Business Spotlight: Unleashed Life

Eating off the floor never looked so tasty.

J. Kent Martin and Nathan Taylor have mastered luxury pet furnishings and accessories through their company, Unleashed Life. Launched in October 2007, the Unleashed Life team designs, produces and markets anything a pet would need to feel at home: feeding dishes, dining tables, pet beds, canisters and decorative accessories.

"What really inspired us was finding a void in the marketplace for better high-end, more stylish pet products," Martin says. "Our background is in home furnishings, so we have all the manufacturing and design capabilities in place, and we took that knowledge to launch this new business."

As the owners of the firm BridgeBlue Sourcing Partners LLC, which creates furniture and decorative accessories for people, Martin and Taylor had a lot of experience and connections in the luxury home arena. In fact, their products at BridgeBlue sell at upscale retailers such as Neiman Marcus. The duo also owns Obelisk Home, a Springfield home décor boutique.

The team took its knowledge of home décor trends and applied them to pet products.

Visitors of their Phelps Street office in downtown Springfield are greeted by nine barking dogs that have a nose for the good life, and for good reason.

Unleashed Life has a staff of six product designers, including one in the Philippines, and the employees travel the world for inspiration, such as the renowned Maison & Objet home fashions exhibition in Paris. Within just a few months in 2007, the team created several lines that include plush pet beds and raised dining tables that elevate the living standard of their beloved pets.

The collections are as varied as the dogs they serve. The Hudson line has a traditional look and includes a bed with intricate carvings topped with an ultra-comfy cushion and a raised dining table capped with solid granite tabletop and stainless steel feed bowls. The Phuket dinnerware line is global-inspired and comes in three sizes and colors. For the contemporary set, the Chelsea bed features a zebra wood veneer and chrome feet.

Unleashed Life's target demographic is style-conscious, passionate animal lovers in their late 20s to 50s. To find appropriate buyers, Martin and Taylor took their first collections to pet-focused trade shows, and the business took off.

"Our products and the response really exceeded what we had hoped for," Martin says. "We realized that we had created a niche that no one else was striking."

The first year was a lesson in managing product inventory levels, they say, and figuring out what styles consumers respond to as well as gearing up for shipments. "The pet industry is very different from the home furnishings industry we usually reach out to with the BridgeBlue brand," adds Ryan Hahn, brand director.

Martin says the lines have done particularly well in major cities in New York, California, Florida and Illinois. They have begun exporting products to Japan and Hong Kong, and European buyers also have shown interest. "When we originally launched, we were going to focus on domestic clientele and didn't get the logistics set up for international business," Martin says, "but we've had so much demand that we are optimistic for that avenue in 2009."

Local buyers also are thrilled about Unleashed Life.

"I've never seen anything like it," says Susan Meyer, owner of Three Dog Bakery in Springfield, which carries the medium-size double feeder with a granite top for $195 and the large size for $220. Single-feeders sell anywhere from $25 to $65. "These pieces are actually furniture," Meyer adds. "They are a once-in-a-lifetime investment."

The company exhibits at four or five trade shows to meet boutique clientele and advertises in a variety of pet publications, including Modern Dog, Doggie Aficionado and The Pet Elite.

The next year will be busy for company expansion. Unleashed Life is currently rolling out 40 new SKUs, and the teams will unleash 10 to 15 new product lines in 2009. In addition, the business partners are renovating a 150-year-old warehouse space in downtown Springfield that will house the company's corporate offices, luxury condos and retail businesses, including Obelisk Home.

"The economy is a challenge - it's hitting everyone - but we have a lot of growth potential ahead of us," says Martin, who plans to introduce more moderately priced items for buyers in the coming months.

"People are still spending on their pets," Hahn adds.[[In-content Ad]]