This week on Meet The Makers we sat down with Lynn Moses, owner and manager At Curves, helping women get healthier and stronger with fitness solutions. Empowering females both through their bag functionality and their fitness, is something Moses paired together perfectly when she decided to bring her design for a more practical and convenient bag to life with Clutch Made. Seeing a gap in the market to combine the design of a wallet integrated into a bag, Moses got to work sketching her dream product. Inspired by the shape and convenience of doctors bags, Moses designed an innovative product that is both practical, stylish and convenient. Keep reading below to find out more about her experience with Clutch Made, her design process, and why she thinks women will love this product!
What inspired you to reach out to Clutch Made to start or develop your business journey?
I was disappointed when my purse design that I submitted over 4 years ago to a crowdfunding site didn’t get funded despite having over 3000 votes and 100 comments such as:
“What's the news on this bag? I'd love to have this for work!”
“This is amazing. I want one now!”
“I NEED THIS (I am a doctor)”
I asked the crowdfunding company what it took to get crowdfunded and they told me like 1500 -2000 votes would allow them to put it on the crowdfunding platform to see if it would get funded. So when I reached 3000, I asked if it would be moved to the crowdfunding stage and was told that my design would be too expensive to make. I was heartbroken because I really believed in the design. I guess for a while I didn’t know what else to do and just let it rest. I check the site occasionally, and I had positive comments coming in even 2 years ago when the design had been on the site for over 2 years. I knew it was a good design, I just didn’t know how to proceed.
In 2019, I received an inheritance from a relative and decided to pursue some of my passions since I had some extra money. As I was thinking about it, I decided—I want to follow through with my purse design! I did a lot of research and felt like Clutch made was the best fit for me.
Describe your brand and your products in 5 words or less.
High-end, classy, practical, problem solver
Tell us a little bit more about what inspires and drives your brand.
I love things that are unique, well made and are convenient. I HATE digging around in a purse looking for something! Wallets take up a lot of room. I tried some doctor’s bags and they were a big improvement over a traditional purse-at least I could see in there and find things. The wallet was still an issue for me. It still took up a lot of room in a purse and sometimes it was inconvenient to have to pull it out to get money to pay for something. I had a purse that had an integrated wallet in the front pocket and I liked that because you didn’t have to open the purse, but it only held a few credit cards and getting change out of it was hard! So, I liked the idea of an integrated wallet that had the space of a regular wallet. I just started drawing and doodling and the design below is what I came up with.
When working with Betabrand we made some changes to the design to make it easier to build in the event that it did get crowdfunded.
How has your experience been bringing your products to life with Clutch Made?
Very exciting! We made some design changes here to keep the costs down and to make the design work a little better. It was so exciting for me to go through the whole process and the best was when the prototype arrived in the mail! I am proud that I carried my vision through and now have an actual product. I’m looking forward to finalizing the design and then on to marketing and sales! I think a lot of women will find this type of bag very nice and convenient
What sets your products apart in the world of American Made accessories?
When researching my purse design, I really couldn’t find anything like it, so it’s unique for sure!
If you could give one piece of advice to emerging designers what would it be?
Go for it! It’s an exciting process and Clutch Made will help you along the way. When you see your design come off the pages and become something real and tangible, there’s just no other feeling like it! Then it’s just a matter of production and marketing and Viola! You have a company and your selling products all of the world. Nothing to lose really!
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