Today we’d like to introduce you to Jay Fuller.
Jay, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I used to work at a bar, where our uniform consisted of a button down shirt. I would always roll-up my sleeves before I started a shift. However, throughout the duration of my shift, my sleeves would constantly slide back down my arms. I’d constantly have to readjust them while I was working. Which got really annoying, so I started using rubber bands to hold them up. That idea only worked for a few hours because the rubber bands slowly started to cut off the circulation in my arms. Needless to say, I nixed that pretty quickly.
A few months later I got an office job and I did the same thing. I rolled-up my sleeves and would continuously reroll them up throughout the day. I then thought of the idea “What if the shirt cuffs had the same flexibility, as some of the dress shirts that were made with the flex collar?” Hence, the name “FLXCUF”.
I sat on this idea for about a year, not really knowing where to even begin. Eventually, I got connected with someone in the industry and we created 5 different style shirt prototypes in 2015. I launched a Kickstarter campaign in early 2016 to help bring the idea to life. My campaign wasn’t fully funded, but I received a lot of great feedback on the idea. The most common was people didn’t want to have to purchase an entirely new shirt, just to have flexible shirt cuffs.
From a logic and cost standpoint, that made a lot of sense. So, I spent the next year working on what the design would look like and going through a series of different prototypes. I have a patent pending on the design and also a trademark. I launched my online shop last July and have been “pounding the pavement” to FLXCUF out there, ever since. I had a great opportunity to be in Men’s Health subscription box and additionally, Men’s Health magazine. My goal for 2018 is to continue to build off that and launch additional color FLXCUF bands later this year, while potentially tapping into a women’s design.
Has it been a smooth road?
*Laughs* Definitely not. It’s been quite the rollercoaster. Although it pointed me in the right direction, the Kickstarter campaign not being fully funded felt like a huge setback at the time. I had to start from scratch all over again in terms of take the product design from a shirt to an accessory. One of the more exhausting parts of this process was trying to find the right manufacturer. I went through multiple rounds of samples with about half a dozen factories before finding the right one and creating the right design.
Production aside, the biggest challenge has been getting FLXCUF out there. It’s such a different and unique product, that I don’t think most people think about the problem it solves on the surface. There are probably very few people (if at all) searching for a product that holds rolled-up dress shirt sleeves in place. Positioning it as a need to have product has been a constant work in process through trial and error.
That being said, it has been encouraging to see mostly a positive reaction to FLXCUF. It’s like a lightbulb goes off when I show someone new “This is great! I’m always rolling up my sleeves and can never get them to stay up”.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the FLXCUF story. Tell us more about the business.
My company is FLXCUF. I produce a men’s accessory designed to keep rolled-up dress shirt sleeves in place while maintaining the integrity of the shirt. I’m most proud of being in Men’s Health. It’s a publication everyone knows and I hope it continues to open up a lot more doors moving forward.
How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
I’m not a fashion industry expert by any means. That being said, I’d love to see smaller brands emerge. That’s probably been my favorite part about this whole experience. Connecting with other brands and learning their story. There are a lot of awesome, smaller, brands out there that most people probably haven’t heard of.
Pricing:
- $14.99 + Free shipping for 2 sets
- Use “FLX20” at checkout for 20% off
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.flxcuf.com/
- Email: team@flxcuf.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/flxcuf/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/flxcuf/
Image Credit:
The Men’s Health Box image is from @ovfuel (another product in the box).
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