At the 2016 International Off-Road & UTV Expo, we interviewed Andy Myers from Stuffsack about the new bags, conception of Stuffsack, and his drive to be apart of the adventure travel industry.
Interviewer: Scott Rein
Interviewee: Andy Myers
Filmed: September 24th, 2016
Transcript
Scott: We often talk to marketing directors, maybe salesmen of companies, about a certain product, but it is really cool to actually talk to a guy that owns the company, that thought about this whole thing, dreamed it up … I don’t know. Did you wake up in the middle of the night one time and wrote on a piece of paper, “This is my next product line?” Andy Myers from StuffSack …
Andy: Dot com.
Scott: From a thought to a pencil on a paper, drawing out, to an actual product line.
Andy: From the very beginning of all the brands I’ve ever owned, I’ve always wanted to own a bag company. Me and Nora have always wanted to own a bag company. I’m down in Baja, prerunning, get hung up in silt beds, and up chopping off my fingers. While I’m sitting in the hospital, a brand came available. It was online, so I called her up and said, “Can I buy the company?” She said, “Yep,” so we bought StuffSack.com. From there, it took time to learn all about what we wanted to do, what direction we wanted to take the company. I developed it for what I love, which is adventure travel, and long distance travel. As everyone knows, I travel around the world two to three times a year.
Scott: The thing is, it’s, I guess you said silt-proof, waterproof, mud-proof, weather-proof, basically.
Andy: Basically, I’ve got right now, our entire waterproof line of bags is waterproof, dirt, mud, everything. We’ve been using them in Alaska, we’ve been using them on river trips. Chris over at Nitto Tires just took them on his JK Adventure all through Alaska. They’ve been tested. I just did this bag all through Cambodia with 800 miles, with world-legend motocross racer, Andy Grider, Baja champion dakar racer. I’m testing them, I’m proving them. I know these things work, man.
Scott: I mean this booth has been very, very busy. We’ve walked past it a couple of times in the last two days. Every single time, there’s been people mobbing this booth. First off, let me ask you, what’s it like to think of something, a product line we’ll call it, or just one [skew 00:01:55], and then see it all the way through to its fruition of finally having that product in your hand?
Andy: Painful. Very painful. When you conceive something, you want to look at what’s in the market, but you don’t want to do what’s in the market. You want to do your own stuff. You want to do your own creations. I like creating, so I like designing. Everything to the tags on the product, to the packaging of the product, the way the product lays out, how it’s going to look and be sexy when you use it. It’s got to be beautiful. It’s got to be amazing when you touch it. All of it takes time, networking with the right people, right materials and everything. It’s a long process. It takes years to do. It’s not something you can wake up tomorrow morning and just do.
Scott: Well, I know you’re an absolute perfectionist, absolute perfectionist. I can’t help but think, as I look at you and look at that bag, it’s not perfect yet.
Andy: No, not yet. Nothing’s perfect. I will tell you, this bag right here I one of my favorite bags. I’ll just give you an idea of how perfect it is. This bag, most StuffSacks, you enter in for a roll down from here, and go in. This bag doesn’t. It’s a duffle, so it pops, pops, and it rolls open. When it rolls open, it has a waterproof zipper in it, which holds it closed. Plus, it’s got a seal on it, which keeps water out of it. This thing is absolutely beautiful. What makes it better is I designed it for boating, jet skis, motocross, adventure motorcycles. I’m a big adventure motorcycle, kayaking. We’ve got Velcro on the bottom. We’ve got a system that it hooks to, and it stays in place wherever you’re going. No other bag has it.
Scott: You’ve got basically from wall-to-wall, ceiling-to-floor, it’s all covered right there.
Andy: Ready to go, man. This is probably one of the best bags I’ve ever seen.
Scott: Well, you’re doing more than just StuffSack. You’ve got a few other companies, a few other product lines as well. This seems to be your baby. Like you said, you’ve always wanted a bag company. Kind of touch a little bit on some of these other companies that you’ve got.
Andy: Well, we own Dirt Skins, of course. We were the original people that ever made fork seal skins for motocross bikes and dirt bikes. We made shock covers for off-road vehicles. Of course we did that for off-roading. We do a trophy trucks, [choke 00:04:15] horse. Of course, UTVs are our big thing of our market. We own Schampa. We make all the head wear for Harley riders and BMW guys. Cold weather gear for snow mobilers, and all the power sports guys, which we’re now expanding into more leisure wear and casual wear, and the daily person. It’s good. We have a lot of brands. We have Never Stop Riding. Of course, we do the shows.
Scott: Well, speaking of that, you pretty much covered everything as far as StuffSack goes. I know you’re busy. I want to thank you so much for taking a moment to spend with us, and explaining the companies with us. I know you’re busy. We’ll let you go, man.
Andy: Thanks, Scott. I appreciate everything. Thank you very much.
Scott: Andy Myers, if you can see him, it won’t be for very long because he’s on his way some place else to take care of a fire. Nice job, man.
Andy: Thank you, buddy.
Scott: All right.
