Today we’d like to introduce you to Elissa and Rachel Barsky.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Elissa and Rachel. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
Introducing PakRat – the cool new way to carry all of your essentials and look GREAT doing it! Invented by sisters and co-founders, Rachel and Elissa Barsky, after Elissa returned from 4 months backpacking through Central America and quickly learned how easy it was to become a target for pickpockets. A common theme at hostel happy hour was who had their phone, wallet or passport stolen that day. Even her seasoned travel partner had her purse slashed and everything inside stolen in a matter of seconds at a kite festival for Day of the Dead in Guatemala. You would think that would be motivation enough for Elissa to dig out her money belt (a gift from her parents) from the bottom of her backpack – it was not. She wouldn’t be caught dead in that thing.
There HAD to be a better solution – Something that didn’t sacrifice your cute outfit and scream I’M A TOURIST…COME ROB ME! We looked everywhere for something that would do the trick and couldn’t find anything. There was no choice – we had to make our own.
Getting our Hands Dirty – Rachel dug up the old sewing machine from the basement and 15 sketches, 8 hours and 2 pots of coffee later our first PakRat prototype were born. Designed after our favorite (and VERY flattering) foldover yoga pants, we wore our PakRat prototypes everywhere. We couldn’t go anywhere without people asking us “what is that thing” and “where can I get one”. Everyone we spoke to had another reason why they needed a PakRat and that’s when we knew we were on to something amazing.
Get Pockets. Get Moving. Get PakRat – After a year in development, endless nights spent designing, revising and testing countless versions, we finally have a product we’re ready to share with the world and help everyone solve the problem we solved for ourselves.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Not at all! Our first factory turned out to be a nightmare with no supervision or process control which resulted in thousands of poor quality products that we refused to put our name on. Although this delayed our launch and caused us to miss our first holiday selling season, we refused to settle and compromise our quality. So we rented a truck, drove 8 hours to our soon to be ex-factory, collected the rest of our material including over 900 pounds of fabric and drove 8 hours back home (our mom had shots of tequila waiting for us when we finally made it back). After regrouping, we started the search for a new factory in the morning. Looking back, it actually turned out to be a blessing in disguise since we found a local high-end, high-quality factory in Chicago and couldn’t be happier.
We’d love to hear more about your business.
We started out developing and manufacturing our PakRat running belt, which is what we are still best known for. We also recently launched a customizable version of the PakRat running Belt, which allows our customers the ability to personalize their running belt with their favorite motivational quote, saying, or power word. Additionally, we’re now expanding our product line to include PakRat Baby – custom baby onesies.
We are most proud to have taken our idea from conception to successful launch in a brand new market–apparel.
We take our product quality and customer service very seriously and strive to provide the best product and service possible to our customers. We sourced the highest quality materials, ran vigorous tests on each material separately, and refused to settle for anything less. We constantly ask for customer feedback, which we use to better our company every day. Also, our products are made in the USA in a Chicago based factory and we could not be more proud of that!
What were you like growing up?
Elissa: We grew up in a very creative household and we were always doing different arts and crafts projects. I was always into fashion growing up and would repurpose old hand-me-downs into the latest trends in fashion. I would turn old sweatshirts into skirts or old jeans into more trendy distressed jeans or cut off shorts. Instead of buying new clothes with every new trend, Rachel and I would always try to make it ourselves.
Rachel: Growing up, Rachel was always an extrovert, very social, creative, and outgoing. Our dad is a serial entrepreneur, so entrepreneurship is in our blood. Rachel started her first company when she was 8 years old. She started a rollerblading class teaching Elissa and her friends how to rollerblade on our very long, curvy driveway. She was paid in nail polish and lip gloss – an 8-year-old’s dream. Her next business started in college – creating hand-made fashion headbands. She went around with samples of headbands to every boutique in Bloomington, IN where she went to school, and one of the hottest boutiques in Bloomington picked them up.
Pricing:
- PakRat Running Belt $29.99
- Customizable PakRat Running Belt $29.99 (free customization for a limited time)
- PakRat Baby Personalized Football Onesie $19.99
- PakRat Baby Personalized Baseball Onesie $19.99
Contact Info:
- Website: www.getpakrat.com
- Email: Rachel@getpakrat.com, Elissa@getpakrat.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/getpakrat
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/GetPakRat
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