Default Press Page

How J.J. bagged the Dodgers (and Lakers and Clippers and Kings)
Valley entrepreneur hits a home run with sports themed accessories.
By Nancy Gregory J.J. Matis steps lightly over giant boxes crowding the floor of her father’s apartment in Sherman Oaks. Thirty-something and vivacious, she describes their contents: “These are Lakers graffiti travel bags, totes and handbags. These are Clippers. And these are for the Kings. And they all have to be in the Staples Center, ready for the first games, all of which start in October.” The bags are splashed graffiti-style with the team and city names, hearts and “I” tumbled in a random, but readable fashion. “I love the Lakers” or the Kings, or the Clippers or Los Angeles. They’re like portable cheerleaders. And fans love them. “I have each font patented,” she explains. “The team name itself is protected by the league or association to which the team belongs. I didn’t know that when I first started.” There’s a lot J.J. didn’t know when she first started. She didn’t even know she was starting anything. Growing up in and around Studio City, J.J. Matis, owner and founder of J.J. Creations, Inc. liked to tinker with everything she bought. She’d change the strap of a purse, embroider her jeans, add giant buttons to a backpack. She took a sewing class in junior high. That’s when J.J. made her first bag. It was a polka dot tote bag with her initials embroidered on it. Her friends loved it. “I’ve gone to Dodger games since I was little,” J.J. recalls. “My dad is a season ticket holder. We’re big Dodger fans and sports fans in general,.” She was in graduate school, attending more games than usual, and J.J. wanted something to carry all her stuff with her. “I didn’t see anything I liked. I wanted something fun and interesting. Then I remembered the bag I’d made in junior high, and thought, hey, I’ll make my own bag.” She came up with the idea to make the bag look like a baseball. “At first it was just a circle with red drawings for the stitching. But I remembered that I had some red shoelaces, so I glued them on in the way the stitching appears on a regular ball. Then I cut a Dodgers logo from a baseball hat, glued it in the middle, and went to the game.” The reaction at Dodger Stadium to J.J.’s baseball backpack was astonishing. “From the moment I walked in, all the ushers were approaching me, telling me I should show the bag to the Dodger merchandising department. I said ‘it’s just a bag I made to come to the game. It’s not even sewn. It’s held together with Velcro’. If I had known that every day, every major sports team is inundated with product submissions, I probably wouldn’t have even tried. But I was naļve, and that worked in my favor. I just took a Polaroid of the bag, wrote a one-page letter, paper clipped it all together and sent it to Mike Nygren, the director of Dodger merchandising. Mike Nygren called J.J. the next day. He told her that if she got the business plan done, completed an application to the Major League Baseball office in New York and produced samples, he would buy the bags from her. “I didn’t know Mike at all, but he believed in my product and in me. He has become my mentor.” J.J. was in her last semester of graduate school. At Mike Nygren’s suggestion, she used her final classes to develop her business model. In her finance class, she shaped the financial plan for J.J. Creations, Inc., and her strategic marketing plan was honed in her strategic planning class. Mike Nygren worked closely with J.J. for the next year, walking her through the maze of license application, quality control and sample production. One week after she completed graduate school, J.J. secured her first regional license for the Dodgers. It was a coup for J.J Creations, Inc. Major team licenses are seldom granted to sole proprietorships and even big players like Reebok, Spaulding and Nike are experiencing tougher challenges in the licensing arena. J.J.’s hard work and tenacity is paying off. She now also holds licenses for the National Basketball Association and the National Hockey League and has expanded her line to include the graffiti bags that are heading to the Staples Center this month. She wants to reach every team in every sport. “I have ideas for them all,” she smiles. J.J. Creations, Inc. is still a grass-roots operation. J.J.’s father is her only investor. Her brother helps with photography and day-to-day operations. Her mother and aunts help with sales and promotion by wearing her creations at their little league events or when going to the stadiums. She doesn’t have an advertising budget. But J.J. is on the ball. “I was very inexperienced. I really thought that once I got these licenses, all the teams in all the sports were going to buy my bags, and that’s not what happened. It’s hard to convince the teams because I’m a new player. But in these three years, I have been able to prove that I can deliver and my business is slowly building. I’m getting repeat orders. I have a goal. I’m not losing sight of it. I know I will succeed.” [Studio City Sun]

How J.J. bagged the Dodgers
(and Lakers and Clippers and Kings)

Valley entrepreneur hits a home run with sports themed accessories.

By Nancy Gregory

J.J. Matis steps lightly over giant boxes crowding the floor of her father’s apartment in Sherman Oaks. Thirty-something and vivacious, she describes their contents: “These are Lakers graffiti travel bags, totes and handbags. These are Clippers. And these are for the Kings. And they all have to be in the Staples Center, ready for the first games, all of which start in October.”

The bags are splashed graffiti-style with the team and city names, hearts and “I” tumbled in a random, but readable fashion. “I love the Lakers” or the Kings, or the Clippers or Los Angeles. They’re like portable cheerleaders. And fans love them.

“I have each font patented,” she explains. “The team name itself is protected by the league or association to which the team belongs. I didn’t know that when I first started.”

There’s a lot J.J. didn’t know when she first started. She didn’t even know she was starting anything. Growing up in and around Studio City, J.J. Matis, owner and founder of J.J. Creations, Inc. liked to tinker with everything she bought. She’d change the strap of a purse, embroider her jeans, add giant buttons to a backpack.

She took a sewing class in junior high. That’s when J.J. made her first bag. It was a polka dot tote bag with her initials embroidered on it. Her friends loved it.

“I’ve gone to Dodger games since I was little,” J.J. recalls. “My dad is a season ticket holder. We’re big Dodger fans and sports fans in general,.” She was in graduate school, attending more games than usual, and J.J. wanted something to carry all her stuff with her.

“I didn’t see anything I liked. I wanted something fun and interesting. Then I remembered the bag I’d made in junior high, and thought, hey, I’ll make my own bag.”

She came up with the idea to make the bag look like a baseball. “At first it was just a circle with red drawings for the stitching. But I remembered that I had some red shoelaces, so I glued them on in the way the stitching appears on a regular ball. Then I cut a Dodgers logo from a baseball hat, glued it in the middle, and went to the game.”

The reaction at Dodger Stadium to J.J.’s baseball backpack was astonishing. “From the moment I walked in, all the ushers were approaching me, telling me I should show the bag to the Dodger merchandising department. I said ‘it’s just a bag I made to come to the game. It’s not even sewn. It’s held together with Velcro’. If I had known that every day, every major sports team is inundated with product submissions, I probably wouldn’t have even tried. But I was naļve, and that worked in my favor. I just took a Polaroid of the bag, wrote a one-page letter, paper clipped it all together and sent it to Mike Nygren, the director of Dodger merchandising.

Mike Nygren called J.J. the next day. He told her that if she got the business plan done, completed an application to the Major League Baseball office in New York and produced samples, he would buy the bags from her.

“I didn’t know Mike at all, but he believed in my product and in me. He has become my mentor.”

J.J. was in her last semester of graduate school. At Mike Nygren’s suggestion, she used her final classes to develop her business model. In her finance class, she shaped the financial plan for J.J. Creations, Inc., and her strategic marketing plan was honed in her strategic planning class.

Mike Nygren worked closely with J.J. for the next year, walking her through the maze of license application, quality control and sample production. One week after she completed graduate school, J.J. secured her first regional license for the Dodgers. It was a coup for J.J Creations, Inc. Major team licenses are seldom granted to sole proprietorships and even big players like Reebok, Spaulding and Nike are experiencing tougher challenges in the licensing arena.

J.J.’s hard work and tenacity is paying off. She now also holds licenses for the National Basketball Association and the National Hockey League and has expanded her line to include the graffiti bags that are heading to the Staples Center this month. She wants to reach every team in every sport. “I have ideas for them all,” she smiles.

J.J. Creations, Inc. is still a grass-roots operation. J.J.’s father is her only investor. Her brother helps with photography and day-to-day operations. Her mother and aunts help with sales and promotion by wearing her creations at their little league events or when going to the stadiums. She doesn’t have an advertising budget. But J.J. is on the ball.

“I was very inexperienced. I really thought that once I got these licenses, all the teams in all the sports were going to buy my bags, and that’s not what happened. It’s hard to convince the teams because I’m a new player. But in these three years, I have been able to prove that I can deliver and my business is slowly building. I’m getting repeat orders. I have a goal. I’m not losing sight of it. I know I will succeed.”

[Studio City Sun]

BACK