talking with you.

Matilda Belknap of Adventurist Backpack Co.: Yes. Thank you.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: I, I really enjoy speaking with businesses that are, that also have a social.

So I’m very interested to hear what kind of got you started in creating a business that also had a social component to it.

Kelly Belknap of Adventurist Backpack Co.: Yeah. So, uh, our story kind of happens in two, two parts for how we started the company. The first, well, it all started with a backpacking trip around the world. Uh, so Matilda and I.

Uh, we were planning our first international trip, which was going to be a few months long. So it was a big trip together and our first one together. Uh, and so we were getting excited, uh, obviously looking for, uh, items that we would take on our, um, trip. As far as stuff that we need, like backpacks and whatnot.

So, uh, the first thing that we noticed when we were looking for backpacks was that you could either find these cheap, like 30 backpacks that weren’t branded, or you could find the. super, uh, branded backpacks that had unnecessarily high markups. There were like 150, 200. And we kind of, you know, didn’t realize that there was such a big gap in the marketplace.

So we ended up borrowing backpacks from our family, uh, for the trip, but long story short, We kind of thought when we get back to the U. S., that’s a, let’s bookmark that idea. We definitely kind of want to explore the idea of making backpacks that are stylish, high quality, but a little bit more affordable than what we had seen on the market.

Matilda Belknap of Adventurist Backpack Co.: Yeah, exactly. And so on this trip we went on, we kind of had this idea in like in the back of our heads the whole time. Um, and [00:03:00] so we were traveling to a bunch of different countries and we saw a lot of people that were in need, uh, that were asking for help, asking for food, uh, donations. So we wanted to just.

something to help as we’re visiting their home. Um, so we filled up our backpacks with like simple meals that we just took with us and went out and give, give to anyone who was asking for food or help. And, uh, when we came back to the U S and back to Denver. We really looked into it more because we realized it was an issue that we had always heard about and knew about, obviously, um, but we didn’t realize, realize how big the issue was, how many people actually face food insecurity, um, also back here in, in Denver, in Colorado, in the whole country.

Kelly Belknap of Adventurist Backpack Co.: So, for example, in the U. S. alone, there are 18 million households facing food insecurity. So, obviously, not an insignificant amount, uh, by any means. So we decided that, you know, when we were starting the company to design our own backpack, connecting all of it together, we wanted to continue providing meals to those in need through our experiences and our travels and through the backpacks.

And so we thought it made a really natural connection with designing our own backpacks. Why don’t we, you know, Make a business that does good. We were inspired by brands like Tom’s shoes and, uh, you know, just ones that had like a give back model. And it seems like such a good idea to solve real world problems through business.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Definitely, and this definitely sounds like a big problem, 18 million people is like half of Canada’s population, so it’s a large number of people. I’m very curious, when you started this out, were you, did you already have your like full time jobs that you were doing and this was kind of like a side hustle that you were starting?

Um, and how has that evolved over time, like is this now your full time thing?

Matilda Belknap of Adventurist Backpack Co.: Yeah. So when we started, I was actually working as a nanny, so I did that part time. Um, Kelly was working as a lift driver at the time. Uh, so we did this business as a side hustle basically. And then in 2020, we took it full time, both of us.

Um, which was really. We didn’t know it at the time, but not great timing with the pandemic happening. Um, but yeah, so we’ve been doing it full time since 2020.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Yeah. Yeah. Wow. I mean, that’s, that’s so interesting, like to be starting more of a travel product business right when the pandemic was starting out.

I mean, I would be interested to hear, like, did that not demotivate you? Like, I’m sure the demand was not great at that time.

Kelly Belknap of Adventurist Backpack Co.: Yeah, so exactly. It was kind of, you know, we, I think at right away, we were like, what are we going to do? How are we going to, you know, sell travel backpacks to people when literally not a single person is allowed to travel?

Um, and we decided, you know, luckily we had kind of branded the company to be it. Absolutely. Adventure, uh, backpacks, you know, adventurous backpack co. So for any sort of adventure, uh, and so we sort of pivoted honestly to more outdoor type adventure. So we’re based here in Colorado in Denver. So, uh, it’s like a big outdoor playground for anyone that lives here.

And so we decided, you know, we’re going to market our backpacks a lot more heavily towards hiking, camping, doing any sort of stuff that was outdoor related, which, uh, Just so happened to be what basically everyone was doing at that time. So I think luckily it was obviously not a good situation, but we made the best out of it and I think we ended up growing our business a decent amount that year.

Luckily we had that sort of room to pivot because other brands don’t always, you know, have, have that, uh, lucky circumstance.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Yeah, I think that makes a lot of sense where people when they were kind of stuck at home, they wanted to get outside where, you know, they’re not, uh, around people and they can still, you know, uh, be in nature and so forth.

So I think that makes a lot of sense. Can you talk a little bit about your products? How, like, um, how many bags you have now? And what is kind of the, You said that this kind of fits in between, uh, more of the low cost option versus more of the brand options. Uh, what is different about your bag and, um, what’s unique about it?

Matilda Belknap of Adventurist Backpack Co.: Yeah. So we started out with just one backpack design. So it was kind of like a midsize day pack, um, that we designed at first. That was the backpack we had looked for ourselves that we couldn’t find. Um, so that one, uh, we started out, uh, selling it at 65. It’s made with 1000D polyesters, a really high, high quality material, completely water resistant, vegan leather.

Um, so we started with that product and then we expanded based on what we heard from customers. So people started asking, do you have something bigger? Uh, and then do you have something smaller? And then, uh, do you have any cross body bags? So we’ve kind of always listened to what the customer is asking for and kind of expanded from that while keeping the same materials.

It needs to be water resistant. It needs to hold up. It needs to work in any situation.

Kelly Belknap of Adventurist Backpack Co.: Exactly. And part of that affordable aspect is that when we were, you know, first contacting manufacturers. Uh, and finding out how much it costs to, uh, produce backpacks and get samples made and stuff like that. We quickly realized that through all of the options available, it was, you know, that what we had suspected the super high markup, uh, of a lot of brands was indeed what was happening.

Uh, you know, a backpack [00:09:00] doesn’t need to. 150 in order for it to be high quality and last a lifetime and also look good, you know, it’s just that, uh, that’s sort of where the market had head or had been heading in the past. And that’s, you know, it is what it is. But, um, you know, we kind of tried Fill that gap.

And so we continue doing that.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Yeah, and I want to actually talk more about that in a second But before that I’m interested to know about your design process So were you kind of your own designers of this bag? Like did you come up with some ideas? Did you work with a designer to come with like the original prototype or designs?

And how did kind how did you kind of convert that? Uh, into a product that you can sell. Can you talk about that process a little bit?

Matilda Belknap of Adventurist Backpack Co.: Yeah, definitely. So, neither of us had any design experience before going into this, but we kind of knew what we were looking for. So, we sat down one day and just had like a piece of paper and a pencil and we just started kind of sketching up and talking about like what features we would want in a backpack and how we would want it to look like.

So, What we’ve always tried to go, go for is, uh, something that looks really classic, um, but still modern, sleek, clean lines, minimalist, but also kind of timeless. So, we kind of just tried to like work together to. Sketch that up. And so, uh, we never have taken help from like a professional designer. We kind of just have learned as we go.

Kelly Belknap of Adventurist Backpack Co.: Yeah. And, uh, part of that too, or at two parts, I guess is one thing is we started the company basically right after college. So we. You know, had a little bit of bravado, uh, and, uh, we were definitely, you know, very naive in starting a business because we didn’t know anything. So I think that made it almost easier to just jump into and try to do it with no fear.

Um, and so, yeah, the second part is that working with a manufacturer, we’ve worked with our current manufacturer for about six years now. And I mean, they give a lot of help when we send in a design in, if they think something isn’t going to work well, they are not afraid to say that, which is super helpful to us to have a manufacturing partner that, uh, you know, we’ll be honest with us and say, Hey, I don’t think that’s going to work.

How about we try this instead? And then we say, yep, that sounds good. Are we, you know, we’re, we’re back and forth a little bit between, uh, making different iterations of the design until we’re happy with it. What

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: kind of investment that did you have to make? I mean, um, I’m assuming you bootstrapped it, but when you take a design to a manufacturer and you basically pitch the idea, um, I mean, I would be interested to know, like, are your manufacturers in China?

And they usually have, like, minimum order quantity restrictions and things like that. What kind of investment did you make in that initial process? And was there any hesitation on, you know, we can lose this money?

Kelly Belknap of Adventurist Backpack Co.: Um, I think, uh, you know, there was a little bit of hesitation, probably any, and by the way, yes, we do manufacture in China.

There were, I think with the first factory that we worked with for about a year, uh, there were minimum order quantities of like, I think you had to order, uh, it wasn’t as big as it is now with our current manufacturer actually, but we ordered, I think 900 total backpacks, 300. of three different colors. So yeah, 900 total.

And the, uh, I think, uh, you go ahead, Matilda.

Matilda Belknap of Adventurist Backpack Co.: I think that, so the, or our initial, um, investment was like around like six, 7, 000 that we had to put up front, um, for the backpacks for the inventory. And that’s all the money we had. So after that point, like we bootstrapped the rest, we didn’t spend money on anything else.

So no marketing, nothing. Cause we couldn’t afford it. Basically. So, um, and we were definitely, I think, nervous about spending all that money on something that was not a proven concept, but at the same time, we were young, no kids, no like real responsibility. So if we lost it, it’s like, we can at least like live at our parents house.

Or, you know, it’s like, we’re not gonna be completely screwed.

Kelly Belknap of Adventurist Backpack Co.: Yeah, exactly. I, yeah, totally agree.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: And I mean, now this brings me to my, the question that I wanted to ask before is, you said that, you know, you kind of went with your gut here with this product. Um, and, you know, backpack is kind of like a ubiquitous product.

Like, it’s, it’s available pretty much, you know, easily. You can go on Amazon. There’s like thousands and thousands of backpack, different kinds. All different kinds of price points. Plus, you know, now you have leather backpack, like there, there’s no shortage of backpacks, um, how, um, when you were creating this, like, were you thinking how you’re going to position in the market or how, how are you going to, uh, put your backpack, um, How is it going to stand out in the market with so much noise, right?

How are you going to, um, persuade somebody to buy your backpack versus everything else that’s available in the market?

Matilda Belknap of Adventurist Backpack Co.: Yeah, definitely. So I think back when we started, it was a little bit of a different market. Like it was at a time, even though it wasn’t that long ago, it was at a time where people didn’t show up online quite as much as they do now.

It wasn’t like that was a given that you, of course, you just go online and like, look for what you need, you know? Um, and I think what we realized was we could be a brand. So that was one part of it. Like there’s, I, I think it’s, there’s more competition now than it was back then, or at least what it felt like.

But then also I think we realized that we could be a brand that is. Like a brand that people can get behind and like and identify with without being super overpriced.

Kelly Belknap of Adventurist Backpack Co.: Yeah. So I think a big thing that when we started the company, I think we jumped straight into, we have to build a brand. So we’re not just making backpacks.

We’re not just, uh, you know, trying to make a cool looking design. We, We really wanted to have everything be super cohesive, uh, from the name to the way the backpack looks to the way we market the backpack and, you know, all, all that stuff we wanted, you know, the, the companies that we had liked for ourselves, uh, all had really strong branding.

And I think we were just. Very influenced by that. So that’s one thing that we wanted to do to our, for ourselves to separate. Cause I mean, like you said, anyone can make a backpack and someone could, you know, make a backpack that looks exactly like ours. What’s to stop someone from doing that. So we thought.

If we make our own brand so that we get a following and a customer base liking our specific brand, then we don’t really have to worry as much about the competition because of that. And obviously, you know, there are still a lot of competitors and, uh, we have a lot of room to, to grow, uh, hopefully. So, you know, but I, I think being a strong brand is kind of our passion and our focus.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: And I did see on your website, website, you have a lot of different value propositions, like you’re offering free shipping and returns. Of course, they’re the social component of it. I believe every bag you are, um, feeding 25 meals or something along those lines. Exactly. Yes.

Kelly Belknap of Adventurist Backpack Co.: Yes.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Um, how I’m just curious, like, with all this competition, plus, I mean, I would love to know your thoughts on all this, you know, China tariff and things like this.

I mean, how are you making profit with all these different things? Um, uh, I’m, I’m assuming you have really decent profit margins.

Kelly Belknap of Adventurist Backpack Co.: Yeah. Yeah. I think it all comes back to the fact that there literally are just such high markups in the backpack industry that like, I mean, we, we do have good margins and we are doing fine with the sales of our, our bags, uh, and reinvesting in the company with sales and everything like that.

And that’s even, like you said, with, so we work with feeding America, the largest hunger nonprofit in the U S we’re a direct partner with them. So for every backpack 25 meals are provided to families in need across The U S so even with designing the bags, uh, doing all the marketing costs and providing to a charity here in the U S we still have, uh, we still have room to make a profit and grow, and that’s it just goes to show that, you know, if you buy another brand’s backpack, uh, they’re making, you know, even more so that that’s great for them, but we wanted to, you know, fill that gap.

Matilda Belknap of Adventurist Backpack Co.: And yeah, I think also it was really important for us from the beginning to make. A brand and a company that we ourselves would want to shop with. So for example, we didn’t like to pay for shipping when we ordered stuff online. So it was like, let’s not make people pay for shipping or returns, or let’s make it really easy for people like to have a good experience with our brand.

Kelly Belknap of Adventurist Backpack Co.: Exactly. And I think, yeah, customer. service is one area where every single new or like underdog or emerging brand can have like the absolute, uh, you know, upper hand, because I mean, if you, uh, say I’ll just use Nike because they’re a giant company, but if you email Nike, you’re probably not going to get a response within the next Like hour or two or, and it might even take a day or two to get a response from a big company, but when you’re a small company, you can get that email and you can try to make a game out of it to reply as quick as possible.

So sometimes we do just that. And if we get a customer email, we try to. Response so fast that they are like, uh, yeah, their mind is boggled with like, Oh, wow. I have a response here. Well written and, uh, you know, helpful within five minutes. And I think, uh, yeah.

That’s also about building trust with the customer, especially from an unknown brand, as we are for most people.

You can build trust by giving them like a real human response within a quick time.

Exactly. So, uh, yeah, the, uh, yeah, I guess. That’s sort of where all that is able to, to shine, I guess.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: That’s, that’s awesome. So you created the bag, you had your initial inventory, what was your launch plan? Like, did you kind of plan out how you were going to launch, how you were going to get your first customer, and how did you get your first customer?

Kelly Belknap of Adventurist Backpack Co.: Yeah. So, uh, I think back to what Matilda said, uh, about it, like we started the company in 2017 and even though it’s only eight years ago, um, the landscape was so different back then with like social media. So we, the, the main avenue that we use to grow our business from the start was Instagram. And so, uh, we were able to, you know, quickly rack up real followers.

I feel like back then. Uh, we’ve talked about this recently, but Instagram was like an actual semi community back then. And, uh, now it’s just, you know, it’s crazy and it’s, uh, overwhelming. But, uh, back then we were able to grow our following to, you know, thousands or tens of thousands. Like, just

Matilda Belknap of Adventurist Backpack Co.: But I think when we launched, we only had a few hundred followers on Instagram.

So it still wasn’t like a huge thing we had worked on beforehand. It’s not like we were like Influencers and then started a brand like we started with zero and then we had a couple few hundred when we launched and First we were thinking let’s just sell online 100 percent like direct to consumer online and then we started and within like a week or two of launching there was like a retail like a small retail chain in Montana who reached out to us because I think they saw us on Instagram and they were like hey we really like your bags can we order a hundred of them and we were like yeah absolutely so they were like move and we should Also do retail like wholesale.

So

Kelly Belknap of Adventurist Backpack Co.: yeah. Yeah. I mean,

we’re pretty flexible.

Exactly. When you get that email, right, like a week into business after you’ve sold like 20 total bags on your website, uh, it’s like, Hmm, maybe we’re looking at this the wrong way. So, uh, since then, it’s been a mix of, yeah, social media, retail, uh, But direct to consumer and yeah, we also partner with a lot of businesses, uh, to, to make, uh, custom bags and stuff like that.

But yeah, now we do all sorts of stuff, but at the beginning it was just through social media basically. And then, uh, quickly after that, we started looking for more retailers who would, uh, Potentially carry our bags. And, you know, as a, I think a lot of retailers are looking for new products always. So people were surprisingly open to bringing our backpacks in for a test run, even, uh, you know, even just get shooting them an email.

Like we hardly ever talked with people even on the phone or anything like that, or definitely not in person and, uh, uh, just sending a cold email. Um, worked surprisingly well,

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: and I guess now, given that Instagram and all the social platforms are really, uh, you know, inundated with all the messaging and different brands, pretty much everybody is, is there, I think, do you, do you think that now it’s.

more difficult to sell through social. And so now e commerce brands have to, uh, go through other channels like retail or, you know, uh, B2B and so forth, because I mean, advertising, I think for a small business, it’s really out of scope now, right?

Matilda Belknap of Adventurist Backpack Co.: Yeah, I think it’s much more difficult today to reach actual, real people on social media.

Uh, and it has changed so much.

Kelly Belknap of Adventurist Backpack Co.: Yeah, just the algorithm, you know,

doesn’t

want to show your stuff as a business to people unless you advertise.

Yeah,

Matilda Belknap of Adventurist Backpack Co.: it feels like it’s hard to get it out there. Without using clickbaity, like, videos and stuff that can feel a little bit spammy, like you want to build a brand that feels authentic, but you also want to reach people and people’s attention span has gone shorter.

So it’s definitely tricky. Uh, I think our approach to it is also that it’s good to have a lot of different streams of revenue and streams of, of sales so that if one part is Not doing as well, then we, we’re not relying just on one thing working a hundred percent, you know,

Kelly Belknap of Adventurist Backpack Co.: exactly. Yeah. If, uh, if it’s a slow year for retail stores, ordering and picking up a product, like how it was back in, you know, 2020, um, then you can hopefully have stronger, uh, online sales or, you know, do, uh, yeah, just get creative in, in different avenues to sell.

Yeah, exactly. Exactly. We’ve also gotten a lot of bigger orders through press. So that’s also a great way to do it through, uh, just reaching out to, um, writers and being like, Hey, we have a new product that’s

just launched. I would say,

Kelly Belknap of Adventurist Backpack Co.: if

there’s, uh, like one, one tip that I can share with an audience of entrepreneurs that I think has helped me more than ever.

Anything else in business, it was reading a book called trust me, I’m lying by a guy named Ryan holiday. He has a lot of, you know, business books. Um, but anyways, this specific book, uh, had one key idea that was about, you know, the fact that with press, uh, local or national press online print, anything like that, these, uh, publicists and writers are looking, they’re like.

Hungry for the next story. They don’t have like a hundred stories in their back pocket that they can just write. They’re like, they need new stuff to come out each day. And so if you can provide that story, that brand that has a cool new angle or a cool story to it, then I mean you can get press and that can potentially drive tons of traffic to your website.

Or it gets in front of the right person’s eyes and I mean, we’ve, uh, you know, our company has just from sending cold emails to publicists, uh, we’ve gotten in, you know, holiday gift guides for companies, press like Teen Vogue or, uh, Outside Magazine, Condé Nast Traveler, you know, all the big giant publications that you would think I have no chance of getting into that.

But the fact, the truth is, you definitely have a chance. All you have to do is send an email and, uh, you know, or send hundreds of emails. But, uh, it’s, uh, it works. And I, I think that’s like so helpful to, you know, that I, that we learned that early on. And, uh, we’ve been applying that like ever since.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: So you’re still doing it, uh, and how, how do you, like, what is your process?

Like, do you find these people through LinkedIn? Like, do you, uh, what is your process of finding these contacts?

Kelly Belknap of Adventurist Backpack Co.: Yeah. So, uh, actually, um, it, it took a little while to be able to find like contact info consistently, but. Um, something that you can do is always look up like the email format. It’s just kind of being like a little bit of a detective.

Uh, but you, uh, you find the email format of the publication you’re looking for many times it’s like, you know, for, as an example, first initial, last name at so and so. com. And, uh, once you find the one for that publication, you just. Uh, do it over and over again with all the names that you find, you know, and

Matilda Belknap of Adventurist Backpack Co.: obviously once you find their contact information, find the right one, send them like a real email.

Like don’t spam them because they’ll just block. Oh yeah. You know, like actually, actually reach out to people that you think you can, like, they can have value from what you’re providing them and you can have value from that. Exactly. Have like a real conversation, not just. Yeah,

Kelly Belknap of Adventurist Backpack Co.: one thing I always do I like, for example, I don’t send out like one email to every single person.

I, I customize it and write like I look up like it’s definitely time consuming, but I look up what type of. Uh, writing do they generally do, um, you know, and I, I send them an angle that would work for them because obviously this only works if you’re providing value to them, if you’re just shamelessly self promoting, then it’s not adding value to the publicist.

Like Matilda said, it’s just. It’s going to annoy them and then it definitely won’t work. But if you, you know, take the time and effort to like read some of their stuff and, uh, you know, say, I think this person would be interested in this angle. Uh, so I’m, I’m not going to pitch the, the fashion angle of our backpacks to someone who is interested in the outdoor ruggedness of a backpack and vice versa.

You know, uh, it’s, it’s totally different depending on who’s writing.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: That’s, that’s so, so interesting that, you know, you’re able to get all that press on your own, like you don’t have to hire a PR, a publicist or anything like that. Um, so now you, you, so you have your own website, you’re on in retail stores.

Are you also selling on marketplaces like Amazon or other marketplaces?

Matilda Belknap of Adventurist Backpack Co.: No, so we’re not selling on any marketplace.

Kelly Belknap of Adventurist Backpack Co.: We don’t, we don’t sell, we’ve kind of wanted to keep full control of like all the terms and everything like that. So we haven’t, uh, sold with Amazon. We do sell with like Kohl’s, uh, which is a big, bigger retailer here in the U.

S. I don’t know if they have that in Canada. But, um, uh, it’s probably one of the, the more like mainstream retailers here in the U S I’m sure I would guess they have hundreds of thousands of locations across the U S and that would be the most similar thing to Amazon that we sell through where it’s like a more general thing where, you know, if you search up our backpacks, that’s one of the first things to.

Show up just because they’re a giant company. Um, but we Yeah, no, I think we’ve tried to sell more with like actual retailers. So we sell with like uncommon goods Which is another like it they’re like an online marketplace. Uh, we sell with like urban outfitters Uh,

and also a lot of boutique retailers.

Yeah

Matilda Belknap of Adventurist Backpack Co.: so kind of just trying to actually be out there and like Get our backpacks in a place. We wouldn’t be otherwise because we do have our own Online presence. So it’s nice to get into brick and mortar stores. They’re actually like out in these like smaller communities exactly

Kelly Belknap of Adventurist Backpack Co.: and Yeah, one thing that I heard someone say in another podcast.

I think it was like, yeah Possibly beyond yoga. I don’t know who is heard of that, but they’re a big big company bought by Levi’s I believe and Uh, the founder of that company said something that really resonated with me, which was that getting your product into a store, even though you have to sell it at a wholesale price, even a small store in a small town, you know, if you spread your tentacles and you get your product in a lot of different places in the actual, you know, eyeballs of people, you know, physical products, um, it’s like getting paid to market your product.

So, I mean, I try to look at it the exact same way. Sure, we might not make as much of a profit with wholesale, but if we, you know, get the product out there and we still make a little bit of money, then that’s a great way to basically market and advertise for free. Or, you know, advertise and make money.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: So you’re, uh, I mean, what I’m hearing so far is your customer acquisition is really mostly distribution.

You want to get your product to as many stores, as many retailers out there as much, uh, possible. Um, and then you’re doing some organic marketing, but you’re, are you doing any paid advertisement as well? What is, what is working the best for you in terms of like. New customers acquisition.

Matilda Belknap of Adventurist Backpack Co.: So we don’t really do much paid ads.

Like we don’t run ads like Facebook ads. We don’t run it. Not often.

Kelly Belknap of Adventurist Backpack Co.: We do, we do a force occasionally. And most of those ads are retargeting ads, not because I feel like you mentioned, I think a little bit earlier how now the landscape of business is so crowded that, I mean, to get your. Brand recognized on the internet to a significant amount of people through advertising It’s just gonna take so much money that it I don’t know like unless You know, you’re amazing at advertising Then it’s probably just gonna use up more money than it’s worth.

Matilda Belknap of Adventurist Backpack Co.: Yeah, so we definitely try to do more Any type of free advertising we can do, like press or in person events, we do a lot of those. We’ve done also, like, we do like trade shows sometimes, stuff like that, which does cost money, but we don’t spend a lot on paid ads, like online.

Kelly Belknap of Adventurist Backpack Co.: No, yeah, I would say our biggest methods of getting customers is sending emails to boutique stores, uh, also national retailers and stuff like that.

We still email them and, and try to Get into, to big stores when we can, you know, and find, find the, uh, email addresses for the buyers for stores in the exact same way as press, you know, also, yeah, like you mentioned,

LinkedIn is a big help. And then organic social media reach.

Yeah, exactly. Have

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: you tried Fair at all?

Fair?

Matilda Belknap of Adventurist Backpack Co.: We’ve, we’ve talked to them a little bit and we’ve looked at it and we’re, we’re interested, but yeah, we, we haven’t tried it yet. Do you have any experience? Like, do you?

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: No, I mean, to me it seems like, like you’re reaching out to businesses and that, that’s kind of the platform. It’s like a B2B. So, uh, I’ve, I’ve heard a lot of, like, I’ve spoken with other businesses that, Have a lot of success from there.

So, but it seemed like a something that may be worth trying.

Kelly Belknap of Adventurist Backpack Co.: Yeah Yeah, I think uh, we we’ve had that we’re we’re keeping that in our back pocket and thinking about the future I think if the well of stores dries up that from cold emailing we’ll definitely turn to that but I think a

little bit like hesitant with the the margins that They take, but they’ve recently restructured the whole, like, kind of, uh, like the price.

I think it is a bit more favorable to the business businesses. So yeah, it’s something to look, look into for sure.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Do you, what are your thoughts on this, uh, um, of course from a channel perspective, you’re kind of diversified, but from a manufacturing perspective, you’re in China, but there’s a lot of changes going on, you know, with Trump applying new tariffs and so forth, and there’s no certainty.

Um, do you ever think about diversifying your supply chain, your manufacturers to have some other places as well.

Matilda Belknap of Adventurist Backpack Co.: So it’s definitely something we’ve talked about and that we kind of always talk about and discuss. Uh, we really, really, really like the factory or the manufacturer that we work with now. So it’s not something that we necessarily want to do.

Um, if we end up Having to, but obviously

Kelly Belknap of Adventurist Backpack Co.: the smart thing for any business, us included, which yeah, we haven’t done it yet, but we probably should. It is, is to also diversify your manufacturing. Cause if anything were to happen, you know, it’s like, you don’t want all your eggs in one basket, of course. So I think, uh, yeah, it’s definitely the, the smart and the right thing to do, to have different options.

And that’s something that we, you know. Yeah, are always thinking about a little bit. So we, uh, yeah, it’s, it’s tough. I guess our thoughts in general about stuff like that, that happened with that, like tariffs and stuff like that is As business owners, I think our philosophy is stuff like that is out of our control.

So we are only going to like focus on the things that we do have control over. And, uh, even if it’s, you know, hopefully the tariffs, you know, don’t affect us too much, but we have to figure out a way to survive regardless. So that’s, you know, we’ll focus on that. Uh, and yeah, it’s a, it’s such a. Yeah, complicated kind of situation, but, uh, it’s

Matilda Belknap of Adventurist Backpack Co.: also the question, I guess, is also how much money are you losing?

Versus how much would you spend on finding other alternatives and how much time would you spend on that, that you could be spending on growing the business. So it’s a lot of different parts to it, I think.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: But I, I, I get the sense that you had good experience in working with manufacturers in China. Um, did you find them through Alibaba or like, what was your searching process like?

Do you visit China? Like, have you gone to the factory?

Matilda Belknap of Adventurist Backpack Co.: So we have been invited to come. We haven’t made it yet, but it’s definitely on our list.

Kelly Belknap of Adventurist Backpack Co.: It’s definitely on our list. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Things

we want to do. Um,

yeah, we have like, uh, we, we did find them through Alibaba to answer your first question. And, uh, yeah, so the thing is.

I feel like we of course want to visit them and, you know, meet face to face with the people that we talk so much with on a daily basis. It’s kind of funny thinking about that because when I think about it right now you’re asking that question. I feel like we know our Manufacturers like two or three people within the company so well and they send us like we send each other like Uh new years and christmas gifts and stuff like that Just you know stuff like that and they will write us handwritten notes and send photos of themselves smiling and stuff you know, it’s just like uh it it feels like In today’s day and age, you can really know who someone, you know, more or less, uh, from the internet, you know.

Yeah, it’s just that they

Matilda Belknap of Adventurist Backpack Co.: do send a lot of photos and like video, video, um, tours of the, the, while they’re making the backpacks or if there’s anything they’re wondering and stuff like that. So, we definitely have a great connection with them, but yeah, we haven’t been yet, but it’s on our list.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: So my next question, um, your team, um, so are you two the only, um, Members in your business right now, or do you have other team members also that you hired?

Kelly Belknap of Adventurist Backpack Co.: We are, yeah, it’s just us two. And, uh, yeah, we’ve, there’s been a lot of times when we’ve, uh, debated hiring people, um, you know, I guess to do some of maybe the more time consuming tasks so that we can focus on marketing and sales and stuff like that.

But I think ultimately every time that we’ve done the math and figured out, How much can we. Do more ourselves. How much more efficient can we get, uh, at doing what we do? Um, it always comes down to, I think we’re, we’re able to continue doing it. Just us two for a little bit longer. So we’ll see what happens in the future.

But, um, I. Remember, uh, [00:43:00] hearing Solo Stove story, have you, have you heard of, uh, that brand before? Solo Stove, no. Yeah, they sell like those, uh, They look

Matilda Belknap of Adventurist Backpack Co.: like gas camper stoves that look like they come in like a can. Exactly,

Kelly Belknap of Adventurist Backpack Co.: they’re like, at least they’re, they were really popular here in the U. S. But, um, I listened to an interview with those founders and It was really inspiring because it was two brothers and they, uh, grew their company, SoloStove, to like 300 million in sales a year with just them two, with no other workers.

They were still sending out all the orders themselves. And when I think about that, I actually have no idea how they accomplished that and had time for everything. But A part of me always thinks when I think about their story, Hey, well, if they can do that, then we can, we can do it too. And I don’t know if it’s true or not, but we’ll, we’ll, uh, we’ll see.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: I think technology and this AI is definitely making things, [00:44:00] um, easier to. Create systems and workflows and where you can basically, you know, set things up and it helps you out as well. So definitely, I think you can do more by, by just having one or two people, I guess.

Kelly Belknap of Adventurist Backpack Co.: Exactly, exactly. And, uh, I mean. Um, I would imagine that being just like a one person team is much, much harder than having like, I mean, obviously Matilda and I run the business and started it together.

Um, but, uh, it’s, it’s

Matilda Belknap of Adventurist Backpack Co.: being a solo founder, I think would be a completely different story.

Kelly Belknap of Adventurist Backpack Co.: Yeah. When I, when I think about how much you’d have to do just by yourself, it, uh, yeah, I have a lot of respect for solo founders.

Matilda Belknap of Adventurist Backpack Co.: Yeah. And I feel like even being one founder. Even if you hire a second person, uh, pretty early on that second person is probably still not going to do as much as a founder would.

You’re not going to care. You can’t expect them to be working like, uh, like.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: I mean, I think it’s, um, it’s like, first you have to create the, the processes and systems and then you basically then find people to outsource the things that you don’t want to do. And, you know, that maybe cannot be automated. Uh, to technology, but you know, require people and things like, I think these, these days business, I find, or I feel that business is more of a creativity game now, you know, customer acquisition and everything.

It’s like the more creative you are, the more creative you are in storytelling and your marketing, you know, that’s, that’s what really brings people to you. Otherwise you’re basically just spending money.

Kelly Belknap of Adventurist Backpack Co.: Yeah. Yeah. Totally

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: agree with that. Um, are you only selling in the U. S.? Are you also in international markets?

Matilda Belknap of Adventurist Backpack Co.: So we do ship all over the world, basically. Um, in retailers, we’re just in the U. S. as of now. Um, but yeah, we do ship everywhere in the world, basically.

Kelly Belknap of Adventurist Backpack Co.: Yeah, exactly. We figure there’s a lot of room to grow in the U. S., obviously. A big population, uh So, we want to keep, you know, working on that before spreading, uh, spreading further.

Um, but yeah, we do still ship like almost everywhere, um, on our website.

Matilda Belknap of Adventurist Backpack Co.: And also, I feel like it’s how it was in the beginning. We feel like this is what we want to do, this is the plan. But it’s like A big retailer from say Canada reached out and was like, and it was a good fit. We wouldn’t say no.

Kelly Belknap of Adventurist Backpack Co.: We would say yes, but

Matilda Belknap of Adventurist Backpack Co.: we’re not pursuing it necessarily.

Yeah,

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: exactly. That makes sense. Um, what is your future vision for your business? Like five years down the road, do you still see yourself as like a two, two person team? Do you have. Um, goals of like scaling your business to a certain revenue number, or, you know, any other goals that you may have for your business?

Matilda Belknap of Adventurist Backpack Co.: So I definitely think that we’re going to have to hire someone coming up, uh, at least a few people. It would be great to, I think for me personally, like it would be great to create like a, uh, to be an employer to people and be able to, uh, give people jobs that are really like fun and flexible and. Like, just a great workplace, that’s something that would be really cool,

Kelly Belknap of Adventurist Backpack Co.: I think.

Yeah, it would

be fulfilling for sure. I, yeah, I think we definitely, you know, that’s definitely the plan. I mean, anyone that has a business where they ship out orders, uh, realizes how much time that can take. Uh, say if you, you know, if you get lucky and you get a lot of orders in one day. Uh, yeah, it can, I mean, the next morning you’re preparing orders all morning and that time could be better spent, uh, you know, sending emails, working on getting more sales, but then you lose that time.

So I feel like we for sure are gonna, you know, need to expand our team, especially with the kind of fulfillment end of the business, uh, you know, working at the warehouse, sending out orders and stuff like that. I think Matilda and I still. really love our parts of the business and are passionate about like the marketing and the sales and stuff like that.

So I think that’s the stuff we would maybe less be inclined to hire for at the beginning.

Matilda Belknap of Adventurist Backpack Co.: And then if we’re talking about like plans for the future and goals for the future, I think both of us are definitely on the same page of like we’re wanting to do this and run this and see how big we can make it.

Like, For a really long time to come. So we’re not trying to like build a company and sell it and, you know, get out of it. That’s not what we’re trying to do. We, we want to just grow this business and do everything we can to like, keep, keep being like that type of company that we ourselves would want to shop from and, and, uh, All that.

So yeah, exactly. Exactly.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Do you, do you have your own warehouse? Are you like, are you doing the shipping on your own or do you, are you working with like a third party? Yeah. So

Kelly Belknap of Adventurist Backpack Co.: we do all the shipping on our own. We do have a warehouse. So, uh, yeah, we, yeah. During the busier times of the year, it gets, you know, it’s, it’s hectic going back and forth to the warehouse and, uh, doing stuff like that.

So that’s why it would be really nice to have someone to, to do handle that. Part of it, but yeah, we ship, but we ship all the orders out ourselves. We print the shipping labels and put them on and throw in a thank you card into the order. So it’s a very personal experience.

Matilda Belknap of Adventurist Backpack Co.: A

lot of people do outsource that, but we’ve also heard some pretty not super fun stories about how that can.

Go wrong sometimes. So it’s definitely something we want to keep doing ourselves.

Kelly Belknap of Adventurist Backpack Co.: Yeah, I think we our Philosophy on that is kind of like we are happy to outsource or like to yeah outsource as much stuff as possible that can be done without affecting the customer experience and anything related to how the customer is going to experience our brand, our products and stuff.

We kind of, at least at the moment, want full control over that.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: No, that definitely makes a lot of sense. Um, in every business’s journey, there’s always mistakes made, lessons learned. Uh, what has been like a top one or two, uh, big mistakes that you, you know, you think that you made? Um, What did you learn from it?

What can other entrepreneurs learn from your mistakes?

Matilda Belknap of Adventurist Backpack Co.: So I think we have definitely had a lot of times where we’re like, oh crap, we should not have done that that way. Or like we didn’t have any experience in business or design or anything going into this. So we’ve learned everything we know now. We learned.

Basically after starting the business, um, we, we launched this company without necessarily knowing what we were getting ourselves into. Um, and so one of the things we did early on was we found a manufacturer. We had to order, like we said, 900 units and we had placed that order. And that same night we were like, I remember we were like laying in bed and I like all of a sudden just realized, like, Wait, we just ordered 900 backpacks.

Those are not gonna just like show up on our doorstep Like this is gonna be like boxes and boxes and boxes of bags What we didn’t even know like where do they even show up? Yeah, so it turns out they show up in a port in LA and it’s up to us to get them to our address So it was  

Kelly Belknap of Adventurist Backpack Co.: get them cleared through custom get them loaded onto a pallet packed into a A truck and shipped halfway across the country.

And so, uh, yeah, that was, uh, a little bit of a panic situation.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: You didn’t even consider about all those costs.

Kelly Belknap of Adventurist Backpack Co.: Yeah, yeah, the cost, but even just the logistics, like the fact that Like we’re, we were so young and didn’t know how to do anything, and now it’s like, now we have to find a freight forwarder. We didn’t even know what a freight forwarder is.

It’s like finding a freight forwarder when you don’t know what that is and you’re just Googling, uh, how does a business, uh, get, uh, boxes from a port to, to be, and then you, you slowly learn like what you’re even doing, and then yeah, you have to, you know, get it to work. So I guess,

yeah,

stuff like that. I mean, we’ve had plenty of.

is like,

Matilda Belknap of Adventurist Backpack Co.: yeah, just stuff where, where we, we also, like we mentioned that early on that, uh, smaller retail chain in Montana, they were like, Oh yeah, we want to order a hundred bags. We’re like, okay, great. Yes. And then we were like, Okay, these bags need, like, we need to quality check all of them, we need to put hang tags on all of them, and then, how do we ship them?

We have, we never shipped a hundred backpacks before. We didn’t know, like, there’s so much stuff that we just, we didn’t know. We always said yes, but we didn’t necessarily know how we were gonna make that happen. Um, so, kind of just, Stuff like that where we take, we, we got approached by a, a big company who wanted to order, uh, like, I don’t know how many backpacks for the, for their event, uh, and it was Google who wanted to order them for their International Women’s Day event to give to all the people there.

Hundreds of backpacks they wanted. And They said, can you get it done within this time frame? And we said, yes, absolutely. And then after we were done talking to him, it’s like, we look at each other and like, how are we gonna do that? It’s just the two of us. But.

Kelly Belknap of Adventurist Backpack Co.: Yeah, you just find a way to make it work. I think that’s like the whole thing and I assume that we’re going to keep running into, you know, bigger, uh, versions of the same stuff, which unfortunately will probably mean that they’re even more stressful.

Uh, but you know, I don’t think the surprises and the, uh, the learning experiences will stop anytime soon. Yeah.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: I mean, that’s the pleasure of entrepreneurship, right? It’s like you, you’re on a journey where you don’t know where, you know, what’s ahead, uh, like two steps ahead. And so you, it’s like, it’s always good to have an open mind to, to learn.

Kelly Belknap of Adventurist Backpack Co.: Exactly. I think you have to be like a, you have to love problem solving. If you don’t, then I, I don’t know how entrepreneurs that don’t

stressful. Yeah,

exactly. It’s not

Matilda Belknap of Adventurist Backpack Co.: problem solving. I think,

Kelly Belknap of Adventurist Backpack Co.: yeah, I think, uh, We definitely get, we’ll, in situations like that, we’ll get stressed for maybe, I’ll say we can be stressed for up to 24 hours, and then at that point, we’re, we tell ourselves, hey.

Okay, we can’t worry about this anymore. What, what are we going to do about this situation? Let’s come up with a plan and, uh, you know,

just figure it out. And then it

starts feeling good from that point.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Usually. Yeah. Uh, now I’m going to move on to our rapid fire segment in this segment to ask you a few quick questions and you have to answer them maybe in a word or a sentence or so.

So the first one, I know that you’ve already mentioned the book, but, uh, Ryan Ryan holidays book, uh, any other book that you would recommend for entrepreneurs?

Matilda Belknap of Adventurist Backpack Co.: One that I would recommend is Purple Cow.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: And

Kelly Belknap of Adventurist Backpack Co.: I say, uh, The Alchemist.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Okay. Awesome. Uh, an innovative product or idea in the current e commerce, retail, or tech landscape that you feel excited about.

Anything that you, any innovative products or ideas that you personally like?

Matilda Belknap of Adventurist Backpack Co.: Uh, I have to think.

Kelly Belknap of Adventurist Backpack Co.: Um, I would say, uh, gonna be boring, but I’m gonna say anything AI based is super exciting and interesting at the moment.

Matilda Belknap of Adventurist Backpack Co.: Yes, I’m gonna second that.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Any business or productivity tool or software that you would recommend or a productivity tip?

Kelly Belknap of Adventurist Backpack Co.: Um, for a e commerce owner, Shopify is the best tool that we have found.

Matilda Belknap of Adventurist Backpack Co.: Yes, all the tools available through Shopify.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Uh, another startup or business, it could be in e commerce, retail, or tech, that you think is currently doing great things.

Matilda Belknap of Adventurist Backpack Co.: Uh, I’m gonna say a brand called Scenic. Their startup, uh, they do women’s like hiking clothes.

They’re really cool, I think.

Kelly Belknap of Adventurist Backpack Co.: And I’m going to say another backpack brand that we love and that’s from our same state and it’s called Topo Designs. [00:57:00]

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Dopey designs, okay. Uh, a peer entrepreneur or business person whom you look up to or someone who inspires you?

Kelly Belknap of Adventurist Backpack Co.: Um, I will say, uh, well, John D. Rockefeller. Very inspired by.

Awesome. Anything for you? For me,

um, I’m trying to think.

Well, you’re Swedish. So maybe, what, uh, the guy who started Ikea?

Yeah. Yes.

Do you, do you

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: call it Ikea or Ikea?

Matilda Belknap of Adventurist Backpack Co.: Ikea.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Ikea. Okay.

Kelly Belknap of Adventurist Backpack Co.: Yeah.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Yeah. Final question. Best business advice that you have ever received or you would give to other entrepreneurs?

Kelly Belknap of Adventurist Backpack Co.: I think, uh, just having a why not attitude is the best way. Seeing, uh, instead of the obstacle, seeing the solution or the method to get to a solution.

Matilda Belknap of Adventurist Backpack Co.: Yeah, it’s hard to. I don’t feel like, I don’t know if I should be, like, giving others advice, but what has worked for us to get to this point, at least, is to not wait to do the things you want to do, like, just do it even if you feel unsure if you’re gonna, if you know how to do it, and also to be very, very, to adapt, to be flexible.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Awesome. Those are great advice, for sure. Uh, well, thank you so much again, uh, for your time, Kelly and Matilda. Um, How can people find your products? What’s the best way to shop for your products?

Kelly Belknap of Adventurist Backpack Co.: Yeah, so, uh, the best ways to find us online, uh, adventuristbackpacks. com. So, that’s adventurist with an I S T, uh, so not adventurous, but adventuristbackpacks.

com. You can follow us on social media, on like Instagram or TikTok at the handle at adventuristbackpacks, uh, and yeah, we’d love to chat with anyone who wants to to chat with us. So, uh, say, Hey, anytime.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Well, thank you so much again, Kelly and Matilda. Thank you for the opportunity for sharing your story, uh, lessons learned.

Uh, I’m sure it’s going to be very, very useful for other entrepreneurs as well. Uh, so thank you again and wish you all the very best.

Kelly Belknap of Adventurist Backpack Co.: All right. Thanks so much, Sushant