10 years. 10 years!

November 17, 2001 at the brand spankin' new Gateway Mall, an outdoor lifestyle center in downtown Salt Lake City, Utah, wizards and witches wandered the cold, outdoor, second level joining their warlock friends waiting in the long lines for the opening of Harry Potter (the first one). Oh, and LOVESAC OPENED ITS FIRST STORE too!!!

 

Honestly, we just wanted to pay off my credit cards. We hoped to sell one SuperSac a day, and maybe after a year or so we could not only pay the rent, but pay down that $55,000+ in credit card bills that I had looming having purchased a Haybuster, Tractor, and 50,000 lbs of foam to stuff 12,000 little Sacs for the Limited Too.  To hear the whole story, click here.

[left: Christian Janke & Shawn on the day Lovesac first incorporated; 2001, SLC]

This time it was my cousin, Tres White's credit cards that had to be maxed...afterall, opening the first Lovesac store was his idea--his solution to our predicament where not one furniture store in the western United States believed they could sell a 75 pound Sac of foam with "our crazy name" on it...even if it was shrunken downt to 1/8th its original size, and available in dozens of washable, changeable covers.  It just wasn't happening. [right: Shawn & Tres, holding their next generation entrepreneurs; 2011]

 

The best part was, after 3 years of working for free, if we somehow COULD sell one Sac per day, we were planning on paying ourselves (and our buddies over in the warehouse who were shredding foam all day) a whopping $5 per hour--marking the first time any Lovesac partner would actually get paid. 

 

Somehow it worked. People didn't just laugh at us--they bought SuperSacs; they bought Lovesac hoodies; they bought everything we could make and on Christmas eve we locked up that store with literally like 6 objects (a few covers, a few T shirts) left on the shelves to sell on December 26th. Thus began the saga that is Lovesac stores. [left: the infamous 2005 SLC Lovesac crew. "The days."]

Along the way Lovesac has been both very fun and very hard to grow. Richard Branson gave me a million dollars on national TV--but we probably owed 6 million in crazy debts having grown to dozens of franchised Sac stores.  We've grown, we've shrunk, we've had to completely re-organize, re-structure, re-locate, re-capapitalize, re-hire, and otherwise struggle to survive, but we're still here. There have been SO many people along the way who I have to blame for our success. From my first partner (and best friend since Jr. High, of course), Chris Janke....to James Hyde, Dave Underwood (who has somehow hung on), John Coltharp (our first "employee," and the only guy to get paid for a while--spending 5 years of his life running our factory, mostly in Mexico!), my cousin Tres (who funded the first store and now has a career in retail location development), my good friend and attorney Scott McDonough (the "adult" in the room),    [right: Jon Coltharp, definition of a Sac'r; Lake Powell, 2005]     my cousin Nate (who just blew us up!), Dave's brother Oly (who just did whatever was asked--and carried a weapon--always handy), people who have invested real $ along the way, only to have it eaten up in our awkward years as we tried (and mostly failed) to grow up; to the entire crew of 40+ down at our headquarters at the Old Hardware Building in SLC...you know who you are. A LOT of people gave up years of their life trying to make this thing work, and while it hasn't worked out exactly as planned, I still recognize how much our very existence is owed to each and every one of those people. I miss most of them dearly. THANK YOU ALL. 

 

[left: Richard Branson makin' moves on my wife after giving me $1 Million; Necker Island, 2005]

Now we have a new HQ, located in Stamford, Connecticut. We have an amazing crew of 20 supporting hundreds of loyal Sac'rs in the field who are the real front-lines of Lovesac. This time of year (for 10 years running) I get out to see all/most of them in the stores and I am always humbled by their hard work and deovotion to our little "cause." Again, THANK YOU.

 

If I have learned one thing over this last decade about building a business, it is that people are all that really matter--people make (or break) it...and I have been blessed to have had some great people along the way.

Today we are 50 stores strong, worldwide, and our new brand/store concept will take us in an entirely new direction. We've sold more than 300,000 Sacs and 100,000 Sactionals Pieces. WE ARE BUILDING A COMPANY & BRAND NAME THAT WILL BE HERE IN 50 YEARS. Lovesac will be a billion-dollar-brand. And if you don't believe me, ask yourself, if I had told you in 1998, as I was sitting on my but cutting up fabric on my mom's vacant dance floor, "We will have 50 stores in the best malls in the United States and employ hundreds and hundreds of people through a recession 13 years from now," you probably wouldn't have believed me either.

 

Thank you to all who have given ANYTHING to the Sac. I owe you my whole livelihood...and when we DO build this into the billion dollar brand it is destined to be, rest assured that I know: IT'S YOUR FAULT.

 

-- Shawny D.

 

[right: celebrating today at Lovesac HQ]

 

 

ADDED LATER:

Every Sac'r in the country will be wearing the approved "Celebrating 10 years" TonoLoveSac T shirt all weekend, selling TonoLoveSacs at 2001 pricing. Except for these two (see image right)....

Comments

[Mark B]

Congratulations on your success!

[Shawn D. Nelson]

Re: [Shawny D. ChiefSac] Dunderwood submitted a comment to 10 years. 10 years!

I think you took me, half the time.

[Dunderwood]

Shawn...thank you for taking me on the LoveSac ride with you. I look forward to seeing how we can blow another 10 years!

[Shawn D. Nelson]

Thanks man! Youre one of our favorites.
Shawny D. Founder & Chairman, LOVESAC

[Iain Holmes]

Mate - Well done. Fantastic story - you will make a billion, I will never buy any other furniture and I pity the fool who buys anything else.