DOGGY STYLE DESIGNS
Owner: Jeff Gellman
Type of business: Pet apparel wholesaler
Location: 560 Mineral Spring Ave., Pawtucket
Employees: 7
Year founded: 2004
Annual sales: WND
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To think there was a time when dogs went without suede boots, rhinestone collars or sleeveless T-shirts. Our four-legged friends took to the streets with exposed fur and bare paws. They must have felt naked.
That uncivilized era is long forgotten at Doggy Style Designs in Pawtucket, where folks are busy assembling and taking orders for pet apparel.
In the company’s warehouse on Mineral Spring Avenue, shelves are stocked with doggy T-shirts printed with phrases like “I wuff you,” “Isn’t my owner hot,” and “You fetch.” Boxes hold sets of doggy boots.
“People treat their pets like a member of the family,” said Stacie Parillo, sales manager for Doggy Style Designs. Owners especially dote on smaller dogs, she said, because “they actually get cold, and they’re fun to dress.”
Once a luxury enjoyed primarily by the wealthy, Parillo said, dressing up dogs has hit the mainstream; but the trend has also been accentuated with celebrities like Paris Hilton parading before paparazzi with their dapper dogs.
Doggy Style Designs is riding the wave of pet-fashion popularity with products to fit most budgets (T-shirts retail for $19.99 to $24.99, Parillo said).
Owner Jeff Gellman said his wholesale company has amassed some 500 customers throughout the United States and abroad – especially in Japan, where he noted that dogs inhabit 20 percent of households. Locally, the company’s customers include retailers Park Ave. Puppy’s on Federal Hill and My Best Friend at the Warwick Mall.
Most retailers, Gellman said, order merchandise on the company’s Web site. Orders are delivered to stores via mail in as little as one business day. (He noted that because the superstore dictates prices and other terms, his company refuses to do business with Wal-Mart.)
Thus far, the company’s best sellers are the T-shirts, which come in more than 200 designs and several colors including black, pink and purple. With shirts imported from China, two local employees screen-print lettering and apply other materials such as rhinestones. The shirts range from cutesy to risqué, with many phrases playing on a word for a female dog that rhymes with “witch.” The fashions fit dogs as small as Chihuahuas and as large as golden retrievers.
The company carries four lines of boots, Parillo said, built to keep dogs fashionable while protecting their paws from the elements. They come in multiple colors and materials – including suede.
Doggy Style also sells accessories such as rhinestone collars – complete with velvet cases – decorative hats, hair clips and angel wings attached to T-shirts. (The New York Dog Magazine’s November issue featured a photo of a Yorkshire terrier sporting the company’s stylish wings.)
The company has added doggy literature to its product lines as well, offering 32 books with titles such as “How to Speak Dog” and “The Dogtionary: Meaningful Portraits of Dogs.” Other lines include dog mannequins and shirt hangers.
Gellman said he launched Doggy Style last October, having witnessed the growing market for dog apparel during a tradeshow in Chicago. As an owner of two German shepherds and a Chihuahua, Gellman knew firsthand how much people adore their dogs.
To get the operation off the ground, Gellman said he leveraged assets from his business of more than 10 years, Miko Exoticwear, an adult products retailer and wholesaler. The company started doing business on the floor above the Miko retail shop, located on North Main Street in Providence.
Orders came faster than Miko employees could print T-shirts and assemble other attire and accessories, Gellman said. “It was successful; people loved us from the get-go.”
The staff collaborates on new product ideas at meetings held before each season, creating the colorful designs and phrases. This year, the team has grown by three, including an intern from Providence’s Met School who works on screen printing.
Doggy Style’s rapid growth prompted Gellman to move both companies’ administrative and assembly operations from North Main Street – where Miko’s retail business remains – to its Pawtucket location in late November.
In the spirit of catering to Doggy Style’s target market, the 8,000-square-foot space provides enough room for an indoor kennel for employees’ dogs, which totaled four on a recent Friday morning.
Founded just more than a year ago, the company is generating repeat orders. It counts among its fans country-western singer LeAnn Rimes, who buys the company’s products at a shop in Nashville. And the company is already profitable.
“You know you’re in the right business,” Gellman said, “when people appreciate what you do.”
