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Valley woman designs backpacks to be sold at Dodger Stadium Los Angeles Daily News Feature Article, June 19, 2000
	By Jason Takenouchi, Staff Writer When Sherman Oaks resident J.J. Matis first approached manufacturers with her "baseball backpack" concept, she said she met a wave of skepticism. Matis, who was then a graduate student at Cal Lutheran University, said manufacturers feared she lacked experience, questioned her design and doubted whether she would get Major League Baseball to license her vinyl, baseball-shaped backpacks for women and children.
"People would discourage me," said Matis, 30. "Everybody said they had a better idea than I did." But Matis -- who recently earned her master's of business administration degree -- is poised to prove the doubters wrong. After investing hundreds of hours and tens of thousands of dollars, Matis' grad school project will go on sale in mid-July in the heart of the Los Angeles baseball scene: Dodger Stadium. If the backpacks do well there, they could be headed to other big-league ballparks. The Dodgers' director of merchandise, Mike Nygren, said fan pressure helped bring Matis' idea to fruition. Matis -- whose father, Alan, has shared a group of Dodgers season tickets for 19 years -- often wore an early, homemade model of her backpack to games, getting the attention of Dodgers fans and stadium employees alike. "We started getting feedback from fans as to why we didn't carry it," Nygren said. "We had people telling us, I saw a girl wearing a backpack. Can you guys get them?" The first 240-unit order of backpacks -- manufactured in Lake View Terrace and Los Angeles -- will be sold at the stadium store and at the merchandise stands throughout the park. They should be available by July 13 or July 15 and will sell for $40-45, Nygren said. The entire process has been unique, according to Nygren. Most merchandisers who approach the Dodgers are corporations, not individuals. And Nygren said it's "highly unusual" for an individual to make it through the complicated process of licensing, promotion and production that is required to bring a product to market. "You have to admire the young lady," Nygren said. "She had an idea, she followed it through, and she wants to see her dream come true." The road has not been easy. Matis spent three years designing her product, honing a business plan and making contacts. She had to grapple with long hours while both promoting the product and going to school full- time. Matis said she also had to deal with the uneasy feeling of being a woman trying to succeed in a male-dominated business. "I definitely noticed a response when they noticed what J.J. Matis was, when they realized it was a woman," she said. "J.J." stands for "Jaime Jennifer." But Matis had more than enough energy and dedication to overcome those obstacles, said Ronald Hagler, director of the MBA program at Cal Lutheran. "To make this thing work takes a lot of tenacity, and she has got it," he said. "She lived and breathed that thing. She made it come to life." And now, just weeks before her idea faces its first test in the market, Matis said she is anything but worried. The product is sound, she said, and it will be selling during an 11-game Dodgers homestand that should draw huge crowds to the stadium. "I have complete confidence in my product," Matis said. "I'm confident I'll sell out in the first homestand." But baseball backpacks are just the beginning. Matis said she plans to produce smaller packs, change purses and packs with different materials. She said she also plans an expansion into different sports, including basketball. Those ambitious plans leave her father -- who is also her largest investor -- beaming. "I can't tell you how proud I am," he said. "She has been able to turn a term project into a business venture with what I believe to be unlimited potential," said her father, a eighth-grade counselor at Millikan Middle School in Sherman Oaks. "She has a real chance here to do something quite nice." [Los Angeles Daily News Feature Article, June 19, 2000]

Valley woman designs backpacks to be sold at Dodger Stadium
Los Angeles Daily News Feature Article, June 19, 2000

By Jason Takenouchi, Staff Writer

When Sherman Oaks resident J.J. Matis first approached manufacturers with her "baseball backpack" concept, she said she met a wave of skepticism.

Matis, who was then a graduate student at Cal Lutheran University, said manufacturers feared she lacked experience, questioned her design and doubted whether she would get Major League Baseball to license her vinyl, baseball-shaped backpacks for women and children.

"People would discourage me," said Matis, 30. "Everybody said they had a better idea than I did."

But Matis -- who recently earned her master's of business administration degree -- is poised to prove the doubters wrong.

After investing hundreds of hours and tens of thousands of dollars, Matis' grad school project will go on sale in mid-July in the heart of the Los Angeles baseball scene: Dodger Stadium. If the backpacks do well there, they could be headed to other big-league ballparks.

The Dodgers' director of merchandise, Mike Nygren, said fan pressure helped bring Matis' idea to fruition. Matis -- whose father, Alan, has shared a group of Dodgers season tickets for 19 years -- often wore an early, homemade model of her backpack to games, getting the attention of Dodgers fans and stadium employees alike.

"We started getting feedback from fans as to why we didn't carry it," Nygren said. "We had people telling us, I saw a girl wearing a backpack. Can you guys get them?"

The first 240-unit order of backpacks -- manufactured in Lake View Terrace and Los Angeles -- will be sold at the stadium store and at the merchandise stands throughout the park. They should be available by July 13 or July 15 and will sell for $40-45, Nygren said.

The entire process has been unique, according to Nygren. Most merchandisers who approach the Dodgers are corporations, not individuals. And Nygren said it's "highly unusual" for an individual to make it through the complicated process of licensing, promotion and production that is required to bring a product to market.

"You have to admire the young lady," Nygren said. "She had an idea, she followed it through, and she wants to see her dream come true."

The road has not been easy. Matis spent three years designing her product, honing a business plan and making contacts. She had to grapple with long hours while both promoting the product and going to school full- time.

Matis said she also had to deal with the uneasy feeling of being a woman trying to succeed in a male-dominated business.

"I definitely noticed a response when they noticed what J.J. Matis was, when they realized it was a woman," she said. "J.J." stands for "Jaime Jennifer."

But Matis had more than enough energy and dedication to overcome those obstacles, said Ronald Hagler, director of the MBA program at Cal Lutheran.

"To make this thing work takes a lot of tenacity, and she has got it," he said. "She lived and breathed that thing. She made it come to life."

And now, just weeks before her idea faces its first test in the market, Matis said she is anything but worried. The product is sound, she said, and it will be selling during an 11-game Dodgers homestand that should draw huge crowds to the stadium.

"I have complete confidence in my product," Matis said. "I'm confident I'll sell out in the first homestand."

But baseball backpacks are just the beginning.

Matis said she plans to produce smaller packs, change purses and packs with different materials. She said she also plans an expansion into different sports, including basketball.

Those ambitious plans leave her father -- who is also her largest investor -- beaming.

"I can't tell you how proud I am," he said.

"She has been able to turn a term project into a business venture with what I believe to be unlimited potential," said her father, a eighth-grade counselor at Millikan Middle School in Sherman Oaks. "She has a real chance here to do something quite nice."

[Los Angeles Daily News Feature Article, June 19, 2000]

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