Today we’d like to introduce you to Bob Dalton.
Hi Bob, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today.
In 2013, my mother’s experience of living on the streets inspired me to support the homeless community. Motivated by this, I began contacting local shelters to discover their needs and learned they all required blankets. This sparked the idea to start a business where for every blanket sold, I would donate one to a homeless shelter.
With no business experience or degree, I embarked on this venture intuitively, purchasing fabric and a sewing machine from JOANN Fabric. However, I quickly realized sewing was not my strength. Fortunately, I found a local seamstress who began making the blankets for me. I then sold these blankets to local stores.
I named the company Sackcloth & Ashes, which means mourning and repentance.
Our significant breakthrough came five months after launching, in November 2014, when Instagram featured Sackcloth & Ashes on their account with 42 million followers. This exposure propelled our platform to new heights.
Since then, Sackcloth & Ashes has collaborated with renowned companies like National Geographic, Star Wars, and Smiley and partnered with indigenous artists, including Naiomi Glasses and Lauren Good Day.
We’ve recently introduced a new gifting program, Change Agents, designed for professionals. Through changeagents.com, they can purchase our blankets at a discounted rate to gift to their clients, further extending our mission to blanket the homeless.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back, would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Over the past ten years, there have been countless obstacles: from realizing that I can’t sew to managing cash flow, to figuring out a way to produce 100,000+ blankets a year, to building not just a team but a strong and innovative culture. There’s no dull moments.
Thanks – so, what else should our readers know about Sackcloth & Ashes?
In 2013, my mom ended up living on the streets. That inspired me to do something about the homeless problem. So, I started calling homeless shelters in my community to see what they needed – they all said blanket. That’s when I came up with the idea that for every blanket I sell, I’ll donate a blanket to a local homeless shelter.
After coming up with the idea, I did what most people do when they want to start a blanket company… I drove down to Joann’s Fabric and bought a sewing machine and roll of fabric. After quickly realizing very quickly that sewing is not my strong suit, I hired a local sewist in my community to make blankets for me.
I named the company Sackcloth & Ashes, which means mourning and repentance. The idea was for every person who wraps themselves in a blanket to symbolize mourning over the homeless population and repentance by contributing to a shelter in their area.
We scaled the brand for the first 8 years through social media and selling primarily via eCommerce. But now we have created a gifting program for professionals called Change Agents (changeagents.com), which allows professionals to sign up for free, receive 25% off our blankets at any time, ship directly to their clients, and make an impact in their local community.
In terms of your work and the industry, what are some of the changes you are expecting to see over the next five to ten years?
The Global Blanket market is anticipated to rise at a considerable rate during the forecast period between 2023 and 2030. The blanket market is around $20 billion dollar in size.
But what’s more interesting is that the gifting industry, the primary industry that we plan to break into, is a $242 billion dollar industry. This is almost the same size as the shoe market… yet there are not many relevant brands that have rising up in that market yet. There are no “Nikes” or “Reeboks” of the gifting industry yet.
I think Sackcloth, as a current relevant brand, could because the number one gift in the gifting industry. Especially that blankets are the perfect gift.
Pricing:
- $120.00
- $70.00
Contact Info:
- Website: www.sackcloth.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/sackclothxashes
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bobxdalton/
- Other: www.bobxdalton.com
