Unique Concepts Summer 2008

Flirting with Success at Flirty Aprons

By Claude Solnick
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by Randall G. Mielke

When four Brigham Young University graduates decided to go into business together, they brainstormed what types of products they could sell. The plan was to start a small business and generate enough revenue to fund a bigger venture down the line. But much to their delight, their initial undertaking, Flirty Aprons, is on its way to becoming the bigger venture that they were looking for.

Flirty Aprons was the brainchild of Jamie Taylor who, while surfing cooking websites, noticed that all of the aprons sold by advertisers were either old-fashioned looking or not-so-great home-made models. She began to wonder about the marketability of a fresh new apron line, perhaps something trendy targeted to younger women.

She talked to her husband, Spencer, and another couple, Joseph and Heather Hansen, and they liked the idea so much that they got to work right away. In March the group launched their first retail location, a Flirty Aprons cart in University Mall in Orem, UT. They had a total of five hundred aprons ready for sale.

The initial stock sold in three weeks. "We plan to stay there through the Christmas season at least," says CFO Spencer Taylor. To fund their start-up, the group secured a loan from a local credit union. "The venture has been successful enough that we have paid off the start-up costs within one month," says CEO Joseph Hansen.

Although Flirty Aprons started out with a market strategy targeting women in their 20s, once the cart was open they found their products appealed to a much wider audience. Their best buyers ranged in age from early 20s to mid-50s. Retail prices are about $20 to $30. Flirty Aprons are made in the US, with fabrics also made in the US.

The company's Original Flirty Apron is a mix of cotton and cotton-polyester blends, with 10 color combinations available. Recently the company added two more styles, a half-apron with a scallop detail at the bottom, called the Scalloped Half Flirt, and the Mini Flirt, a smaller version of the Original Flirty Apron, designed for girls. A men's barbecue apron is being considered.

A retail website (FlirtyAprons.com) opened within days of the cart and that venture is reaping its own rewards. "One of our biggest priorities is to aggressively market on the Internet, " says Hansen. "We did a lot of work for the Internet. And on the operations manual for the cart. Now we can concentrate on marketing and production."

"We've gotten a great response" from shoppers, Taylor adds. The concept has "a lot of potential."

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