PPB August 2018

| AUGUST 2018 | 21 INNOVATE a patch. Back in 2006, it was really hard to find products on which we could digitally print our logo. So, on the buyer side I was frustrated because it wasn’t easy to find something we could source,” explains Lucash. “That’s part of the reason why, when we started this company, we wanted to flip the process on its head and do things the way we thought they should be done. As a company, when everyone else zigs, we zag.” For Lucash, that means committing to no order minimums, no setup fees and five-day turnaround times. In addition, all their products come in high-end retail packaging, and they have recently introduced completely custom bags that are locally cut, sewn and finished in 72 hours. “This has been the fastest-growing sector of our business, hands down, for the past year and a half,” he says. “No other supplier is crazy enough to even think about doing it, but Mike and I learned the bag-making process from our years at Jansport.” Lucash capitalized on this knowledge when he dreamed up the idea of recycling the Origaudio booth backdrop used this year at The PPAI Expo. “We hired an artist from Argentina to paint really cool graffiti-style artwork on our backdrop. After the show, we made about 220 custom bags from it. Each one is unique, with a limited-edition number, and we donated all the proceeds to Chemo Duck, a charity that provides an educational play therapy tool for kids with cancer.” The bags sold out, with more than half pre-selling at the show. “It was a great experiential marketing opportunity, and we’ll probably do something similar next year,” says Lucash. “The idea was to keep a piece of Vegas as memorabilia while also donating to a good cause.” This is not the first time that Lucash has had success repurposing something old. In 2013, Origaudio had a large stock of headphones that weren’t moving. So, parodying the popular Beats by Dre™ headphones, Lucash filed a trademark for Beets by Origaudio™, printed a vegetable on the side of the product and created a promotional video. “Within the first hour, the video went viral. We were selling thousands of headphones a day and moved the entire inventory in a month,” says Lucash. As part of the promotion, a can of beets was donated to the local food bank for every piece that was sold. “We eventually got banned from four grocery stores in Orange County because we were consistently wiping out their stock of beets. And Second Harvest Food Bank finally asked us to make monetary donations in lieu of any more donated beets,” he laughs. Lucash attributes his product development and marketing Lucash (front, second from right) with the Origaudio team in front of the company’s Expo show banner, which was cut up to form the tops of 220 custom backpacks. Proceeds from the limited- edition backpacks (below, right) featuring unique graffiti-style artwork were donated to Chemo Duck, a nonprofit that offers support to children and families going through cancer treatment.