(Editor’s note: This is the 35th installment in a monthly series highlighting some of the region’s unsung manufacturers that make products essential to the economy and, in many cases, our way of life. See previous installments here.)
When Alice Nichols launched her pet apparel company, Up Country, she knew her creatively designed collars would sell. More than 40 years later, that instinct has proven true.
But it took a while for others in the manufacturing sector to catch on.
“I thought everybody would embrace this idea, that it was so
brilliant,” said Nichols, who started the business out of her basement in 1984. “I had a rude awakening [with] the initial reaction at my first trade show.”
There, Nichols recalls that there was perhaps one other woman business owner in the room. Otherwise, her peers and all the buyers were men, and they regarded Nichols’ fashionable dog collars like a sore thumb amid hardware and components.
Attendees “would walk by the booth and look at my product and say, ‘That’s so silly,’ ” Nichols said. “So, the initial industry was not what I had anticipated.”
She even encountered doubt among early supporters. One of Nichols’ friends, an advertising agent, suggested the name “Up Country” as “a nice generic name” that she could reuse when the original business concept failed.
Nichols dismissed this pessimism but kept the name, confident that she would find her market. At the time, the pet industry valued utilitarianism over style, Nichols recalled.
“I was always putting something ridiculous on my dog,” Nichols said, “and I thought, there are other people like me who would like to put something cute on their dogs,” which could also serve a practical purpose.
Retailers saw Nichols’ vision. G. Fox & Co., the former Hartford, Conn.-based department store chain, became her first major customer.
And on a broader scale, the skepticism that Nichols encountered has given way to a global pet industry valued at $320 billion as of 2023, according to Bloomberg Intelligence. By 2030, the market research service estimates that this figure will soar to nearly $500 billion.
“Gradually, the industry has changed, and you can see what it is today,” Nichols said. “There is everything for dogs.”
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TAKE YOUR PICK: Alice Nichols is the founder and owner of Up Country, an East Providence manufacturer of pet collars and leashes that has 120 to 130 different designs available each year.
PBN PHOTO/MICHAEL SALERNO[/caption]
Up Country has grown with the times. Nichols, who initially didn’t expect business operations would extend beyond her basement, moved into the former Rumford Baking Powder building in the early 1990s and built up her team. About 15 years ago, the company moved to its current headquarters at 76 Boyd Ave. in East Providence.
While the business’s original creations – dog collars and leashes – remain its best-known merchandise, the brand has expanded to also include products such as harnesses, jackets, bandanas and treats, as well as a line of cat-specific products.
The collar catalog alone has grown to include thousands of designs, produced by Donna Bodell, company vice president and Rhode Island School of Design graduate, with a vision of “updated classics.”
Bodell maintains a catalog of around 120 to 130 designs per year and keeps the company’s offerings fresh, introducing around 15 new designs annually while retiring just as many.
“We come up with things specific to every season, every holiday, trends,” Bodell said, with patterns featuring bees, ice cream, trees and rainbows among just a few of the company’s current offerings.
About 15% of the manufacturer’s business caters to custom design orders, ranging from collars bearing a pet’s name and their owner’s contact information to specific pattern requests. Up Country also partners with nationally recognized clients such as Anthropologie, Vineyard Vines, Macy’s and The Black Dog.
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SHOW AND TELL: Donna Bodell, vice president and designer at pet supply manufacturer Up Country in East Providence, speaks about the company’s products and shows off one of its many collar designs.
PBN PHOTO/MICHAEL SALERNO[/caption]
Up Country has grown from a one-woman operation to a 31-employee team based in East Providence, with collars printed in Cranston. As much production takes place in the U.S. as possible, Nichols said, with some apparel imported. With its focus on U.S.-made products and in-house design, the company can feasibly turn an order around in as little as three weeks.
Like Bodell, who joined Up Country in the early 1990s, some employees have remained with the company for decades.
Stepping into the facility, it’s common to see a few dogs in the front offices, including Nichols’ own dog, Sadie, who she adopted from the Potter League for Animals in Middletown.
On the manufacturing floor, the team – surrounded by colorful spools and an array of dog collars – designs, sews, stitches and assembles the company’s most popular products.
“The industry came around to design, and people now treat dogs and cats as part of their family,” Nichols said.
The concept wasn’t completely absent, but it was not treated so literally in the 1980s.
Joanna Hunt, Up Country’s digital marketing manager, regards later generations, including her own, as a testament to these changing times. While some may have viewed fashionable pet products as excessive in decades past, Hunt said, today’s pet owners often take every opportunity to indulge their dogs or cats.
“With millennials, pets are our children,” Hunt said. “We take pet ownership very seriously.”
The industry isn’t all style over substance either, Hunt noted.
Underneath the colorful designs and embellishments, “we have really sensible products,” she said, “collars and leashes that last.”
