HAVE DOGS, WIN CONTEST, HIT THE ROAD
Owners of Spruce head to Colorado to learn how to grow their business
Elijah and Leah Wiegmann have what sounds like an ideal work situation. Their McCandless house has a home studio where they design and sell dog products. They are their own bosses, which gives them time to spend with their 5-year-old daughter, Rose, and their boxer-mix dogs, Blue and Sitka.
The dogs are named for types of spruce trees, and Spruce is the name of the Wiegmanns’ company. In May, the family — dogs included — will hit the road, traveling to Colorado and camping along the way.
This trip is based on their company winning a national contest — the Moosejaw Outdoor Accelerator competition. One hundred outdoor companies entered. The company picked 10 finalists, and 10,000 customers voted on the winners. Four were picked to spend six weeks in Colorado learning how to grow their businesses.
Moosejaw is a major outdoor retailer, so isn’t it a competitor?
“No, they want to sell our stuff,” said Elijah Wiegmann. “Moosejaw wants to help startups. They are looking for the next great thing.”
The Moosejaw website states, “We only do cool stuff.”
The Wiegmanns’ products qualify: “Spruce makes beautifully designed dog gear. ... Spruce takes environmental responsibility very seriously using durable recycled materials ... like leashes made from recycled climbing ropes.”
The Pittsburgh-area company’s bestsellers include a dog bed that folds like a travel bag and has space for food and other things a dog would need on a car trip or a camping trip. The foam in the bed is made in Ohio.
Another is the Grab and Go Leash Bag. The bag can be attached to a leash or a belt loop. It has room to store things you need on a dog walk, including house keys and cleanup bags. There’s also room in there to store a 6-foot leash.
Elijah and Leah, who met while working at Michael Graves Design Group for products to be sold at Target and later worked for Pittsburgh company 4moms, launched Spruce two years ago. Their website describes designing a dog bed and launching it on crowdfunding site Indiegogo in April 2018. That campaign, according to the site, raised more than $40,000 to fund the first round of production.
Sales of the leash bag “really took off
last year because walking dogs was one of the few things people felt safe doing,” Elijah Wiegmann said.
In Colorado, the couple will learn about business models, pitching their products to investors, working with a legal team and networking.
Seven years ago, Elijah Wiegmann founded a different business, Base Design Studio, which does industrial design for clients. He can do that work remotely while he’s in Colorado.
At Spruce, Leah Wiegmann serves as creative director, working with social media and shaping the brand, logo, and look of the website and products.
Rose loves hanging out in the studio and often has interesting ideas and suggestions, her father said.
Meanwhile, Blue and Sitka are 2-year-old boxer mix brothers — one black, one brindle-colored.
When they were 4 months old, they were found in a box, abandoned. They ended up in a rescue, and the couple adopted them.
Products, including Tshirts and sweatshirts, can be viewed and ordered at SprucePup. com, or they can be found locally at the Petagogy pet supply shop in Shadyside and Three Rivers Outdoors in Braddock.