Erin Flood Says She’s Designed The Perfect Work Bag For Women
FREDERICTON– A New Brunswick entrepreneur is on a mission to create the perfect work bag for women with her new business venture.
Erin Flood, CEO of data design firm GoDo and former executive with HotSpot Parking, is working on her newest venture, Ripe Fashion.
For its first product Ripe Fashion is on a mission to create the perfect stylish, customizable bag for women that will take them from day to night.
The idea to create a fashion brand came from Flood’s own experience living in Toronto a few years back.
“I was commuting in and out of the city each day and it would take about two hours of my day. I was working with another startup company at that time so my days were generally pretty diverse in terms of work environments, varying from coffee shops, offices, restaurants, to boardrooms. In those environments, I required 101 things to carry along with me in my work bag which was completely unreasonable,” says Flood.
“The bag I was using at the time was one I put considerable investment into because I really liked the design of it and the style, but it was completely impractical.”
She was looking for a bag that was durable, practical but didn’t sacrifice style. Though she found there was plenty of option geared towards men on the market that checked those boxes, there was very little for women.
“There was nothing meeting in the middle where you could have the style and the design and the elegance and beauty to it, that met with the utility, which is what you need when you’re carrying a bag all day long in diverse environments,” says Flood. “It was either you were compromising style or you were compromising utility and I couldn’t find something that had both.”
So Flood started to sketch a design of her own, and that’s how Ripe Fashion started. Since that time, she and her team have interviewed hundreds of women in different industries and cities through online surveys and in-person interviews. The data they collected helped create the bag’s final design.
“When I was sketching it, I was sketching it for myself. It was a problem I was solving. I am my own customer. But what has been extremely important in the design process is talking to hundreds of women to better understand the common themes around the problems they face when it comes to finding a bag that straddles that fashion and functionality,” says Flood.
“A lot of the design principles are shaped around what that feedback has looked like. A lot of it comes down to, ‘I want to look good. I want this bag to be stylish but I need it to be durable and I need it not break my body.’ “
The design has been finalized and will be officially revealed in the coming weeks. Flood isn’t providing a lot of details until then but did say the key feature of the bag will be convertible straps and customizable compartment inserts, which is what she says will make the bag stand out from other competitors on the market.
“What we’re really excited about is our customized compartments that are made to suit the individual and her lifestyle,” says Flood. Something we’ve paid close attention to is that more and more consumers are asking for customization … customers are asking for more control.”
Ripe Fashion is still finalizing a deal with a manufacturer, but consumers can expect a higher price point.
“What we’re looking for is transparency in our pricing. When we have the finalized supplier we want to be full-time partners with, we want to make sure the consumers know exactly why the cost is what is,” says Flood “It needs to be a long-lasting durable and with that comes more expensive materials.”
The bag is expected to launch this fall and will be sold online.
Flood says Ripe Fashion won’t be stopping at just one bag.
“I have big dreams. Right now, I think it’s very important for us to be focused. A big focus and something that I care a lot about for the long-term is building products that speak for equity for both humans and the environment,” she says. “That’s pretty broad, but it’s meant to be. But we’ll always have that as our founding principles.”