.Manly Bands is a direct-to-consumer seller of males's rings. The firm introduced in 2016 after John Ruggiero, the co-founder along with his spouse Michelle, could not find an ideal wedding ceremony band.This is actually Ruggiero's second appearance on the podcast. In April 2021, our team reviewed the business's starting, special band products, and also a lot more. Ever since, Manly Bands has gotten its maker. The making of rings coming from, claim, Port Daniel's whiskey barrels or even Fender guitar cords makes engaging video clip, states Ruggiero, best for storytelling on social networking sites and also in other places.The whole audio of our talk is actually inserted listed below. The transcript is edited for span as well as quality.Eric Bandholz: Give our company a rundown of what you perform.John Ruggiero: My spouse, Michelle, and also I began an online ring business knowned as Manly Bands in 2016 to address a trouble of wedding event bands for guys. Our company were actually just wed. I have big fingers and also couldn't discover a ring that I just liked that was certainly not overpriced. My options were buying from a magazine or even having something custom-built.I wound up buying from an internet site. The band arrived in a level mailer, without any box or client service. It was actually an unpleasant knowledge by today's ecommerce requirements.Our company got gotten married to, transferred to Florida, and also needed a work. Our experts informed our own selves, "Our company are actually both entrepreneurs. Why don't our team generate our very own business?" Our experts talked about the sorts of troubles our team will found and just how to fix all of them. My band adventure appeared, and also our experts decided to attempt to solve it for other individuals.Our goal when our company began was to pay lease. Our experts thought creating a couple many thousand bucks a month coming from this would be great. We considered it a way of living company, certainly not high-growth. It was actually merely Michelle and also me in our garage developing bands and also delivering them out to consumers. Our company had hit on something. Our message sounded along with prospects.Michelle and I make a great crew. I come up with ideas, and also she's the implementer. A ton of our success goes to her creative thoughts. She labels the rings and also cultivates identities. She attaches the bands to consumers. Describing a ring solely as "eight-millimeter dark" really did not cut it.We developed rings coming from unique materials, including Jack Daniel's barrels or even unique metals. Business took off. Since then, our company have actually developed substantially. Our company now have more than 55 folks in the Manly Bands family. Regarding one-half of those are actually band professionals that operate in our recently acquired production outlet in Utah.Bandholz: When performed you acquire a manufacturer?Ruggiero: Regarding a year as well as a fifty percent back. We had actually been their customer for a long times, so we understood them effectively. Many of their business was actually wholesale, which didn't passion us-- going to mom-and-pop jewelry experts. They retained their retail customers as well as brand. Our company acquired some of their properties as well as brought over employees.Inducing a manufacturing team has actually been one of the very best points our company have actually done. It is actually been amazing to head out certainly there and view all of them make rings out of Fender guitar strings or even metallic from an M1 Abrams tank.Bandholz: Just how carries out internal manufacturing influence marketing?Ruggiero: It's been actually large. Taking an electronic camera to the opposite side of the workplace and recording the crew utilizing lathes to reduce the steel poles or even whiskey barrels into bands produces astonishing video. Our experts possess our cam crew available at all times. We use that footage on our social media and also in our adds as well as newsletters. We attempt to advertise that since the majority of firms in the males's band room do not create. They drop ship or order from abroad and after that ship it out. But our experts prefer it to last a life-time and be one thing individuals can easily take pleasure in.We have actually possessed a great deal of success with our army culture assortment, where we source special military products. Our company have the M1 Garand rifle sell, the wood component, from War of the nations I. Viewing our group put that in the turret as well as reduced a piece out for a ring is actually fascinating.Our advertising and marketing for those rings refer to the background, the soldiers, where the item was actually utilized, as well as factors like that. My partner and I researched filmmaking in college. Our experts use our abilities to educate as well as tell a story. As an example, I just recently got an e-mail coming from a client who shared that his grand daddy utilized to drive M1 storage tanks. The client talented some of those rings to his grandpa, and also they had very a psychological swap. It's nice to help clients connect with their past times and develop one thing relevant.Bandholz: Where can individuals buy a ring coming from you?Ruggiero: ManlyBands.com. We have images on Instagram, too. I get on Twitter as well as LinkedIn.