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From Stanley Cup Champion to Entrepreneur: How Brett Hedican Built a Business Beyond Hockey · The iDesign Lab Podcast

• 0:00
  Voice Over: This is iDesign Lab, a podcast where creativity and curiosity meet style and design.
• 0:06
  Voice Over: Curator of interiors, furnishings, and lifestyles.
• 0:09
  Voice Over: Hosted by Tiffany Woolley, an interior designer and a style enthusiast, along with her serial entrepreneur husband Scott.
• 0:16
  Voice Over: iDesign Lab is your ultimate design podcast, where we explore the rich and vibrant world of design and its constant evolution in style and trends.
• 0:25
  Voice Over: Today on iDesign Lab, we're joined by Brett Hedeken, a Stanley Cup champion, two-time United States Olympian, and veteran of over 1,000 NHL games.
• 0:34
  Voice Over: But his greatest play might be off the ice.
• 0:37
  Voice Over: Brett is now the founder of Hedi, a customizable backpack brand built around celebrating the moments that shape who we are.
• 0:43
  Voice Over: From championship wins to everyday milestones, he's helping people carry their story with them.
• 0:49
  Voice Over: Literally.
• 0:50
  Voice Over: Let's dive into his journey from elite athlete to inspired entrepreneur.
• 0:55
  TIffany Woolley: Welcome to the iDesign Lab Podcast.
• 0:58
  TIffany Woolley: Today we are excited to have Brett Hedeken joining us remotely.
• 1:02
  TIffany Woolley: But Brett, who has a very long career on the ice, an Olympian and a Stanley Cup winner, has now become creative director of his very own line, Hedie Gear.
• 1:16
  Scott Woolley: So we're let me let me add a few things about Brett.
• 1:18
  Scott Woolley: So it's two Olympic US hockey teams he's played on.
• 1:22
  Scott Woolley: Over a thousand professional hockey teams.
• 1:24
  Scott Woolley: That's great.
• 1:25
  Scott Woolley: Which is uh an amazing feat to, you know.
• 1:28
  Scott Woolley: And on top of it, he's put the Stanley Cup over his head, raised it, and drank out of it because uh he won the Stanley Cup as a hockey player.
• 1:38
  Scott Woolley: In the last few years, he's been a broadcaster for the San Jose Shocks, and he's still very involved in hockey.
• 1:43
  Scott Woolley: But more important and more interesting is his entrepreneurial direction that he's taken in life, which we really want to dive into, having to do with his company Heady Gear.
• 1:54
  TIffany Woolley: So welcome, Brett.
• 1:57
  Bret Hedican: Man, I thank you uh for the introduction, Scott and Tiff.
• 2:00
  Bret Hedican: Uh you know, you guys uh I always smile when I think about you too, because I've we've had so many great moments together over the years.
• 2:07
  Bret Hedican: And uh, you know, the hockey journey, as you guys referenced, you know, a long career, but through those that career, you meet a lot of great people along the way.
• 2:16
  Bret Hedican: And uh, you know, Scott, you were the first person I ever met when I was traded to the Florida Panthers.
• 2:22
  Bret Hedican: I was on the plane with the team after we met the team in New York.
• 2:26
  Bret Hedican: They had played the Rangers, I believe, that night when uh me and Pavel Burray got there with the team, and they said, uh, you got to sit here on the plane.
• 2:34
  Bret Hedican: The only seat that was left was the seat next to you.
• 2:36
  Bret Hedican: And that was when our friendship started.
• 2:38
  Scott Woolley: You know, uh and a and a funny thing about that day, which is kind of a first and a last for me, was is that that was the last time that I spent the uh an evening and an afternoon with my friend John F.
• 2:50
  Scott Woolley: Kennedy Jr.
• 2:51
  Scott Woolley: I took him to the game, the two of us sat and watched that game, and then I got on the plane with the Panthers to fly home and met you, and it was kind of like the start of our friendship.
• 3:01
  Scott Woolley: The same, yeah, same to that.
• 3:03
  Bret Hedican: Incredible.
• 3:04
  Bret Hedican: Um yeah, it just a lot of fun, you know, through the years of playing hockey.
• 3:08
  Bret Hedican: And and as you referenced, uh, I was really lucky to play in Olympic teams and then play in the NHL a long time and then did some broadcasting for the Sharks and now doing some work with the Anaheim Ducks.
• 3:19
  Bret Hedican: Uh, unfortunately, to try to stay around the game.
• 3:21
  Bret Hedican: I love working with players and I love the idea of trying to make uh guys better.
• 3:28
  Bret Hedican: And uh that's one of my passions as well is just trying to pay it forward.
• 3:31
  Bret Hedican: You know, I had a lot of great people helping me along the way and and guiding me.
• 3:36
  Bret Hedican: And now I had the opportunity uh with the the Nheim Ducks and the San Diego Gulls or Maya League team to work with a bunch of young players.
• 3:43
  Bret Hedican: But yeah, my passion as well, and something I started a few years ago was this HeadyGear.com.
• 3:49
  Bret Hedican: And um, you know, it really stemmed from uh a fishing trip I went on, and we can get into that.
• 3:54
  Bret Hedican: But yeah, um you can see my patches and some of my bags behind me.
• 3:58
  Bret Hedican: Uh uh, it's been a lot of fun to kind of do something that's outside my comfort zone.
• 4:03
  Bret Hedican: You know, clearly was an athlete, wasn't an entrepreneur, entrepreneur, and uh here I am uh trying to do uh you know, stay in the game of hockey, but yet also trying to be an entrepreneur.
• 4:13
  Scott Woolley: Right.
• 4:13
  Scott Woolley: Designing a new business that you've never had never done before.
• 4:17
  TIffany Woolley: So, where did the idea originate from?
• 4:20
  TIffany Woolley: Well, let's explain what the idea is.
• 4:23
  TIffany Woolley: Yeah, absolutely.
• 4:24
  Scott Woolley: Because I I've always, since the day you first told me, I thought it was a fantastic idea, taking your memories and the things that you know you love about your life and you want to remember about your life and carrying them with you by putting them onto a backpack or a bag that you take, you know, take with you as you travel through life.
• 4:44
  Bret Hedican: Yeah, uh, it happened about eight, eight years ago, and I go on an annual fishing trip with uh some of my best buds, and we go up to Canada and we we drive, it's about a six-hour drive in a van, and then we cross the Canadian-American border, we drive another 30 minutes.
• 5:00
  Bret Hedican: We the float plane's waiting there for us.
• 5:02
  Bret Hedican: We get on the float plane, we take it to my buddy's house.
• 5:05
  Bret Hedican: And uh, the one year I was on to do something special for this group, and I went and got these kind of tactical looking backpacks.
• 5:13
  Bret Hedican: I brought them to a guy in in in downtown St.
• 5:15
  Bret Hedican: Paul, Minnesota, and I had them put Velcro on the front panels and the side panels.
• 5:20
  Bret Hedican: And then I went and got their name tape created.
• 5:22
  Bret Hedican: If they ever caught a 40-inch muskie, it's a it's a big fish.
• 5:25
  Bret Hedican: Not really good-looking fish, but these fish that we catch.
• 5:28
  Bret Hedican: Um, if they ever caught a 40-inch muskie, I got a patch for that and I put it on their bag.
• 5:32
  Bret Hedican: Um, I went and found every guy's college that they went to, uh, you know, put that on their bag.
• 5:38
  Bret Hedican: I created a 50-inch muskie patch that I gave to Greg, whose house we go to, and I said, Greg, you're the only guy that can pass out these patches.
• 5:47
  Bret Hedican: If a guy catches a 50-inch muskie that night at dinner, you get to present him with a patch.
• 5:51
  Bret Hedican: But over the years, I would collect patches uh in the winter months.
• 5:56
  Bret Hedican: So getting ready for the summer annual fishing trip, I would have all these patches in my pocket ready to go.
• 6:01
  Bret Hedican: And at dinner, if a guy did something special, caught a special fish or whatever, I would present them with something that was special or significant in their life that I would do a little research on.
• 6:11
  Bret Hedican: Like uh my one buddy takes his father to the Indianapolis 500 every year, and I found this really nostalgic Indianapolis 500 patch.
• 6:18
  Bret Hedican: And well, he caught the biggest fish that day, and I presented it with them.
• 6:22
  Bret Hedican: I presented that patch to him uh at dinner.
• 6:24
  Bret Hedican: And uh, so over the years of you know, seven years, eight years of doing this, um, each of these backpacks kind of became a story of of every guy's kind of life and and moments that they've had in their life.
• 6:36
  Bret Hedican: And uh that's kind of where the business star sparked.
• 6:39
  Bret Hedican: I took a photo with all these backpacks laying there next to the float plane, and and that's kind of where that idea of man, I think I think we've got something here as a business, and uh, and here I am.
• 6:50
  TIffany Woolley: That's so exciting.
• 6:51
  Scott Woolley: So now, how many patches do you have?
• 6:54
  Scott Woolley: Because you have so many different categories.
• 6:56
  Scott Woolley: I mean, from sports and tell us more about that.
• 7:01
  Bret Hedican: Yeah, so um I I think the one thing I've been trying to uh accumulate here over the little while is uh licenses, you know.
• 7:08
  Bret Hedican: And so I was fortunate enough, you know, being an NHL player, uh, went to the NHL, told them my idea.
• 7:14
  Bret Hedican: And so my patches are not iron on.
• 7:17
  Bret Hedican: They're actually have velcro sewn on the back, and all my backpacks have the the loop velcro, the soft velcro.
• 7:23
  Bret Hedican: So the hook is on the hook patch, velcro is on the patch, and the loop velcro is on the bag, and those two are just being able to marry each other.
• 7:31
  Bret Hedican: And you can take the patches off and move them around.
• 7:33
  Bret Hedican: And those patches, once they're on your bag, they don't come off.
• 7:36
  Bret Hedican: I've traveled around the world with my backpack and never have lost one.
• 7:39
  Bret Hedican: But the NHL license is one that I have.
• 7:42
  Bret Hedican: I've now also uh accumulated two of the college uh, you know, holding companies.
• 7:48
  Bret Hedican: One is called the CLC College Licensing Company, and they have hundreds of universities that they take care of their licensing program.
• 7:54
  Bret Hedican: And then Exemplar is another one that I have Boston College uh as one of my universities.
• 7:59
  Bret Hedican: But um, those are two of the uh licenses I have now.
• 8:02
  Bret Hedican: I'm working on more, uh having great conversations with, you know, the NBA and others, and uh, you know, trying to over time uh keep acquiring uh licenses to be put on my bags.
• 8:13
  Scott Woolley: Right.
• 8:13
  Scott Woolley: But besides sports, you also have like state parks, you have music.
• 8:18
  Scott Woolley: I mean, you have so many other categories, correct?
• 8:21
  Bret Hedican: Yeah, you know, I I think the one category, and you mentioned national parks and destinations.
• 8:26
  Bret Hedican: Uh we've got destinations from all around the world.
• 8:29
  Bret Hedican: Um, it's been fun to kind of give my kids destinations that they've traveled to, Scotland and Ireland and places.
• 8:35
  Bret Hedican: You know, my daughter was in a play over at the French Festival in Scotland.
• 8:38
  Bret Hedican: It was neat to present her with a patch of Scotland that she had been there.
• 8:42
  Bret Hedican: But uh, we also carry these miniature flags, um, which are really fun, where you, you know, the more countries you've been to, uh, you can put these little miniature flags on your bag and and you know represent all the places that you've gone to and had experiences in.
• 8:57
  TIffany Woolley: Okay, so now you've had this fishing trip and you've been collecting all these patches and this little idea and this business is born.
• 9:06
  TIffany Woolley: What was your first steps?
• 9:10
  Bret Hedican: Man, I you know, that's I know you guys are entrepreneurial and you know the steps.
• 9:16
  Bret Hedican: And Scott, somebody like you, you have that blueprint on in your brain, but for me, it was okay.
• 9:22
  Bret Hedican: I kind of looked at it as like a little bit in in my hockey career, where you just got to start putting one foot in front of the other.
• 9:29
  Bret Hedican: Okay, what's the first thing I need to do?
• 9:31
  Bret Hedican: Well, first thing I have to think about is how I'm gonna create these bags and where I'm gonna manufacture them, and then how am I gonna create patches?
• 9:38
  Bret Hedican: Where am I gonna go manufacture that?
• 9:40
  Bret Hedican: And you start kind of reaching out to people you know and you know, um, different manufacturing companies that you can kind of track down.
• 9:47
  Bret Hedican: And that's kind of where the journey started to see, okay, is this possible for me to start doing this?
• 9:53
  Bret Hedican: And then once that starts to happen and you start to think about man, I think I can do this, I think I can manufacture product, then it's you know, logo, it's it's all these other things that are gonna come about.
• 10:03
  Bret Hedican: And then there's this one moment that you know you start getting all your product in, and you're still scared on whether or not you're gonna launch this darn thing.
• 10:12
  Bret Hedican: And you get people around you to say, Brett, you got to go for it.
• 10:15
  Bret Hedican: Now's the time.
• 10:16
  Bret Hedican: And uh, and that was the day that you know I had somebody inspire me to say, just hit the switch, let's turn the website on and go for it, and we'll we'll kind of make it happen.
• 10:24
  Bret Hedican: And and uh, but it's a it took a couple years to get to that point, Tiff.
• 10:28
  Bret Hedican: Um and as you know, um, it takes time to manufacture product, so it doesn't happen overnight, but um eventually launched it in you know end of uh 2023, I guess.
• 10:42
  TIffany Woolley: So how do people be is it mainly website driven?
• 10:46
  TIffany Woolley: Is that where people go to purchase, or are you available in stores?
• 10:51
  TIffany Woolley: Are there pop-up shops?
• 10:53
  TIffany Woolley: What's the sales drive?
• 10:56
  Bret Hedican: Yeah, so currently we are um online.
• 10:58
  Bret Hedican: So at headygear.com, that's my website.
• 11:02
  Bret Hedican: Um, we also sell on Amazon, we sell on Target, we sell on Walmart, um, we've sold on Timu.
• 11:08
  Bret Hedican: Um so we're on a lot of those platforms.
• 11:11
  Bret Hedican: We're also in uh college bookstores.
• 11:13
  Bret Hedican: Um we've we you know we've we've got uh about 25 college university licenses at this point, and we're working um on more of the bookstores currently as we speak.
• 11:24
  Bret Hedican: We've we probably are in eight stores right now in college bookstores and working on more.
• 11:29
  Bret Hedican: Um we do have some retail locations as well, Tiff.
• 11:31
  Bret Hedican: So these are areas that we continue to try to grow.
• 11:35
  Bret Hedican: Um love to be able to be in more locations, and that's uh kind of my goal here in 2026.
• 11:40
  Scott Woolley: But it's a great inspirational story in what you're talking about, you know, coming from a world of sports your your whole life, you know, and and training for that, and then waking up one day saying, I'm gonna start creating this this line of bags, and you know, then launching that business.
• 11:56
  Scott Woolley: And and like you said, you know, continually pushing forward, even though you don't really know where and how to get it all done.
• 12:06
  Bret Hedican: Yeah, I I I think I can lean on some of the things that I did in my hockey career, Scott.
• 12:12
  Bret Hedican: And you know, there was lots of moments that I had where you fail and you you have to go back to the drawing board and you have to think, okay, if I didn't win the Stanley Cup this year or I had a difficult season, you know, the only place you need to look is in the mirror.
• 12:30
  Bret Hedican: Yep.
• 12:30
  Bret Hedican: And you need to kind of start to think, okay, where are the areas that I am weak?
• 12:34
  Bret Hedican: And you have to give yourself honest feedback.
• 12:37
  Bret Hedican: And sometimes that honest feedback isn't fun.
• 12:40
  Bret Hedican: And as you know, um, you know, it's hard to kind of look at your own warts and your own things that you have within your own game or your own personality or whatever those things are and try to address them.
• 12:52
  Bret Hedican: And as I did that with my hockey career, and I wasn't afraid of doing that, and I had enough humility.
• 12:59
  Bret Hedican: And so for me, humility means that you don't have all the answers.
• 13:02
  Bret Hedican: And so that's where I kind of was able to do that throughout my career and go back to the drawing board.
• 13:08
  Bret Hedican: And over time in my hockey career, you start putting yourself in good situations to win.
• 13:15
  Bret Hedican: And eventually, as you mentioned earlier, we won in in Carolina in 2006.
• 13:19
  Bret Hedican: But when I raised the cup over my head, it was like, holy cow! And and and literally the cup is over my head, and I'm thinking to myself, I was right.
• 13:28
  Bret Hedican: I was right to keep going, I was right to try to keep trying to get better, I was right to not give up on myself and leaning to others that gain support from friends and family and make those calls sometimes to have people pick me up.
• 13:43
  Bret Hedican: Uh, I was right to just not ever stop trying to get better.
• 13:47
  Bret Hedican: And so, you know, with that knowledge of going through that journey, Scott, I think that's kind of what I've tried to apply to business, knowing that I don't have all the answers and that I can keep going back to the drawing board and looking at myself and ways and reaching out to people to make me a better businessman.
• 14:08
  TIffany Woolley: So obviously, being an Olympian and also having, you know, the hockey career that you had, there's a lot of routine and a lot of repetition and a lot of hard work and perseverance.
• 14:21
  TIffany Woolley: How do you balance that now in your entrepreneurial role?
• 14:28
  Bret Hedican: Well, it's yeah, your time is is valuable and you have to respect uh your sleep.
• 14:35
  Bret Hedican: Um you know, you have to know that you do have to um spend time every day.
• 14:42
  Bret Hedican: You know, I do a lot of work on on for the hockey team too, and that's really a priority as well.
• 14:48
  Bret Hedican: And so managing my time, you know, my spare time knowing that I can spend on the business.
• 14:54
  Bret Hedican: And then surrounding my my team, my my business team has been fun to kind of reach out to to people to help me with with uh all the little nuances of my business, TIFF, that can take care of things that, you know, are things that aren't my strength.
• 15:07
  Bret Hedican: Right.
• 15:07
  Bret Hedican: And they can take it, take it over.
• 15:09
  TIffany Woolley: Delegate.
• 15:10
  Bret Hedican: Um, yeah, delegate and making sure that people are are doing uh the things that you want them to do.
• 15:14
  Bret Hedican: And and then, you know, really supporting your team, you know, being positive with your team and making sure that they know you're here for them when when they need you.
• 15:22
  Scott Woolley: So when you started this and you can't and you had the idea of doing this, I look at it from a perspective as is that you jumped into a lot of things that you probably didn't have experience in, manufacturing, creating a website, figuring out how to, like you said, come up with these and find these patches, the licensing to the patches, the pricing and putting the pricing all together, and then the ship.
• 15:46
  Scott Woolley: I mean, there's so many aspects that you had to learn.
• 15:49
  Scott Woolley: I mean, was that overwhelming?
• 15:51
  Scott Woolley: Did was that you know, did you take one at a time?
• 15:55
  Scott Woolley: Did any of that deter you from wanting to go forward with this?
• 16:01
  Bret Hedican: Yeah, it's you're right.
• 16:02
  Bret Hedican: When you when you start to piece it all together and all the things that you have to accomplish, man, there's a lot there, right?
• 16:09
  Bret Hedican: And and Scott, you know, I mean, being an entrepreneur and Tiff, you know being an entrepreneur and your own business um as well.
• 16:16
  Bret Hedican: Um there's a lot to tackle.
• 16:20
  Bret Hedican: Um, but if I were to look back at where I ended my career, and if I would have given up because of all of the things I would have had to learn to do what we did in 2006 and win a cup, um, would I have kept going had I known how difficult it was gonna be?
• 16:37
  TIffany Woolley: Right.
• 16:37
  Bret Hedican: You know, and I think, you know, learning that lesson um and knowing that you don't have all the answers and that you're gonna have a lot of things that you have to learn um is something that I did learn through my hockey career and and and playing through some tough moments and and again going back to the drawing board so many different times.
• 16:58
  Bret Hedican: But Scott, it's it has been intimidating at times.
• 17:01
  Bret Hedican: And and Tiff to answer your question as far as time and how do you manage it, there has been moments where you get a little overwhelmed.
• 17:07
  Bret Hedican: Um, and then I just try to breathe, you know, just try to slow down, uh, try to enjoy life a little bit, knowing that sometimes it's it's you have to let your hands off the wheel and you're gonna trust the people around you um and let them do what they do.
• 17:22
  Bret Hedican: And then also um, you know, believe that everything's gonna work out if you keep your head pointed in the right direction and doing the right things.
• 17:30
  Bret Hedican: And I think sometimes doing the right things is just being positive, uh with yourself and people around you.
• 17:36
  TIffany Woolley: So as you've dive dove into this new, you know, entrepreneurial part of with Heady Gear, what is the most satisfying part for you?
• 17:45
  TIffany Woolley: Is it like seeing the new patches?
• 17:47
  TIffany Woolley: Is it seeing the branding come together?
• 17:50
  TIffany Woolley: What where does the most gratification come?
• 17:54
  Bret Hedican: Well, I was in a airport in San Jose.
• 17:57
  Bret Hedican: Um and I saw this young kid with one of my bags.
• 18:01
  TIffany Woolley: That's huge.
• 18:02
  unknown: Yeah.
• 18:03
  Bret Hedican: And I saw the patches on it, and he was so proud.
• 18:06
  Bret Hedican: I went over and introduced myself to him.
• 18:07
  Bret Hedican: I said, How do you like your backpack?
• 18:09
  Bret Hedican: And he didn't know who I was at the time yet.
• 18:11
  Bret Hedican: And uh he goes, Oh, he just was so positive about the backpack and he loves it.
• 18:16
  Bret Hedican: And I said, Well, I'm I'm heady, I'm I'm the guy that started the company.
• 18:19
  Bret Hedican: He goes, Oh, and next thing you know, we took a photo and so forth.
• 18:22
  Bret Hedican: But you know, I think my goal is to know that uh, you know, if I anywhere you go around the world someday and you see a backpack with patches on it, I want people to say, Oh, that's a heady pack.
• 18:34
  Bret Hedican: Yeah, you know, that's a heavy backpack.
• 18:36
  Bret Hedican: That's one of those ones that you can put patches on it, and uh, so that's gratifying for me is seeing my backpack out in the wild.
• 18:43
  Bret Hedican: I get photos all the time, Tiff, of people, you know, Mount Fuji, they climb Mount Fuji and they had my backpack with them and took a photo.
• 18:52
  TIffany Woolley: Crazy.
• 18:53
  Bret Hedican: Yeah, and and just special places that people and gathering moments in their life and that they send me photos from all around the world uh is has been really gratifying.
• 19:02
  Scott Woolley: So, do you have a Mount Fuji patch?
• 19:05
  Bret Hedican: I am working on a Mount Fuji patch, uh Scott.
• 19:09
  Bret Hedican: I I think that's uh exciting for me to think about all the places and the patches I still yet to accomplish and get them in the store.
• 19:16
  Bret Hedican: But um, you know, we we will continue to grow, uh hopefully as uh as I continue to truck along here.
• 19:23
  Scott Woolley: I mean it's limitless, but the how many it really is limitless.
• 19:27
  TIffany Woolley: I mean, and you could even have upload images, people to the site and you know, create them and all that good stuff.
• 19:35
  Bret Hedican: Yeah, well, we and we create custom patches for people.
• 19:38
  Bret Hedican: Um, and teams.
• 19:40
  Bret Hedican: We worked with lots of different teams that call us and say, you know, we really love to make a five-year, 10-year, 15, 20, 25-year employee patches.
• 19:50
  Bret Hedican: So that's five patches right there.
• 19:52
  Bret Hedican: We want to do a team logo, we want to inspire.
• 19:55
  Bret Hedican: We have a a saying that we want to utilize and lean into this year for the year.
• 20:00
  Bret Hedican: Can we create a patch for that?
• 20:01
  Bret Hedican: And so we'll put this whole program together for companies.
• 20:04
  Bret Hedican: And uh, you know, I think when I look at my backpack, there's a couple of patches.
• 20:09
  Bret Hedican: Well, they're all of them mean something to me, but there's a couple that really are the ones that set me on a course in my life that um that it taught me what a team looks like.
• 20:21
  Bret Hedican: Um, there's the the patch from 1994 Stanley Cup Finals patch.
• 20:27
  Bret Hedican: Uh we lost, lost in game seven.
• 20:29
  Bret Hedican: Uh it's a it's kind of a painful moment because you when you don't win, you get all the way to the end in game seven and you lose.
• 20:36
  Bret Hedican: But what I felt in those moments of 1994 and that patch and what it means, um, it was one of the greatest teams I'd ever felt from the inside.
• 20:47
  Bret Hedican: And the support that every guy gave one another, there was a reason why we had success.
• 20:54
  Bret Hedican: And when I see that patch, it reminds me of that feeling, you know, that feeling and what teamwork looks like.
• 21:01
  Bret Hedican: And so um, you know, that's why I like doing custom patches for for people and teams, and and why we're capable of doing some really fun things to inspire people to keep doing amazing things.
• 21:14
  TIffany Woolley: So, how many backpacks do you offer now or bag styles?
• 21:19
  Bret Hedican: We offer six back.
• 21:20
  Bret Hedican: Oh, yeah, sorry, Tiff.
• 21:22
  Bret Hedican: We offer uh six backpacks, and I'm working on two new ones.
• 21:25
  Bret Hedican: Um I'll grab them.
• 21:27
  TIffany Woolley: Um this is uh Oh, that's a good I see where you're going with that.
• 21:33
  Bret Hedican: So this is uh kind of a fanny pack that we've just recently worked on.
• 21:37
  Bret Hedican: Um and these will be coming out uh fairly soon.
• 21:41
  TIffany Woolley: Yeah.
• 21:42
  Bret Hedican: And then we also we also did like a crossbody like this that comes in on the body and comes this way.
• 21:48
  Bret Hedican: So uh another bag that we're working on.
• 21:54
  Bret Hedican: So total it'll be uh it'll be eight bags um when those are in stock.
• 21:58
  Bret Hedican: So do you see more?
• 22:00
  Scott Woolley: Coming more styles, more types of bags.
• 22:02
  Bret Hedican: Yeah.
• 22:03
  Bret Hedican: I I I hope so, Scott.
• 22:04
  Bret Hedican: I I think that's the area that I need to improve.
• 22:07
  Bret Hedican: Um, styles that are will really resonate with with the people today.
• 22:11
  Bret Hedican: And I think we're doing a decent job.
• 22:12
  Bret Hedican: I know that's an area that I want to continue to improve upon.
• 22:16
  Bret Hedican: And um, you know, business development is something that I want to, you know, get the right people on board, my team, uh, to help me continue to grow and and in the uh in the bag area for sure.
• 22:26
  Scott Woolley: Yeah.
• 22:26
  Scott Woolley: So there's another title you can put to your name, designer.
• 22:29
  Scott Woolley: Well, yeah, you're a designer because you're you're designing bags, you're designing patches, you know, you've designed this new business, you know, so there's a creative side to it, not just the business side to it, you know, that you've you've dove into.
• 22:46
  Scott Woolley: And it's extremely creative what you have put together here.
• 22:51
  Scott Woolley: I mean, the design behind it all, the idea behind it all, you know, and it's letting people really design their life, you know, taking what you know, the design of their life and put it onto something they get they're gonna carry with them and show off it's showing off the design of their life.
• 23:09
  Bret Hedican: Well, it's it is when when you carry one of my backpacks or bags uh around uh even an airport or travel around the world, you're gonna get stopped.
• 23:17
  Bret Hedican: People are gonna come and ask you what you know what the patches mean.
• 23:21
  Bret Hedican: And um, there's definitely it it's a story that just continues to open, you know, that every person's got their own story, everybody's got their own journey.
• 23:30
  Bret Hedican: And uh, I think when we're on that journey, it's uh the the moments that we've learned on on how to do something, and or uh a moment that never that changed your life forever when you traveled to a certain destination uh that you never will forget.
• 23:43
  Bret Hedican: That and you'll and life will never be the same afterwards, right?
• 23:46
  Bret Hedican: These are yeah, these are things that we stand for.
• 23:49
  Bret Hedican: But um it's uh you're right, Scott.
• 23:51
  Bret Hedican: It's a designer could be added to the title, but um, you know, I think uh again, the humility of not knowing all the answers and trying to continue to get better is is one of the things I continue to lean on.
• 24:02
  Scott Woolley: Yeah.
• 24:04
  TIffany Woolley: So do you still carry that first heady backpack or in your fishing crew, do they still have the same one or have they evolved?
• 24:12
  TIffany Woolley: And then do you just move the patches?
• 24:15
  Bret Hedican: They they a lot of them have kept the very first backpack that I created, but they all have one of my heady packs too.
• 24:20
  Bret Hedican: So they they they they utilize both for sure.
• 24:24
  Bret Hedican: Um uh yeah, they they have been uh I think they've because they fell in love with that very first one that I ever created for them.
• 24:31
  Bret Hedican: Um it's it's been hard to separate from that.
• 24:34
  Scott Woolley: So, question have you thought about a duffel bag?
• 24:38
  Scott Woolley: Or, you know, I I think about this because we before we started this podcast, we were talking about music and our and our girls and so forth.
• 24:46
  Scott Woolley: Excuse me.
• 24:47
  TIffany Woolley: Well, even yeah, the bags for music equipment.
• 24:50
  Scott Woolley: Yeah, a guitar bag.
• 24:51
  Scott Woolley: I mean, I just think of our kids with their guitar bags going out.
• 24:56
  Bret Hedican: Well, I've already created samples for a duffel bag, I've already created samples for an electric and acoustic guitar.
• 25:02
  Bret Hedican: Oh, you are having a game.
• 25:04
  TIffany Woolley: All right, good.
• 25:04
  Bret Hedican: Yeah, I've already got those ready to go, and uh they're they're really cool.
• 25:10
  Bret Hedican: Um, you know, I think once we start maybe Sweetwater or Guitar Center or somebody like that, that I could, you know, create a relationship with that we could do patches that could go on there.
• 25:20
  Bret Hedican: I mean, you think about all the rock concerts that people go to, and I and I really feel like, you know, my company, we've always kind of referenced it as we're a cross between a letter jacket and a guitar case, right?
• 25:32
  Bret Hedican: Right?
• 25:32
  Bret Hedican: We're somewhere in between there where you know, these different moments uh of of guitar uh you know, rock bands that you've either seen or you know, backstage passes that you have that are on your your guitar case to uh the letter jacket that you had accomplishments.
• 25:48
  Bret Hedican: So we're I think we're somewhere in between there, Scott.
• 25:51
  Bret Hedican: But yeah, I do have samples for all of those things and you know hopefully we can uh we can start manufacturing those someday when we get the right relationships built.
• 25:59
  TIffany Woolley: So as the heady gear continues to grow, who who is the best at putting your message out there?
• 26:06
  TIffany Woolley: I mean, obviously your story is great, but is it social media?
• 26:11
  TIffany Woolley: Is it aligning yourself with you know cross-promotion?
• 26:14
  TIffany Woolley: We kind of talk about that a lot here too, just how you know social media is such a huge way of getting the brand awareness out there.
• 26:25
  Bret Hedican: Yeah, we're we've uh we've done a lot of work in that social media uh arena, Tiff.
• 26:30
  Bret Hedican: I'd I'd say, you know, Instagram, Facebook, um, Google ads.
• 26:35
  Bret Hedican: Um we've uh we've also tried to work with Amazon as well.
• 26:39
  Bret Hedican: Um, working with the National Hockey League and even some of the universities, we worked with uh influencers in college.
• 26:46
  Bret Hedican: I know the the whole college environment now with uh the NIL and working with college athletes in general um is a new landscape that people are learning.
• 26:55
  Bret Hedican: But you know, for all the bookstores uh that we're in in some of the campuses, we've tried to find, you know, five to eight athletes within a campus to be able to support their journey, give them a brand ambassador type of thing.
• 27:08
  Bret Hedican: Yes, exactly.
• 27:09
  Bret Hedican: Brand ambassadors that we've worked with uh within some of these universities have been really fun.
• 27:13
  Bret Hedican: Not only for them to carry my bag and and to utilize uh the patches and be able to represent the university, but also to kind of start to learn who these athletes are and and and follow them a little bit on their journey and as we follow them on social media.
• 27:27
  Bret Hedican: So that's been a really fun thing for me too.
• 27:29
  Bret Hedican: Being an athlete and a student athlete and what it takes to be able to keep all those things together.
• 27:35
  Bret Hedican: It's almost like what you had referenced before, Tiff, and asking me the question as far as time.
• 27:39
  Bret Hedican: You know, I almost feel like student athletes are um are so focused because they have to be.
• 27:44
  Bret Hedican: They can't be out doing all a lot of other things, you know, partying all those other things because they got they got to study, they've got to get to class, they've got to work out, they've got to get the practice.
• 27:54
  Bret Hedican: And before you know it, you you become this really regimen and uh person that can get a lot of things done.
• 28:01
  Bret Hedican: So we love student athletes and the way they uh are committed to their sport.
• 28:06
  TIffany Woolley: So that's really who you guys align with primarily right now.
• 28:12
  Bret Hedican: Yeah, I'd say that's who we're aligning with right now.
• 28:14
  Bret Hedican: But I I think I'd love to lean into you more, Tiff, you're full of speaking aligned too.
• 28:20
  Bret Hedican: You know, I think you're you guys are so good at this stuff, and you know, why I I I love talking to you guys, uh, even not on the podcast.
• 28:28
  Bret Hedican: I mean, I love talking to you guys in general to find out what are some of the things you guys are doing to help your guys' business grow.
• 28:33
  Bret Hedican: And I'm always willing to learn.
• 28:36
  TIffany Woolley: So, do you go to any conferences that you know that are about entrepreneurship that you found helpful?
• 28:45
  Bret Hedican: Yes.
• 28:45
  Bret Hedican: Um we have I have been working with uh somebody here in San Diego, um, you know, helping me just become uh use AI a lot better.
• 28:57
  Bret Hedican: You know, I think when you're a small company, um, you know, teaching your people how to use AI is something that I think is is extremely important.
• 29:07
  Bret Hedican: Um because you can make yourself bigger than you are.
• 29:11
  Bret Hedican: You can you can add 10 employees by just using AI.
• 29:14
  TIffany Woolley: Isn't that the truth?
• 29:14
  TIffany Woolley: Jeez.
• 29:15
  Bret Hedican: Yes, it's it's been phenomenal to kind of learn how I can utilize that more deeply.
• 29:20
  Bret Hedican: Um yeah, we we do do some conferences as well.
• 29:24
  Bret Hedican: I I know we we just were in the uh sports um uh uh licensing show and tailgating show in Vegas.
• 29:31
  Bret Hedican: Um CamX is coming up and and we're gonna also go, that's for the college bookstores.
• 29:36
  Bret Hedican: So I know my team is uh is ready to do those um expos.
• 29:41
  Bret Hedican: But overall, uh, you know, it's again, I think learning how to continue to grow and be bigger than we are right now as as a company and knowing that uh at one point we're we're gonna just you know, you hope you just take off.
• 29:55
  TIffany Woolley: So where do you like what is your goal set for the future?
• 29:59
  TIffany Woolley: I mean, do you see a brick and mortar or like what would be the you know, the next like pinnacle?
• 30:07
  Bret Hedican: Yeah, brick and mortar would be terrific.
• 30:09
  Bret Hedican: I think if if you walked into a you know Target, let's say or Walmart um during school before, you know, back to school time, and you you have an opportunity to buy a backpack that's plain, or you have an opportunity to buy a backpack that's a heady, yeah, and you've got the opportunity to embellish it with different patches and different inspiring quotes or whatever that might look like, um, that would be something that I could see moving forward.
• 30:33
  Bret Hedican: I'd love to be able to be in a in a sporting goods store where you walk in there and you, you know, you want to have the Minnesota Timberwolves, you want to have the Minnesota Wild, and then you want to have the Minnesota Vikings and the Minnesota Twins all on your backpack.
• 30:47
  Bret Hedican: Kids just don't want one logo on their backpack anymore.
• 30:50
  Bret Hedican: They want multiple logos.
• 30:51
  Bret Hedican: Absolutely.
• 30:53
  Bret Hedican: Yeah, I see us in both of those arenas, Tiff.
• 30:56
  Bret Hedican: I would love to be in the city.
• 30:58
  TIffany Woolley: So exciting.
• 30:59
  TIffany Woolley: Yeah, that's that's really where it's the target concept for back to school is really cool.
• 31:05
  TIffany Woolley: What about Olympic crossover too, with with the Olympics coming to California and your backyard and your history there?
• 31:17
  Bret Hedican: I would absolutely love to be involved with the Olympic uh team, uh, particularly the United States team and and or the you know uh Olympic committee in general.
• 31:26
  Bret Hedican: Um I I think that connection with you know the country, with uh your teammates, you know, your number.
• 31:35
  Bret Hedican: Um, you know, there's so many things that we can do, inspiring things that they can remind themselves that is on their bag, you know, leadership uh patches that you can put on your bag.
• 31:45
  Bret Hedican: Um there's there's just so many things we could do, but that would be a terrific bridge over, uh Tiffany, you know, to be able to do that, uh you know, connect connect that dot with the Olympic committee.
• 31:57
  Scott Woolley: Let's let's go back to the beginning when you first started this for a minute.
• 32:01
  Scott Woolley: Did when you came up with this idea and you started talking to friends and and people and so forth to help or to get information, did you face any skepticism?
• 32:12
  Bret Hedican: Um, you know, one of my good buddies, Greg Gardner, who's had some success like you, Scott, in business.
• 32:18
  Bret Hedican: Um I I was skeptical on my of myself, right?
• 32:23
  Bret Hedican: I was thinking, okay, how am I gonna do this?
• 32:25
  Bret Hedican: And reaching out to Greg, I'm like, Greg, you want to help me?
• 32:29
  Bret Hedican: And he's like, Nope.
• 32:31
  Bret Hedican: Nope, you've got this.
• 32:33
  Bret Hedican: And I think I asked him once, and then I asked him one more time, and he says, Nope, you got this.
• 32:41
  Bret Hedican: And I think hearing that no twice was enough for me to kind of get punched in the nose and to know that okay, sometimes you just gotta believe in yourself.
• 32:52
  Bret Hedican: And I think that's been one of the things I've had to do through this process is know that you're, you know, you you've got to be able to believe and invest in you.
• 33:07
  TIffany Woolley: Well, that's something that you clearly have known for since you were young.
• 33:12
  TIffany Woolley: I mean, to keep up, you know, the the intensity that you had to maintain to in your youth to become as successful in hockey, you know, that's definitely something you live by.
• 33:27
  Bret Hedican: Yeah, there was many moments.
• 33:29
  Bret Hedican: Um, one that comes to mind is uh freshman in college.
• 33:34
  Bret Hedican: I was recruited uh to be a forward uh in college, but I was I never played forward the position in my life.
• 33:41
  Bret Hedican: I was always defenseman.
• 33:42
  Bret Hedican: And so as a as a freshman, uh being in the position that I never played before, I was in and out of the lineup.
• 33:48
  Bret Hedican: And I wasn't, and the nights I wasn't playing on a weekend, I was up in the corner of the building hitting the play button on the cassette player to be able to play music on the intercom during the game.
• 34:00
  Bret Hedican: And so literally, you go from that as a freshman to walking in the coach's office after the season saying, Listen, coach, I know you recruited me as a forward, but I've never played the position in my life.
• 34:12
  Bret Hedican: Give me a chance at defense.
• 34:14
  Bret Hedican: And he says, you know, we'll come back next year as a defenseman, we'll see how it goes.
• 34:19
  Bret Hedican: I think, you know, years later, he I asked him about that.
• 34:21
  Bret Hedican: And he said, Yeah, I thought I was gonna cut you off the team, your sophomore year.
• 34:25
  Bret Hedican: But I came back, made the team as a defenseman, had a really good, solid sophomore year.
• 34:30
  Bret Hedican: And that's when I took off my junior year as a defenseman, and I guess the rest is history.
• 34:35
  Bret Hedican: But there was moments like that throughout my career that I had to continue to believe in myself, even when the kind of the chips were against me, and there were moments where I could have quit, uh quit on myself, but I didn't.
• 34:46
  Bret Hedican: And I think learning those lessons early uh in life have now helped me uh as well uh as being an entrepreneur.
• 34:56
  TIffany Woolley: I love that.
• 34:57
  TIffany Woolley: So where do you think that growing up in St.
• 35:01
  TIffany Woolley: Paul was it, St.
• 35:02
  TIffany Woolley: Paul, Minnesota?
• 35:04
  Bret Hedican: Yep, that's it, Tiff.
• 35:06
  TIffany Woolley: So do you think that those were the you know, the values instilled back then?
• 35:12
  Bret Hedican: I think watching my parents, you know, both work a couple of jobs, you know, as me for as a kid.
• 35:19
  Bret Hedican: My dad had a job, but he was also a volunteer fireman.
• 35:22
  Bret Hedican: So I'd grew up with in the middle of the night, you'd hear this, you know, this alarm going off, which was his pager that would wake him up where he'd have to get up and get down to the fire department uh downtown North St.
• 35:36
  Bret Hedican: Paul, and he'd have to go fight a fire.
• 35:37
  Bret Hedican: He was also a paramedic for a while.
• 35:40
  Bret Hedican: My mom had a couple of jobs uh that she had as well.
• 35:43
  Bret Hedican: And so them working as hard as they did through my youth, I just watched them give me the opportunities that I I was afforded to to have because of their hard work.
• 35:56
  Bret Hedican: Right.
• 35:56
  Bret Hedican: And and so I think, you know, watching them do that is is instilled a lot of work ethic in myself.
• 36:03
  Bret Hedican: I hope.
• 36:04
  Bret Hedican: I hope I can be as hardworking as they were, you know, when when I was growing up.
• 36:08
  Bret Hedican: And and I really always appreciate my parents for for what they did for me to give me the opportunity when and the things I was able to do.
• 36:16
  Scott Woolley: So so you you currently probably you have what hundreds of patches, thousands?
• 36:21
  Scott Woolley: Do you know how many you have at this moment?
• 36:23
  Scott Woolley: Yeah, we we've got about 900 patches.
• 36:25
  Scott Woolley: 900.
• 36:26
  Scott Woolley: So that's probably going to continue to keep growing.
• 36:28
  Scott Woolley: Exponentially, I would think.
• 36:30
  Scott Woolley: Yeah.
• 36:30
  Scott Woolley: Is there one patch right now that you have that kind of sticks out for you that you know, then and then all the rest?
• 36:37
  Scott Woolley: Is there one that's more meaningful to you?
• 36:40
  Bret Hedican: Yeah, you know, there's there's this one uh that Trip Tracy from uh the Carolina Hurricanes, he's the color commentator who does uh the commentary for the canes.
• 36:52
  Bret Hedican: And he he created a patch called Dig In.
• 36:55
  Bret Hedican: And uh I've got that on my bag.
• 36:57
  Bret Hedican: Um and I guess for me, dig in just means again, that you you get to these moments that you wanna just you don't have the answer and you and you want to give up, or you you doubt yourself.
• 37:10
  Bret Hedican: And you know, you just some days you just gotta say, look, I just I'm just gonna dig in.
• 37:14
  Bret Hedican: I'm gonna take one step today, and I'm gonna take one step after I take that step, and then I'm gonna keep moving forward.
• 37:21
  Bret Hedican: And with that process, uh it it reminds me some days just to know that you know, this could be a day that you're just gonna have to dig in.
• 37:29
  TIffany Woolley: That's a great one, actually.
• 37:31
  TIffany Woolley: I love that.
• 37:32
  TIffany Woolley: So for the patches and in the designing process of all these patches, is there a certain size that you seem to stay within, or is there something that could be too small, too big?
• 37:43
  Bret Hedican: Yeah, I I try to use that three-inch uh basic barometer, you know, Tiff, just to be able to know that if it's anywhere around that three inch, let's say it's lengthwise, it might be a little bit longer, and then maybe width, it might be a little bit more narrow.
• 37:57
  Bret Hedican: So uh, but overall, the three inch is really, I think, a sweet spot for us.
• 38:01
  Scott Woolley: And typically on on the on the bags you have, how many patches can you fit on a bag?
• 38:08
  Bret Hedican: Uh 15, sometimes more.
• 38:11
  Bret Hedican: Uh depends how big they are.
• 38:13
  Bret Hedican: Um, some uh for some of my bags, you probably wouldn't be able to get that many, maybe like eight to ten.
• 38:19
  Bret Hedican: Um, but a lot of the the backpacks I have uh the loop velcro panels all on the front and then also on both sides.
• 38:28
  Bret Hedican: So you can you can do patches on on all three of the four sides, uh Scott.
• 38:33
  Bret Hedican: So it gives you an opportunity to really embellish and be able to customize and personalize the backpack and the bag.
• 38:39
  Scott Woolley: Have you been able to kind of quantify or or or notice or see people who have been buying patches, how many they're typically buying if they're really into the bag and changing?
• 38:52
  Bret Hedican: Yeah, a lot of times we'll get a purchase of a backpack, and a lot of times they'll get two to three, you know, patches to start.
• 38:59
  TIffany Woolley: Yeah, that's why I wonder too.
• 39:01
  Bret Hedican: Yeah, and I I think moving forward, Scott, we're gonna be doing that a lot more as far as packaging backpacks with two patches to start, uh, where you get get those included in the sale of the backpack or the bag.
• 39:13
  Bret Hedican: Um, I I think anytime you can just get get a customer kind of going in that direction, uh, it'll bring them back for for more.
• 39:20
  Bret Hedican: And uh that's that's what we'll be focusing on 2026.
• 39:24
  Scott Woolley: And where do you see most people picking patches?
• 39:27
  Scott Woolley: Is is there a particular category that people seem to be more interested in displaying?
• 39:33
  Bret Hedican: Um, I think the licensed patches are the ones that are really most popular, the college, the collegiate and the NHL, um and the the miniature flags, I think are the the ones that really sell the most of.
• 39:45
  Bret Hedican: I think right behind that is the national parks.
• 39:48
  Bret Hedican: Um we we've we've worked with a great partner from Canada that we get some of our national park uh patches from, which has been exciting.
• 39:55
  Bret Hedican: And and then you know, maybe the destination and and and music patches are the are the ones that are really behind those.
• 40:01
  Bret Hedican: But um really the license patches are are probably the most popular.
• 40:05
  Scott Woolley: So when you say when you said uh flags is what you said?
• 40:10
  Bret Hedican: Miniature, yeah, I've got the miniature.
• 40:11
  Scott Woolley: So are these the flags of the countries?
• 40:14
  Bret Hedican: Yeah, yeah.
• 40:14
  Bret Hedican: Country flags, state and state flags too, Scott.
• 40:17
  Bret Hedican: Okay.
• 40:19
  TIffany Woolley: Well, like they are all part of making the notations on the bag of who's the beholder, basically.
• 40:25
  TIffany Woolley: All the things people identify with.
• 40:27
  Scott Woolley: So the current bag that you're carrying what's on your bag?
• 40:32
  Scott Woolley: What's on my bag?
• 40:34
  Scott Woolley: Yeah, that you're currently currently carrying.
• 40:36
  Scott Woolley: Can I go grab it?
• 40:38
  Scott Woolley: Yeah, yeah, grab it.
• 40:39
  Scott Woolley: Because that'd be interesting.
• 40:40
  Scott Woolley: See how much hockey related it might be.
• 40:43
  Scott Woolley: Or is it destination?
• 40:45
  Scott Woolley: Okay.
• 40:46
  TIffany Woolley: Oh, there and then.
• 40:47
  Scott Woolley: We were just saying while you were getting it, is it more hockey related?
• 40:50
  Scott Woolley: Is it more destillation destination related?
• 40:55
  Bret Hedican: Okay, so um this is my current bag.
• 40:59
  Bret Hedican: And uh there you see my digging.
• 41:02
  TIffany Woolley: I love that one.
• 41:03
  Bret Hedican: The Stanley Canuck and this is my 1994 pass that I referenced earlier.
• 41:08
  Bret Hedican: Yep.
• 41:09
  Bret Hedican: That I keep on my bag.
• 41:11
  Bret Hedican: And then on this side, you know, clearly I have the uh USA Canada.
• 41:16
  Bret Hedican: Love Canada's.
• 41:17
  Bret Hedican: I lived there for for the Canucks for a while.
• 41:20
  Bret Hedican: Um Olympic, my Olympic patch, and then here's my St.
• 41:25
  Bret Hedican: Cloud, my Stanley Cup, the NHL, and then also the 2006 cuff team.
• 41:31
  Bret Hedican: But on the front, these are special too.
• 41:35
  Bret Hedican: So um, about seven years ago, I started doing some martial arts in Kung Fu uh in Alamo, California.
• 41:41
  Bret Hedican: And so this is their logo that I created these patches for them.
• 41:45
  Bret Hedican: Um, this is the 50-inch musky patch that is only awarded to somebody that uh catches the catches the fish.
• 41:54
  Bret Hedican: That's right.
• 41:54
  Bret Hedican: Uh obviously the Kung Fu.
• 41:56
  Bret Hedican: I created these patches for our fishing trip last year.
• 41:59
  Bret Hedican: Um, the guys I awarded every after every night, I I gave a guy a patch, and this was the patch I gave.
• 42:05
  Bret Hedican: So uh we call it Life 360, our group up there that fishes, because you know, we we have the five days a year that we spend fishing together, and then we can't wait when it ends for the 360 days to go by to then.
• 42:19
  TIffany Woolley: So that's so cute.
• 42:20
  Bret Hedican: That's what life 360 means.
• 42:22
  Bret Hedican: Um, and then these are just uh uh flags that all mean something to me, uh up on top.
• 42:27
  Bret Hedican: So there's uh there's my heady pack.
• 42:30
  TIffany Woolley: There's your heady pack.
• 42:31
  TIffany Woolley: I love it.
• 42:32
  TIffany Woolley: So you have two daughters.
• 42:35
  TIffany Woolley: What do their heady packs resemble?
• 42:40
  Bret Hedican: Um, you know, music, uh, you know, dance, uh school, um, you know, their college logo, they've they've got one of those on their bags as well.
• 42:50
  Bret Hedican: So they've just been chipping away at adding adding little memories and some of the miniature flags that they've been able to uh hit some of the countries over the last couple of years as well.
• 42:59
  Scott Woolley: So you've got patches basically for any age group.
• 43:03
  Bret Hedican: Yes.
• 43:04
  Bret Hedican: Yeah, what's been fun, Scott, is people say, you know, who's your customer?
• 43:07
  Bret Hedican: Man, I if I could pinpoint our customer to one segment or or age group, I I don't think I can.
• 43:15
  Bret Hedican: I think we've we've had companies, we've had businesses, we've had teams from all different uh types of uh walks of uh life, if you will.
• 43:24
  Bret Hedican: Um, students from college to to grade students, you know, you know, sixth graders to even younger.
• 43:31
  Bret Hedican: Um so I'm I'm really excited about you know, really the the breadth of customer that we do have.
• 43:37
  Bret Hedican: Um and I I don't know if I could really pinpoint it yet.
• 43:41
  Scott Woolley: So what's the typical price point for bags?
• 43:44
  Scott Woolley: What's from like a high and a low?
• 43:48
  Bret Hedican: Our uh base camp model is 45 to 50 dollars.
• 43:51
  Bret Hedican: Uh-huh.
• 43:51
  Bret Hedican: Um, and then we go uh we have uh several bags around that $70 mark, and then uh our top of the line bag is what we call or summit and that's uh 119.
• 44:02
  Bret Hedican: Yeah so that's so we have a great range great pricing compared to bags that you know you you it's competitive pricing for sure definitely and then and then typically what is this the the patches cost an individual yeah like the um the miniature flags are around the the $7 mark Scott and then um our license patches go from you know $14 $13 in that range to sometimes $15 for some of the NHL uh license patches um our destinations and um national parks are around 11 or 12 so we're you know you can you can get a lot of great moments on your bag um you know that uh to get you started for sure that keep you in range.
• 44:49
  Bret Hedican: So an individual or a company or a team that like would like to have their own patch made, what's the time frame for that patch to be made and they could have it well the one thing I recommend with people when they send uh the our team a design is you know to have the logo um it have edges around like a some sort of uh shape and in a beginning from that point yeah once I have a uh you know my team has a a shape or the size of the patch that we can agree on it's sent to the factory uh my team then produces a a sample and then within probably four days we give the the customer um the sample to approve once it is approved it takes about three weeks to really get the patch manufactured and then uh be able to ship it to the customer and all the patches are embroidered yes all of the patches are embroidered and all of the patches come with the velcro sewn in the back of the patch so it can be just applied to our loop velcro bags immediately so it's not just no iron or no no uh sewing on the the the patch onto the bag it just it just is placed on the bag and then you're able to you know pull it off and remove it and put it somewhere else on the bag if you wanted to but uh yeah our patches are made to be applied right to the backpack and bag immediately right so the the consumer can move the patches around whatever they want however they want they could change them every day if they wanted that's right that's what's fun and you can trade them you know you can trade them with a friend so you can pack a patch that you like uh or that you want from a friend and they've got one of yours that they want and you can just pull it off and you can trade with a friend and and put it on your bag immediately.
• 46:30
  Bret Hedican: But yeah you can move them anytime you want Scott that's what's exciting.
• 46:33
  Scott Woolley: Yeah I could see down the road you having commemorative special patches with a limited edition where you're only making say 500 of a particular patch and those 500 people the only 500 people in the world that have it if you want to get it well then you got to try to put it in an auction or see if you can buy it from someone.
• 46:53
  Bret Hedican: That's right.
• 46:53
  Bret Hedican: Yeah we did that for the first time um we were at the World Junior Championships this last uh uh just about a month ago and we were able to do a collector's edition world junior patch and it turned out great I think people really responded well to it and uh we we uh our team sold a lot of that patch which is exciting to see and now they can go to the website they can they can put their name their email address and uh register the patch because each one had its own serial number so that's so cool yeah this is something we're just starting to kind of get more into uh our team and um hoping Scott that we'll do a lot more of it in the future for sure.
• 47:30
  Bret Hedican: How often do people come to you to request a new patch design I would think that we we have people Tiff sending us uh notes a lot saying hey would really love uh a Sanrio patch we really want you know and and you know we by all means we'd love to be able to make some of these patches but these a lot of the ones that people are requesting are ones that require a license.
• 47:55
  Bret Hedican: Oh okay so that's where we have to manage um you know the the opportunity to get the license to then acquire that to then be able to make the patch uh with Velcro so we we as we continue to grow as a company we'll continue to acquire more licenses and have more you know licensed brands on our website that we're able to sell.
• 48:15
  TIffany Woolley: And then when you coordinate by having a licensed brand do you have to give them payment like a fee?
• 48:23
  Bret Hedican: Yes all of the you know licenses that we acquire they come with an advance.
• 48:29
  TIffany Woolley: Yeah.
• 48:29
  Bret Hedican: Pardon me royalties yeah well there's there's there's two things you you have to pay an advance first to be able to acquire the license.
• 48:36
  Bret Hedican: Yep um and and that advance then is every time you sell a patch it kind of works against the royalty.
• 48:43
  Bret Hedican: And at some point you'll pay the royalty all the way back that you've already advanced them and then you'll have to pay a percentage of every sale after that moment.
• 48:51
  Bret Hedican: So interesting it's yeah it's their way that the the brand with the license that say the NHL or the CLC in in every college and university is different.
• 49:02
  Bret Hedican: Sometimes you have a a smaller fee for a smaller school and a larger fee for a uh a more popular school that you have to pay in advance yearly and then you you know you hopefully make all that money back and then some uh within every advance that you have to pay out for uh a licensed patch.
• 49:20
  Bret Hedican: But yeah there's there's fees to that Scott and that's why um and then the relationship that you have to acquire the license as well.
• 49:28
  Scott Woolley: Well that's like a whole business in itself from what you're doing when you're getting into licensing that's a whole nother art of negotiating and a whole nother art of business that you've incorporated into what you've put together that actually makes it a little bit more difficult than your average business and just manufacturing and then going and selling a product.
• 49:50
  Scott Woolley: So there's a lot to say what you've gotten yourself into and have accomplished.
• 49:56
  Bret Hedican: Yeah huge growth opportunity as well yeah yeah well you're right Scott and and Tip it's been uh that's a huge learning curve when it comes to licensing and to be able to navigate those waters to be able to contact the right people um to be able to acquire the licenses um it is a whole separate business that you have to be able to be ready for um for sure.
• 50:20
  Scott Woolley: So well it's it's also is whoever that licensee is it's them having the credibility or their believing in you that you're going to handle their license properly.
• 50:31
  Scott Woolley: So there's a lot you know of a of a relationship that needs to be built of trust.
• 50:39
  Bret Hedican: That is you're absolutely right I mean you you must know a little bit about licensing Scott I'm sure you do and and that whole part of working with the brand to be able to them to trust your company to be able to build it in a way where not only represents uh their brand the right way but then also that you'll produce enough sales for them to make it worthwhile for them to give you the license to be able to sell the patch.
• 51:04
  Bret Hedican: So a lot to that uh relationship that has to go on and a lot of trust as well.
• 51:09
  Scott Woolley: Yeah.
• 51:10
  TIffany Woolley: So with hockey being such a huge part of your life and a huge obviously focal for your career do you ever see this becoming a full-time effort I do I do someday see this as being a full-time effort and uh something that I would love to see uh this business take that next step and I I yeah Tiffy that's that's the goal.
• 51:37
  Scott Woolley: And where would you base out of have you thought of that or is there a certain area that leans you know pulls weight more than another you've spent a good part of your life in Minnesota then you've spent a a a long time in Northern California now you're I say a short period of time in Southern California but then you've also North Carolina Florida you know Canada you know places that you live because of Korea is there a place that would be the destination that you'd love to kind of end up at have you thought about that I I haven't even kind of crossed that bridge yet but I'm I'm enjoying San Diego right now.
• 52:20
  Bret Hedican: I think I love this area.
• 52:21
  Bret Hedican: I'm downtown here and uh it's just been a great place to live.
• 52:25
  Bret Hedican: Um I think right now this will be home base for a while and still obviously I love being back in Minnesota and in the summers as well but for the most part I think I think this San Diego will be my my home base for now.
• 52:37
  Bret Hedican: But it doesn't really matter with that business way you could be correct no there's no no reason why I have to stay in in uh California here or you know where I've got to be I can be anywhere at this point.
• 52:50
  Bret Hedican: But yeah the hockey part and the passion there Tiffany is still something that's inside me and and still wanting to give back there.
• 52:57
  Bret Hedican: But uh there there hopefully is going to be a moment where it'll be uh you know to see if really see if this business can turn out to be something you've got to go all in.
• 53:06
  Scott Woolley: So when you say that this business can turn out to be something quite frankly I look at it and hear you and what I've seen you do do with it over the last few years is it's become something.
• 53:16
  Bret Hedican: It is something I mean at what point do you are you going to say okay now I've really got to where I want to be with this is there something in your mind where you think that or I think there's so much growth here available still and I think there's such a big runway to continue to see where this company can go.
• 53:38
  Bret Hedican: Um I I don't know when that moment will be of man I can look back at and say wow I I think uh this is exactly where I had imagined it I I I think going back to Tiff's question earlier and where we can see this in in different stores and different brick and mortars is really that goal of mine someday where people really want to have a backpack that has more meaning to it than just a plain backpack and and having it in stores uh where the where you can do that um that'll be a moment for me when when those things are happening and we're starting to see you know backpacks walking around in the wild right all over the place that uh that have patches and on them that that that tell a story.
• 54:18
  Scott Woolley: So for people listening or watching to this podcast where do they go purchase their first heady I would say headygear.com would be the best spot to to come.
• 54:29
  Bret Hedican: So it's just h-e-di like yeti except for an H gear.com and uh you'll see the website it it's a it's a great website and you'll be able to you know find your backpack find your patch um kind of get your story started uh it's probably the best place to start Scott okay well Brad always a pleasure to talk with you and spend time together and it's been fun to watch this grow and evolve and you know look forward to going to Target one day and creating our backpack or singing in Target yeah I would love that too well Tiff and Scott I I really appreciate your guys' time I I miss you guys I I can't wait to see you down in Florida sometime soon.
• 55:16
  Scott Woolley: Well we hope it's real soon thank you tell your daughters I miss playing guitar with them the same goes I'll say back to you.
• 55:26
  Scott Woolley: Yes exactly you're you're part of the inspiration that got them going when you you know the two or three times you came and played with them they really like loved that kind of camaraderie of playing with someone else and they have referred back to the videos that I took back then numerous times.
• 55:48
  Bret Hedican: Wow yeah yeah I always looked forward to coming into Florida when I was with doing the vlog I know I know that was fun and then being able to come over to your house and being able to play guitar and and we were all we'd play guitar and your daughter would play the drums and then your other daughter played the piano and then we'd have everything going uh at the same time and and playing music but it it's it's fun to see how far they've all come since then and uh and the music that they're creating and I can't wait to see where it ends up going for them.
• 56:18
  Scott Woolley: Well thanks for spending the time with us on the iDesign lab.
• 56:22
  Bret Hedican: Well thank you for having me Scott and Tiffany it's always great to talk to you.
• 56:26
  Voice Over: Thank you.
• 56:26
  Voice Over: Bye bye bye bye bye bye iDesign Labs Podcast is an SW group production in association with the five star and TW interiors.
• 56:36
  Voice Over: To learn more about iDesign Lab or TW interiors please visit TWinteriors.com