Shawny D. ChiefSac

Lovesac Sactionals; waves crashing; ahh January

2012-01-25T12:28:12-05:00

I am sitting here, right now, on the Lanai (that would be the 2nd story veranda overlooking the pool/ocean in the distance for those as unsophisticated as myself) catching up on my blog as the crew sets up our brand spankin' new outdoor Sactionals in the corner for a shot involving 2 kids, a hose, and lots of water....its clear why we didn't stage this January shoot in the NYC area.

MAN, I've got the furniture, now I just need to figure out how to get me one of these here beach mansions to kick it in--because WORKING this close to the sound of a hot-tub trickling into the pool and waves crashing in the distance is just, somehow torturous.

Anyway, for those of you who've already arrived and have your own little slice of paradice--whether it be in the suburbs of central Jersey or plains of Texas, Lovesac has really stretched itself to deliver all of the washable, changeable, comfortable, durable, moveable, stackable, FedEx-able, extremely modular benefits of the Sactionals to your outdoor seating area. Seriously--this is a game changer.

The product will not be available to you until March 19th, but get your orders in now because we've produced a limited quantity and they are going to go fast.

THEY ARE SO AWESOME (in my humble opinion)...and even though I'm biased (as it is my team that invented them), I am a Lovesac customer myself and I can't wait to deck out my own deck with them (sadly, minus the hot tub, pool, beach, waves, lanai, and 12 month endless summer).

Keep your eye on Lovesac.com and start planning your space. (BTW: These images were just taken with my point-and-shoot, so they don't do them justice--just for a sneak peak)

BTW: Did I mention that the wicker/steel frames weigh less than half of indoor Sactionals--still guraranteed for life and come with 2, yes TWO sets (light linen & brown thatch) of water-resistant weatherproof covers included in the box, ready to rock.

Am I the only one excited about this!????

--Shawny D.

...Life could be worse.

Happy New Year

2011-12-30T23:50:50-05:00

Happy New Year, from Shanghai!!! (of all places) - Should be weird. I hope your Christmas was as good as Duke's (pictured below--recovering from a stressful Holiday season)...

-- Shawny

Merry Christmas

2011-12-24T02:43:20-05:00

Merry Christmas, Happy Hannukah, Happy Kwanzaa, New Year, or whatever else you're into. My family to yours.

-- Shawny

Live on QVC tonight!

2011-11-28T09:59:52-05:00

Its live....It is TV....Its Q.V.C.

9pm EST I'll be live on QVC selling the best deal on a Pillowsac Rocker Package that we've had the entire year. Not only will it be a great price, but it'll be broken down into a few easy payments through QVC!

Why are we finally doing QVC!? For years we have been perfecting and refining our Sactionals. Along the way, they have not only taken over our sales at Lovesac (we sell more Sactionals than Sacs now), but we believe/hope/know that Sactionals is just one of those products that nearly everyone on the planet needs, somewhere in their home--they just don't know about it yet. We believe that Sactionals are the iPod of furniture. That said, we don't have the tens-of-millions to throw at TV ads, billboards, and the like to tell people how they work, as Apple did.

In thinking about Sactionals, TV seems to be a good fit. They have so many demonstrable qualityies. You can move them around, reconfigure them, rearrange them, change their covers, decorate, accent, makeover, etc, etc. We'd like to explore the idea of doing some kind of direct TV campaign with them...but a nice one, like Bose or Dysons has done. We've discovered that QVC is a great way to test the product's validity as an on-air sale, so just as we were ramping up to do a Sactionals program on QVC, they asked us to put together a Sac gift item for them for the Holiday season.

Tonight I'll be showing a Pillowsac Rocker Package, complete with the Pillowsac (which turns into a guest-rest), a Pillowsac Cover (Coffee, Latte, or Red Velvish), a Rocker Frame, and two matching Throw Pillows to help tie the Pillowsac into your home decor. If you know anyone who's ever wanted a deal on a Sac, tune in! Call in! Tonight I'll be "that guy."

["Gift hour with Rick and Shawn" 9pm EST which is 8pm Central, 7pm MST, and 6pm Pacific)

-- Shawny D.

10 years. 10 years!

2011-11-17T15:53:10-05:00

November 17, 2001 at the brand spankin' new Gateway Mall, an outdoor lifestyle center in downtown Salt Lake City, Utah, wizards and witches wandered the cold, outdoor, second level joining their warlock friends waiting in the long lines for the opening of Harry Potter (the first one). Oh, and LOVESAC OPENED ITS FIRST STORE too!!!

Honestly, we just wanted to pay off my credit cards. We hoped to sell one SuperSac a day, and maybe after a year or so we could not only pay the rent, but pay down that $55,000+ in credit card bills that I had looming having purchased a Haybuster, Tractor, and 50,000 lbs of foam to stuff 12,000 little Sacs for the Limited Too. To hear the whole story, click here.

[left: Christian Janke & Shawn on the day Lovesac first incorporated; 2001, SLC]

This time it was my cousin, Tres White's credit cards that had to be maxed...afterall, opening the first Lovesac store was his idea--his solution to our predicament where not one furniture store in the western United States believed they could sell a 75 pound Sac of foam with "our crazy name" on it...even if it was shrunken downt to 1/8th its original size, and available in dozens of washable, changeable covers. It just wasn't happening. [right: Shawn & Tres, holding their next generation entrepreneurs; 2011]

The best part was, after 3 years of working for free, if we somehow COULD sell one Sac per day, we were planning on paying ourselves (and our buddies over in the warehouse who were shredding foam all day) a whopping $5 per hour--marking the first time any Lovesac partner would actually get paid.

Somehow it worked. People didn't just laugh at us--they bought SuperSacs; they bought Lovesac hoodies; they bought everything we could make and on Christmas eve we locked up that store with literally like 6 objects (a few covers, a few T shirts) left on the shelves to sell on December 26th. Thus began the saga that is Lovesac stores. [left: the infamous 2005 SLC Lovesac crew. "The days."]

Along the way Lovesac has been both very fun and very hard to grow. Richard Branson gave me a million dollars on national TV--but we probably owed 6 million in crazy debts having grown to dozens of franchised Sac stores. We've grown, we've shrunk, we've had to completely re-organize, re-structure, re-locate, re-capapitalize, re-hire, and otherwise struggle to survive, but we're still here. There have been SO many people along the way who I have to blame for our success. From my first partner (and best friend since Jr. High, of course), Chris Janke....to James Hyde, Dave Underwood (who has somehow hung on), John Coltharp (our first "employee," and the only guy to get paid for a while--spending 5 years of his life running our factory, mostly in Mexico!), my cousin Tres (who funded the first store and now has a career in retail location development), my good friend and attorney Scott McDonough (the "adult" in the room), [right: Jon Coltharp, definition of a Sac'r; Lake Powell, 2005] my cousin Nate (who just blew us up!), Dave's brother Oly (who just did whatever was asked--and carried a weapon--always handy), people who have invested real $ along the way, only to have it eaten up in our awkward years as we tried (and mostly failed) to grow up; to the entire crew of 40+ down at our headquarters at the Old Hardware Building in SLC...you know who you are. A LOT of people gave up years of their life trying to make this thing work, and while it hasn't worked out exactly as planned, I still recognize how much our very existence is owed to each and every one of those people. I miss most of them dearly. THANK YOU ALL.

[left: Richard Branson makin' moves on my wife after giving me $1 Million; Necker Island, 2005]

Now we have a new HQ, located in Stamford, Connecticut. We have an amazing crew of 20 supporting hundreds of loyal Sac'rs in the field who are the real front-lines of Lovesac. This time of year (for 10 years running) I get out to see all/most of them in the stores and I am always humbled by their hard work and deovotion to our little "cause." Again, THANK YOU.

If I have learned one thing over this last decade about building a business, it is that people are all that really matter--people make (or break) it...and I have been blessed to have had some great people along the way.

Today we are 50 stores strong, worldwide, and our new brand/store concept will take us in an entirely new direction. We've sold more than 300,000 Sacs and 100,000 Sactionals Pieces. WE ARE BUILDING A COMPANY & BRAND NAME THAT WILL BE HERE IN 50 YEARS. Lovesac will be a billion-dollar-brand. And if you don't believe me, ask yourself, if I had told you in 1998, as I was sitting on my but cutting up fabric on my mom's vacant dance floor, "We will have 50 stores in the best malls in the United States and employ hundreds and hundreds of people through a recession 13 years from now," you probably wouldn't have believed me either.

Thank you to all who have given ANYTHING to the Sac. I owe you my whole livelihood...and when we DO build this into the billion dollar brand it is destined to be, rest assured that I know: IT'S YOUR FAULT.

-- Shawny D.

[right: celebrating today at Lovesac HQ]

ADDED LATER:

Every Sac'r in the country will be wearing the approved "Celebrating 10 years" TonoLoveSac T shirt all weekend, selling TonoLoveSacs at 2001 pricing. Except for these two (see image right)....