Today we’d like to introduce you to Supattra Maganis.
Hi Supattra, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I started this business when my first son was born. I was concerned with handling messy things and germy items while caring for my newborn baby. I wanted to multitask while taking every precaution to minimize the chances of exposure to germs and messes so I often found that putting on a disposable glove was the easiest way I could eat, handle baby blowouts and messy clean-ups without dirtying my hands or baby at the same time.
When I was originally using disposable gloves, they were typically PE gloves. I always felt that the plastic and vinyl gloves available out there on the market were not very environmentally friendly and carrying around boxes of gloves was a major hassle when I was already lugging around so much baby gear. I wanted a product that was eco-friendly that wouldn’t contribute to the overall plastic waste in the world and also something that was individually packed so they would be easier to pocket for use on the go. I knew that if I was struggling with this, there had to be other moms and people who struggled and needed a quick solution too. From there I found Eco Gloves, the first Individually Packed Eco-Friendly Gloves that help people handle the messy things in life anywhere you go. I found that it was the perfect solution to giving people clean hands when soap and water isn’t available. What started out as a simple personal need has turned into a proud product, I’ve found that all moms, men, and professionals could use.
I originally launched my Individually Packaged Compostable Gloves idea on Kickstarter to garner support, build brand awareness, and obtain initial funding for my idea. We successfully funded in April of 2020 and surpassed our initial funding goal. We continued to pledge pre-orders of our product through other crowdfunding sites like Indiegogo in Demand and was able to go from product prototype into full production from there thanks to all of our loyal backers that believed in us and provided us great feedback along the way. Today we have expanded to offering compostable gloves that come in a Bulk Box, which has been great for restaurants and businesses that require high glove use and frequent glove changes. We also have expanded to selling our products not only on our own website (www.ecogloves.co) but Amazon.com and Walmart.com as well.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle-free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
As typical with any start-up the road hasn’t always been smooth. Early on during our first round of production, I was met with a lot of manufacturing challenges. I wanted to design a product that was high quality, thick and durable and fit the needs and sizes of the American and European markets. This meant stringent requirements that required many tests and trials. It also pushed the limits of what my manufacturer could do. Early molds didn’t produce the right size that I wanted and this delayed a lot of our production and I was on a time crunch to deliver the product to my backers on time. Additionally, since we were going into production at the beginning of the pandemic, we were seeing a lot of issues in material availability and factory capacity as well. Our biodegradable raw materials are made in the United States and typically it only takes a few weeks for it to reach the factory. However, with the ongoing production suspensions, reduced workforce, delays caused by factory closures, as well as greater shipment regulations during this epidemic, it took almost 2 months to get the raw materials to our factory. And to make matters worse, our manufacturing partners were rushing orders of harmful plastic gloves just to meet the immediate needs of the Coronavirus/COVID-19 health pandemic, so our eco-friendly versions were also taken secondary priority. Our original aim was to fulfill orders by June/July of 2020, but with all the delays we faced, we weren’t able to deliver until early September. In the end, we had incredibly understanding and supportive backers who stood by us through the process and were happy with the delivered results despite the delays. Since those early days, our challenges continue as we try to solidify processes and streamline work to meet the demands of our customers. As a young start-up, each day has its new challenges, but I try to learn from them and take them in stride. Perhaps that is the whole excitement and allure of creating a start-up and breaking into a new market.
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Eco Gloves strives to be a leader in providing eco-friendly hand protection solutions for homes and businesses and we specialize specifically in compostable and biodegradable products. We were the first to offer compostable gloves in a convenient individually packed form factor and we continue to innovate new solutions to meet the demands of our direct consumers and corporate partners every day.
At Eco Gloves, we believe that compostable and biodegradable products are the future. Compostable means that a product is capable of breaking down into natural elements in a compost environment. Per ASTM standards, the breakdown process usually takes about 90 days and causes no harm to the environment. Compostable products yield CO2, water, inorganic compounds, and biomass that leave no visible, distinguishable, or toxic residue. That is what we do at Eco Gloves. Our research and development team are pioneers in advanced plant-based polymers that minimize our environmental impact on the environment. We aim to produce products with less reliance on traditional earth-polluting materials and move towards solutions that are fully compostable, biodegradable, and recyclable whenever possible. We’re always exploring and evolving to maximize our use of renewable and sustainable resources, which is why we won’t stop innovating on our products to meet this goal.
At Eco Gloves we are proud to offer innovative and eco-friendly products that allow people to live healthier, cleaner, and hassle-free lives. We apply technology and expertise across a spectrum of industries to produce eco-friendly hand protection equipment that rigorously meets industry standards and consumer expectations. From the use of plant-based and biodegradable materials to ensuring the reduction of waste and cost in the supply chain, our greatest goal is to achieve the greatest efficiencies for the peace of mind of our consumers and good of our earth. In fact, we are probably best known for our high quality and good value compostable gloves that give our customers the best hand protection, but not at the cost of the earth–and this is what we are most proud of. Our premium quality vegetable-based gloves are extra thick, strong, durable, plastic-free, paraben and BPA-free, latex-free, and hypoallergenic, but yet are 100% compostable and will break down in approximately 90 days. Additionally, our products are all certified compostable by the Biodegradability Products Institute.
What do you think about luck?
Many people won’t believe that I actually came up with the idea of Individually Packed Compostable Gloves long before the pandemic, but perhaps you can call it luck, or a coincidence, that this product launched when people needed it most. Though the pandemic brought on so many challenges for the world and businesses everywhere (challenges that we also faced when trying to start a business) it also shined importance on having clean hands and this where our products are helping. This gave our start-up a chance to survive during a time when it was hard for any business to make it and we are thankful that people continued believing in our product and vision.
Pricing:
- Individually Wrapped Disposable Gloves – $16.25/bag
- Bulk Box Disposable Plant-based Compostable Gloves (Small) – $14.25
- Bulk Box Disposable Plant-based Compostable Gloves (Medium) – $14.35
- Bulk Box Disposable Plant-based Compostable Gloves (Large) – $14.45
- Bulk Box Disposable Plant-based Compostable Gloves (X-Large) – $14.00
Contact Info:
- Email: hello@ecogloves.co
- Website: www.ecogloves.co
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ecoglovesofficial/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ecoglovesofficial/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/ecogloves
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/
Suggest a Story: OrlandoVoyager is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
