.Manly Bands is a direct-to-consumer dealer of guys's bands. The firm launched in 2016 after John Ruggiero, the co-founder with his wife Michelle, could not locate a suitable wedding event band.This is actually Ruggiero's 2nd appearance on the podcast. In April 2021, we discussed the company's beginning, one-of-a-kind band components, and much more. Ever since, Manly Bands has gotten its own supplier. The making of bands from, say, Port Daniel's whiskey gun barrels or Fender guitar strings produces compelling video, claims Ruggiero, perfect for narration on social media sites as well as elsewhere.The entire sound of our discussion is inserted below. The transcript is revised for length and also clearness.Eric Bandholz: Give our company a rundown of what you carry out.John Ruggiero: My partner, Michelle, and also I began an on the web ring firm referred to as Manly Bands in 2016 to solve a trouble of wedding celebration bands for guys. We were only wed. I have big fingers and couldn't locate a ring that I suched as that was actually certainly not overpriced. My alternatives were ordering coming from a catalog or even possessing one thing personalized.I ended up purchasing coming from a web site. The ring showed up in a level mailer, with no carton or client service. It was actually a horrendous experience by today's ecommerce criteria.Our team received gotten married to, transferred to Florida, as well as needed to have a job. Our experts told our own selves, "We're both business people. Why do not we produce our own service?" Our team went over the sorts of troubles our experts would certainly seen and also how to handle them. My band expertise appeared, as well as our team chose to try to resolve it for other men.Our goal when our experts began was to pay rental fee. Our team thought making a couple thousand bucks a month from this would be actually fantastic. Our team considered it a way of life company, not high-growth. It was actually merely Michelle as well as me in our garage developing bands as well as sending them out to customers. Our experts had actually appealed something. Our information reverberated with customers.Michelle and I create an outstanding group. I produce concepts, and also she is actually the implementer. A considerable amount of our success mosts likely to her creative thoughts. She labels the rings and also establishes personalities. She hooks up the rings to clients. Explaining a band only as "eight-millimeter dark" failed to cut it.We made bands from unique materials, such as Jack Daniel's gun barrels or even exclusive steels. Your business took off. Since then, our team have actually increased greatly. Our company right now have over 55 people in the Manly Bands household. About half of those are actually ring craftsmens who work in our just recently acquired production store in Utah.Bandholz: When performed you obtain a supplier?Ruggiero: About a year as well as a fifty percent earlier. Our experts had been their customer for several years, so we understood all of them properly. Many of their service was actually wholesale, which really did not interest our company-- mosting likely to mom-and-pop jewelers. They maintained their retail customers as well as brand. Our company acquired some of their assets and also brought over employees.Causing a production group has been one of the most ideal things our company've done. It's been actually amazing to go out certainly there and also see them make bands out of Fender guitar strings or metal from an M1 Abrams tank.Bandholz: Just how does internal production influence advertising?Ruggiero: It is actually been huge. Taking a video camera to the opposite side of the office and also filming the group using lathes to reduce the metal rods or even bourbon barrels into bands makes for astonishing video clip. Our team possess our electronic camera team on the market continuously. We use that video footage on our social networking sites and in our advertisements and e-newsletters. Our company attempt to advertise that since a lot of firms in the males's ring room don't make. They lose ship or order coming from overseas and afterwards deliver it out. However our company wish it to last a life-time and be something folks may take pleasure in.Our experts've possessed a great deal of results with our army heritage compilation, where we source special armed forces components. Our company possess the M1 Garand rifle supply, the hardwood part, from World War I. Seeing our crew put that in the turret and reduced a part out for a ring is exciting.Our advertising for those rings speak about the background, the soldiers, where the weapon was used, as well as factors like that. My spouse and I researched filmmaking in college. We use our abilities to inform and also tell a story. For example, I recently received an email from a client who discussed that his grandfather utilized to drive M1 containers. The consumer blessed one of those rings to his grandfather, as well as they had rather an emotional substitution. It's nice to assist consumers associate with their past and generate something significant.Bandholz: Where can folks get a ring from you?Ruggiero: ManlyBands.com. Our team have images on Instagram, too. I get on Twitter and also LinkedIn.