Latest / Origin Matters / How Fashion Industry Standards Shaped Vital Pet Life
Transcript
- Donie: Mm. Spencer Macintyre: Hey everyone and welcome back to another episode of Origin Matters. Today I'm happy to be joined by the founder and chief treats lady of Vital Donie: Yeah. Spencer Macintyre: Pet Life, Donnie Yamamoto. Hey Donnie, how's it going? Donie: Hi, Spencer. Good. Spencer Macintyre: I see you've got Tuxedo there as well. Donie: Yeah, they want you to be in my lap. Spencer Macintyre: so I thought I'd start with maybe introducing Vital Pet Life. So Vital Pet Life is a purpose-driven brand that leverages transparency, third party testing and science backed ingredients to create premium pet supplements. And today we're going to discuss how Donnie's background from the fashion industry led her to develop Vital Pet Life and how she's adapted learnings from her background in the fashion industry into the quality standards for vital pet life. So welcome Donnie. It's great to have you on the episode with me. And to get to get us started, could you take us back to your earlier years and let us know a little bit about how you initially got involved in fashion and entrepreneurialism? Donie: Yeah, I moved to the US in 2011 from the Philippines and I wanted to be involved. wanted to like it's like starting fresh, right? But back in the Philippines, I I run a clothing store, so I was pretty much like involved in fashion. But I was I was bringing in like different kinds of brands and selling it in my small store overseas. But I was hoping that I can. continue doing that when I moved here in the US, but again, it's a totally different market. But I do have already experienced when it comes to like global sourcing, you know, selling, marketing or like trending or trend setting. So I have that idea upon finishing my one year like fashion course and I'm like, there's an opportunity in the children's clothing space and. Also to be different back then when I think like nine, 10 years ago, sustainability was the trend for fashion. Like there was an issue with all those fast fashion brands that were outsourcing in Asia. There was the Bangladesh issue with the workers and this whole thing basically opened to like how transparent like this brands can be. And at the same time, like is it like how not just the sourcing or the ingredients, or not just the ingredients, but the fabric. There were new fabrics that was available back then that are pretty much sustainable. Instead of just cutting trees, there's new innovation. And it Spencer Macintyre: Mm. Donie: really intrigued me. And at the same time, too, I didn't really know that it will take like, six months a year to do your own production for clothing. So on the side, I was like, okay, I need to find a business that can bring in money while I'm doing all my production. And again, it was accidental. I have a dog, Tuxedo, you met Tuxedo. And back then he was like, I really thought he was a wired-hair carrier, because he was scratching and it's kind of like a... dry coarse hair like he's here and then he and i'm like why is he like having some itchy skin it's itchy skin and his fur was really dry and coarse and i i left behind five dogs overseas and the only thing that i was giving them was fish oil and i'm like where do i buy it and there was only one marketplace back then so yeah it all started as a side project for me while i was working on the real like fashion job, like, which is the children's clothing. So it was purely accidental that I created Vital Pet. But when, this, product like blew up in Amazon, like, I'm like, this could be a business, but, I want it to be different. So I brought in my knowledge of, from the fashion industry, which was transparency back then, and also sustainable sources or sourcing with ingredients to Vital Pet. And yeah, that's how we created, that's how the roots started, I guess. Yeah. Spencer Macintyre: Mm, that's super funny that it was actually the other way around. You were focusing on building a children fashion line and then Donie: Yeah. Spencer Macintyre: you thought that vital pet life was gonna be sort of stepping stone maybe or something, but then it turned out that that was yeah, the other w the other way. Donie: Just, yeah. Well, I thought it was a side project that can help me while waiting for the production of my project, which was the Children's Go thing. Because it takes a while. I found like a... company that can weave like in an old traditional way and then I did not the traditional like dyeing so I kind of enjoyed putting botanical dye so yeah those those stuff that I tried to incorporate in my to be different when you know from what you see in the market but I really didn't know that you know tuxedo will lead me to being in the pet industry. Spencer Macintyre: And at what point did you know that you wanted to take, I guess, the sustainability, the traceability, these kind of core things that you had learnt in fashion into the pet supplement side of things? D was it just 'cause you realised that the oils Donie: There's a lack to it. Spencer Macintyre: Yeah, well and the the oils that you were giving to Tuxedo were working so well and then you thought, well, this this is actually from the right origins, it's Donie: Yeah. Spencer Macintyre: it's it's traceable. Donie: 2018, I had the opportunity to attend the Copenhagen Fashion Summit in Denmark. And my mind was blown with all the options and opportunities that I can incorporate sustainability into a brand. I saw when I went there, it was purely like learning more about how I can build the story or how I can build more sustainability to my shoulders clothing line. But when I went there, it was all over the place. It was in the food, like lotion. And I'm like, oh, I can totally do that. to with my pet brand. So I have all these ideas really going to Copenhagen to learn about like the fashion summit. Because like, Denmark, I you guys, you are always like, I had a sustainability and, you know, I was curious in what you guys have done. and it just reflected like the values that I really want to incorporate to the current brand that is like, you know, growing. The experience of going to Copenhagen, it was more of a research on how I could build that children's clothing line, but I didn't know that I can also implement it to my pet brand. Spencer Macintyre: Hm. Donie: yeah, so it's weird, but I think there's a reason to it. Like sometimes you have a goal on what you really want it to be, but I think life always puts you in the direction that you're supposed to be. Spencer Macintyre: Yeah, absolutely. I think that there's it's it's common that people go out on a path thinking that they're going to do this or become a doctor to, you know, help people in this way, but then they end up working on research or something, something Donie: Yeah. Spencer Macintyre: completely different, but then they end up helping people a different path. there's there's many different ways that a a sort of life journey will or a business journey will will take you. Donie: Yeah, I mean, it's funny too, because like, I think it just made sense that I should be in a pet space anyway, because like, I love my animals, and I go down the rabbit hole just for them to, you know, make sure that I'm feeding them correctly, giving them the right like recreation or activity. But back then, I just saw the opportunity in the children's clothing space because I was, I mean, my friends were having kids back then and I'm I can't even find anything that I want to give to them. Spencer Macintyre: it's a present. Donie: that, present. I'm like, so maybe there's an opportunity in there. and then again, it's just made, made sense that I'm in the pet space because I love my dogs and I love animals and I love talking to pet parents and sharing, you know, what I learned in every like life stages that I've been with them, journey with them. Spencer Macintyre: Hmm. And what are your biggest what what do you think the biggest misconceptions are out there at the moment for pet parents regarding supplements and the quality of supplements that you find out on the market, what what do you think some of the biggest misconceptions are? Donie: Misconceptions? I think that you know you're over supplementing them sometimes but I feel like it's purely being able to be more like I don't want to say educated but be more like when you're aware of what the need of the animals because there's a lot now. Back then when I started I think there were only like few products that you could choose. And that's why I chose the most natural one, which was fish oil to me. back then I see like brands with ingredients that I can't even pronounce and I'm like, what is this? And then it's too scary. But again, that's the reason why it drove me to just salmon oil. Cause I'm like, okay. It's just one single ingredient. it made sense, fish oil, Omega-3s, like, you know, I also take it myself and I know the benefits of it. There's a lot of conversations around social media, the hype of every, the pet industry's growing, a lot of us. prefer to have animals than kids. And we just wanted to give them the best. again, there's also a wild array of products out there that you can choose. again, I think you have to be counter-intuitive. Be aware of, OK, does it really work? You have to question. Spencer Macintyre: I I fully understand and I I agree. I think that we might be a bit biased because we Arevo, we've got a big focus on marine based ingredients, but Donie: Mm-hmm. Spencer Macintyre: I I personally believe that omega three, omega six, omega nine, the the fatty acids, that they are often missing from people's diets and then supplementing them, Donie: Yeah. Spencer Macintyre: it's it makes sense and it's probably one of the biggest areas of research, at least for humans in particular. as far as supplements go. But then if you go to any of the big supplement conferences, there are so many products out there because there's there's a lot of new money coming in of people saying pets are popular, what can what can we make now and sell rather than maybe going back and thinking what do the pets need Donie: to me, rule of thumb is always like, you know, go back to the most natural one and always simplify. So I feel Spencer Macintyre: Що Donie: like I know fish oil, there's a lot of like, again, like conversation like, it doesn't really help. I mean, if you have, if you're just a new pet parent and you know, if you just wanted to augment your dog's nutrition and you know, kibble really is the one thing that most people really know. I mean, now there's a lot of like food brands that you can use like, you know, I don't even say food brands, but food delivery for them. Like there's fresh food, like food that you can cook. Like there's a lot of information compared to maybe 10 years ago, like I remember, I always remember when I was trying to find like, what's the best like, you know, pet food that I can give to my animals overseas, my five dogs overseas. Like the only thing I can find was like the dog food finder. And it's just like, what's the like, you know, it's just a measurement, like how much meat was there and a friend of mine, fortunately, taught me again is education too because you don't really know you just know that that's a kibble that you give them but again when the more I dig deeper a friend of mine explained to me that okay always look at the first ingredient so that you'll know how much you know if it's really a real like meat or not like what like always read like again learning to read ingredients that was something that I feel like pet parents should also know I mean yeah I just don't rely on ads, I guess. Spencer Macintyre: Yeah, it's a good point. And we've done some screenings on different pet foods before and we've found some pretty interesting results there. not all of them are exactly what what they would claim. So I think additionally having a a bit of omega three oil on top of them is Donie: Yeah. Spencer Macintyre: is definitely a good idea with a lot of them. Donie: Yeah. Spencer Macintyre: so we've discussed a a little bit about how you've how you prioritize quality, sustainability, traceability. You've you've brought that across from the fashion background that you've had. you're Arivo verified with your products, your MSC and ASC certified, so you you put a big emphasis on sustainability. and you've got great suppliers, but there is also some other things that you do. You do Quite a lot with repurpose. Do you wanna tell me and the listeners a little bit more about why repurpose is so important to you? Donie: Well, mean, my ingredient is primarily from the ocean and as a good citizen, I guess, like I wanted to be a better business person. Like I always try to look for a way and how I can also be a not just like a branding perspective, because I know people have all this certification to greenwash. But again, for me, it was more of like, OK, how can I augment my plastic footprint, Luckily, there's a company like Repurpose that can help small companies like us create a change, I guess, or at least we were able to recover a lot of plastic that goes to You know, the third world countries So at least we get to have like, you know, an impact other than just collecting the plastic bottles from the ocean. But at the same time, we're helping like all these like workers to have sustainable and we're creating jobs for them too. Like, you know, so for us to be able to, sponsor or because they have different projects. And I think we're, sponsoring the one in Indonesia, think, Lewat Denang. because there's a lot of like stuff that they're doing with the plastics that they're able to collect. Spencer Macintyre: I've got one last question I always I've always seen you as a bit of a visionary Donnie in in Donie: Yeah. Spencer Macintyre: the a as an industry leader you've always seemed to have your ideas or your values that you've I guess maybe taken from fashion, brought into the pet supplement space, you've built into Vital Pet Life. and it seems to be working well for you guys. Vital Pet Life continues to be one of the top pet supplement brands on Amazon. you've we've also recently launched in Walmart, so people can now find you guys nationwide in Walmart and retail. But I'm I'm interested to know. without sharing any any secrets, what are what are your sort of predictions on the on the future or what are your thoughts? Do you see any new trends or is there Donie: you Spencer Macintyre: may is there something in the fashion world that's coming that you sort of think that might be the next big thing that will come in for pet supplements or or for the pet industry? Donie: Well, one thing I've learned from both fashion and the pet wellness is that people really wanted to know transparency in the ingredients. As I said, like 10 years ago, like I had that kind of mindset trying to figure it away. Like, you know, since my ingredient is like caught in the ocean, like there, I mean, I think I'm one of those people that's like, I wonder who caught the fish. Like I always have that like in my head. Like it's like a... It's like a cloud. It's always like, wonder who caught it. Like, is there a way that I can basically trace it to the fishermen or probably from the boat? I mean, I'm just curious. I mean, you know, most consumers before doesn't really focus on that. But I feel like I was ahead, as you said. I think I was ahead of the curve. I was always asking that. But I think now people like the younger consumers like they really love their pets. Like I just learned from my team that pets are now the new children and plants are the new pets. That's something that you can probably think of when you're building your marketing goals for Arrival or whatever. But you can quote me on that. again, they wanted to... to put their money and where it aligns with their values. I think most of this, PetParents, all consumers now wanted to know the label, if the company that they can trust. Because again, we're bombarded with a lot of noise. I feel like, mean, even me myself, I would rather put my money to a company that I feel like that's aligned to my values. Yeah. I think it's gonna be, it's still gonna be there within the next like 10, 20 years. Because like people would really know who's, I think everybody knows now who's authentic. you know, they easily people can see what's really there for their animals or you know, who's really there that they can trust. Yeah, I think the traceability is really important. I think it's gonna be there. Not just Spencer Macintyre: Yeah. Donie: not a trend to me and I think it's going to continue, you Spencer Macintyre: That's interesting. Yeah, it's good it's good to say that it's not a trend and it's it's Donie: you Spencer Macintyre: just gonna be something that's gonna be doubled down on really. And so you you think it's gonna be more more focus on traceability, where things actually come Donie: Yeah. Spencer Macintyre: from. I think I think the same way as you, whenever I get anything, I I might think, you know, where is this T shirt come from? Where is the material that went into it, where did that come from and and all of those things? Donie: Yeah, and I feel like too, mean, I'm really happy that I'm seeing a lot of like, I call it education and empowerment for pet parents. Like I see that all across like social media. I unfortunately, there's a lot of AI. Again, you have to be, you you need to have your awareness, like which one is real or not. Because again, there's a lot of information out there. But I love the whole trend of people being open to how to take care of the animals. I call it education, other than just understanding how the sourcing was responsibly done, how you can trace the ingredient, independent verification, what you guys do. There's a lot of, I feel like as a company now, may it be in pets or like consumer, like there's no way that you can be traceable. I mean, there's a lot of opportunities for you to as either a small or big company to up level your game or how you can like compete in the market or in the noise, like in the market space. Like there's always an opportunity. And if you are in it, because you, I I feel like All brands at some point started because they are passionate about something or they're trying to solve a problem just like what I did Yeah, you can bring in your game and like, you know go down the rabbit hole and again there's a lot of Opportunities like like how you guys are evil came into our life. I mean, you know, I never thought that I'll be able to identify the DNA of the fish. And that's always been something that I really want to do to be 100 % transparent to my consumers. fish oil is great, but you know, need to be like, I kind of want it to be 100%. When I say it's salmon, it should be salmon. And if I say it's a blend, I need to tell what kind of blend is it, you know, on my oil. So. Spencer Macintyre: And if it's sustainable as well, because there is Donie: Yeah. Spencer Macintyre: definitely there's overfishing happening in different parts of the world and in those areas where there's overfishing happening, that's where you if you're a bad player, you can source the cheapest omega three oils. And then Donie: Yeah. Spencer Macintyre: if you if you import that or bring it to the United States and then bottle it and sell it to people, you could make a lot of money. but that's it that's a Donie: No, totally. Spencer Macintyre: that's a bad thing to do though. And as a consumer, if you're someone that actually cares about a sustainable future. And I think say some a brand like you guys, you you're very interested in the fishery that you get your supply from being sustainable because it's not a long term business move if you Donie: Yeah. Spencer Macintyre: know that that s that fishery is unsustainable. so I think that yeah, being able to I I think there's a lot of brands out there that talk about traceability and sustainability, but then a lot of them, at least from what we can see w when we do our screenings, a lot of the on the screenings where we find that there are mislabeling or adulteration or those types of things. I think there are unfortunately some brands or at some point throughout the supply chain, there's brands that don't actually know where that oil is actually coming from. Donie: comes from. Yeah. Spencer Macintyre: And that's really where the the I'd say the bad players in the markets that are are out overfishing things. They're probably the same people that want to change labels on on barrels Donie: Yeah. Spencer Macintyre: of fish oil and then sneak it into supplies that brands don't really know isn't actually sustainable. But what you do is is actually walking the walk and tracing it all back and focusing on these core values that you brought from fashion. Donie: I mean, we should sadly, like, especially like, you know, with our climate change, and as you've mentioned that, you know, there's some conversation now that we have to prepare for, like, the supply of oil, like, you know, currently the Peruvian market, a fishing season didn't happen, right? Spencer Macintyre: Yeah, they've had two two cancelled fishing seasons and there's a big I think is it Al Nino yeah, which means that there's extra warm water which makes the Donie: farm. Spencer Macintyre: Yeah, makes it more difficult for them to fish the fish in that area without catching juveniles. So Peru there that that's a sustainable fishery, but then them being responsible, they've had to shut it down so that they don't kill the juveniles. Yeah. So Donie: Yeah, overfished. Spencer Macintyre: it Becomes a challenge though to actually be a brand that puts sustainability first because then it means that you have standards that you can't just go and Donie: Yeah. Spencer Macintyre: use the use this oil it 'cause it's convenient. Donie: Yeah, Spencer Macintyre: yeah. Donie: yeah. Well, it's also good to find like, I think for us to be making sure that we have a strong and stable supply chain really matters. And I think as a small company, we're very nimble at that and me myself, like choosing who to work with, really helped like, set the roots for the brand. And I think it's hard when you're big and you just rely on sourcing with workers or the team. But for me, it's very important. I still do like the sourcing myself. I always make sure that we made sure that even the ingredients that we're going to add into some of our new products are within my standard. Spencer Macintyre: Mm, absolutely. Well, I think your Donie: Yeah. Yeah. Spencer Macintyre: standards are part of the reason why or one of the main reasons why Vital Pet Life has become the company that it is today. And yeah, I wanna say thanks jumping on the podcast with us today. I'm sure that we'll jump on another podcast in the future and thanks for the discussion. Donie: Yeah, you're welcome Spencer and yeah, hopefully have a great weekend. Spencer Macintyre: Awesome. Thanks, Donny. Donie: Why?