How Sustainable Toys Lead: Insights from Brittney Geleynse

EP032_06-14-24_Brittney Geleynse

Intro: [00:00:00] Welcome to Toy Business Unboxed, your gateway to the secrets of the toy industry. Here, Jason Hsieh, a toy entrepreneur and expert in the field. “Every product we develop is really inspired by some of the real life experience that we have with our son.” “60 percent of all toys last year were sold on Amazon.”

“Be passionate about it. Because it’s a road. It’s a journey.” “Like when you have an idea that you think is gonna somewhat change the world, make things better, I’d say go for it.“

Jason Hsieh: Welcome to another episode of Toy Business Unbox. I’m your host, Jason Hsieh, where we unwrap the story behind the toys. Today we have a special guest, brittany, the owner of Clover Toys, which will be exploring her journey from being an educator to become an entrepreneur and now running her own toy store [00:01:00] in the Seattle neighborhood and would like to dive into today’s interview and thank you so much for joining us today, Brittany.

Brittney Geleynse: Thank you, Jason. It’s a pleasure to be here. 

Jason Hsieh: Can you first share with our audience, the story behind the Clover toys and what inspired you to start your own toy store? 

Brittney Geleynse: To be honest, I am not the founder. I took over Clover toys, from Sarah who had a beautiful vision about montessori toys in Seattle. It’s a very big Montessori Waldorf is very big in Seattle. And I had been running a small little boutique after leaving education and Clover, she decided she was done. And we just switched places in the world. I left teaching, she went out teaching special education actually and she went on to be a special education teacher and I took over running Clover toys. 

Jason Hsieh: Interesting, you switched career, a swap.

Brittney Geleynse: You know what, the universe needed a shift. 

Jason Hsieh: I think last time when we spoke, also, [00:02:00] you are very intentional about the toy that you selected for your toy store.

Can you also talk about what set Clover toy apart from other toy store? And how do you usually choose your collections? 

Brittney Geleynse: You’re absolutely right. I wanted to be incredibly intentional about the toys we chose because all toys are good toys. There isn’t a bad toy, but when we were looking at the toys we wanted to carry here, we wanted to do so that the foundation with Sarah was the Montessori Waldorf wooden toys and I wanted to take it one step further. I really wanted it to be Sustainable and in particular, sustainable play. So we want toys that are either made with sustainable materials, have a lifetime of more than 10 years, or can be disposed of sustainably. That focus has really led us down a path to finding some really [00:03:00] incredible wooden toys. minimizing the amount of plastic in our toys. 

Jason Hsieh: As a mom yourself, how do you balance your role as a business owner with your family life and running the store? 

Brittney Geleynse: It is always going to be a challenge. The good thing right now is my darling little daughter, Ada, still loves coming to Clover. She is the unofficial employee of the month and my crew is just fantastic with her. And right now, Wednesday was her last day of school. So I, anticipate her coming into the store quite a bit. The fun thing is, the cheat code that I’ve found for her is I can give her my phone with the camera on and she just goes around the store and takes pictures of all of her favorite products and then 

Jason Hsieh: Use it for social media!

Brittney Geleynse: It also is an easy way to promote. It’s that fine line I don’t want [00:04:00] her to feel like she has to, I want her to still enjoy it. I feel really lucky as a mom, cause I got such a sweet, creative kiddo. And she’s really into posing right now. The other fun thing, and we’re going to do it again this week, Fall is Ada’s stuffy fashion show.

Jason Hsieh: Oh, I love the idea. 

Brittney Geleynse: It turned out amazing. I want kids to bring in their stuffed animal and I want them to decorate it. And I want to have a fashion show. It was totally her idea. I can’t even remotely take any credit other than executing it because she took it, she ran with it and we had about four kids for our inaugural fashion show and we’re hoping it’ll grow this year and we can have a ton of fun with it. 

Jason Hsieh: Yeah, and maybe you can open it for online voting. Now you have more social media followers, engage and vote and join our email list and just vote and make it more interactive. [00:05:00] And you can have a winner, announce the winner, then you win a prize too. We make it like a, almost like a tournament, just to make it more fun toy industry about having fun. 

Brittney Geleynse: Absolutely. 

Jason Hsieh: How long have you been running the store now? So how many years now? 

Brittney Geleynse: Seven years. 

Jason Hsieh: What is one of the biggest challenge you have faced in running the Brick and Mortar toy store and how have you overcome them?

Brittney Geleynse: Every, day has its own unique challenges. We recently moved locations. It was in December of 22. So it’s not and we didn’t move like across the city. We moved like six blocks. 

Jason Hsieh: Isn’t that Christmas season you move? Oh my God. 

Brittney Geleynse: It was the biggest comedy of errors and that’s what I mean when I say every day is a new challenge. I think the one that broke my spirit during the move was we were all set. We were going to open in the new spot. black friday and it comes up to me and says, I don’t know if [00:06:00] you’re going to believe me, but the paint’s not sticking to the walls. To this day, I’m not sure if he was just coming up with an excuse to give himself a little extra time because things didn’t go right his way. Or if the paint really didn’t stick to the wall. But, so we had to push her. Push our opening date back again. It was, we were supposed to move in September. So that was our beautiful plan during a lull, kids are back in school, we transition, set up. 

Jason Hsieh: You don’t want to move during Christmas. It’s like the crazy season. 

Brittney Geleynse: But we did it and my crew was fabulous. I couldn’t have done it without them. Personally, I’m very grateful that most of them are still with me even after that. 

Jason Hsieh: How many employees do you have at the store? 

Brittney Geleynse: Right now, we have seven. We are a small neighborhood store. Even some of our local, and I say competition loosely because really I view them more as sister stores because [00:07:00] if I don’t have something, I can be like did you go to snap doodle? Have you tried a magic mouse downtown? And it just creates a better environment for our customers too 

Jason Hsieh: I know your focus is on the eco family toys and sustainabilities. How do you usually find those toys? Do you go to a particular trade show for them or do you just go to a regular trade show? 

Brittney Geleynse: I find that I am that annoying toy store that asks way too many questions. And you know what? That’s okay. So I will, ask do you use FSC wood in your manufacturing? Do you know, if, you manufacture in China, what’s your relationship with your manufacturers and 

Jason Hsieh: Oh, whoa. Okay. You asked the hard question. 

Brittney Geleynse: To me those are the really important ones. ’cause if we’re talking about we want our, to it to be globally sustainable. Those are the questions I want the answers to. And a lot of times the answer is, I don’t know, but I’ll [00:08:00] find out.

Jason Hsieh: Unfortunately, I don’t think there’s a standard for eco friendly toys. It’s not like you can get a seal or get them on a certify. I don’t think it even exists. So it might be a good business to create that. 

Brittney Geleynse: I like what you think. For me, it really does come down to that. Like what are the materials, is the kid, is this a one and done toy? Like I personally, I love, and so does my husband rockets, like the model rockets that you can do rock rocketry with, but those are, one and done toys and, once you launch it, like you might be able to reuse the rocket itself, but once the engine is used, it’s done. And so even if, I really love a toy and it’s got really awesome potential, I might not carry it because it doesn’t have that like 

Jason Hsieh: criteria looking for. I see. 

Brittney Geleynse: And the newest one for me and I’ve been trying to [00:09:00] figure out what I want, for my, standards to be, is that things can be sustainably disposed of and one of my newest partnerships is, terraCycle. 

Jason Hsieh: What do they do?

Brittney Geleynse: They’re really awesome. They basically take everything, anything that is non biohazard and for the most part inorganic, and they will find a way to reclaim it and reuse it in a new product. 

Jason Hsieh: Oh, interesting. 

Brittney Geleynse: So one of the things that we are going to it’s just started. I just got it going.

Jason Hsieh: How does their business model work? Do they charge you to pick stuff up from you? 

Brittney Geleynse: So I ordered the TerraCycle art supplies box because I was having a really hard time with markers. I feel that, for kids they offer such creativity that even crayons and paint don’t have the same level of creativity [00:10:00] because, they’re colorful but they’re smooth, and they help with that pincer writing grip. And, but they’re plastic. And, so with this program, I paid, it ended up being just under 200, so it’s not inexpensive. But it’s going to be an 11 by 11 by 20 box. So a fairly large box where we can just put any art supply in except for crayons. Once the box is full I believe their requirement is it has to be under 50 pounds. So you can put a lot in there, though, you send it back to them and they take it from there. I can’t speak to everything they do, obviously, so my business is just a great partnership, but I know they do a lot with creating plastics, that can also be recycled, so like cutlery and things like that.

Jason Hsieh: That’s my first time hearing about that kind of services and my next [00:11:00] question is, how do you stay up to date with the latest toy trend? What criteria do you use when you’re selecting new product to your store?

Brittney Geleynse: Every Christmas. I get asked, what’s the trendy toy? We don’t carry it. But I’m not disappointed about that. I honestly feel like, when it comes to toys for us, there is a lot of customer input and I feel having a really good relationship and having those customer asking questions of my customers like, Hey, I saw that you bought this. I saw you bought this unicorn. I was looking at this other unicorn art set. Would that be something that your, child, your friend would enjoy? And I get a lot of really good feedback that way. The other thing that I have done is I keep my pulse on my core brands. I do a lot of work with plan toys. Eboo is another one that I do a lot of work with and probably for our trendy toys, Eboo is going to be my version of a trendy toy. They [00:12:00] do a lot of art kits and, 

Jason Hsieh: I think I talked to someone from the Plantoid. Their business model is very interesting. They own their own factory. That’s a toy manufacturer. They have more control over the manufacturing process because they own the factory. Whereas my toy brand, I don’t own the factory. I work with the factory. I work with three different factories. So I don’t have that level of oversight on how the product is being used, what kind of material used to use, how it’s being recycled. I really don’t have a say in that. But for, their business model, because they only own factory, they obviously have a lot more control and say them. Let’s try to be eco friendly. Let’s try to be more conscious of being using recycled material. So they have a very unique business model out of all the people I talked to so far. 

Brittney Geleynse: I really, respect them for that. And one of the things I love about it when it comes to marketing in store is they’re really good about putting it on their packaging so I can pick up any planned toys box and be like, Hey, this is how their whole system works.

Jason Hsieh: Yeah, they [00:13:00] created their own system because it doesn’t exist. So they create their own indicator and all that, like the carbon emission and all that stuff. But that doesn’t really exist. Hopefully someone maybe can bring a clear business out of it.

Brittney Geleynse: That would be really cool. 

Jason Hsieh: So I want to transition more to the local involvement for your store. In what way do you engage with your local communities? And you give the example of your daughter trying to do that fashion shows, but any other scene that has been successful for you and your toy store? 

Brittney Geleynse: One of our favorite things to do, and it helps decorate the store too. It’s very simple. It’s a coloring contest. 

Jason Hsieh: Oh, okay. Coloring contest. 

Brittney Geleynse: But even more to reach Seattle at large, because it’s very important to my heart that I don’t just exist as a business in this space, but I connect with the community I’m in. And so right now we are partnered with our chamber of [00:14:00] commerce called the Ballard Alliance and we are doing a food and supply drive for our local food bank. 

Jason Hsieh: You can also do toy drive too, right? So

Brittney Geleynse: exactly. There’s another local nonprofit called Treehouse. that works with kids in the foster care system here in the state of Washington. 

Jason Hsieh: Yes. 

Brittney Geleynse: And I think it’s my favorite thing. They create essentially a free Christmas gift store. So they give, they ask the foster kids, who do you want to get gifts for? They get like a set number of tickets and they just get to go shopping in this store. 

Jason Hsieh: That’s really cool. 

Brittney Geleynse: They get gifts for their friends and their siblings and their family. So I feel really empowered when I’m able to donate not only some of our profits to causes like that, but like we had the toy drive in store and our community came out and gave generously. It was. [00:15:00] 

Jason Hsieh: Yeah, it’s always good to get back even because we also operate a foundation called Sensory Inclusive Classroom Foundation. We actually donate toy to low income school district as part of our foundation’s effort as well. It’s a brand new foundation. We just started a couple of months ago on top of all the other business I run. So we’re trying to scale the foundation. But we did got approved by Google Act Grant, which is a Google program. You get 10, 000 a month fund Google as a file three C foundation, and you can use the 10, 000 months for running Google ads for the foundation. 

Brittney Geleynse: Oh, that’s perfect. 

Jason Hsieh: Yeah. So we’re working on that and I’m actually watching and going through a course about how to optimize Google ads right now. I love digital marketing, so there’s another thing to learn. 

Brittney Geleynse: Perfect. 

Jason Hsieh: Can you share any like experience that your customer in your store that you wouldn’t typically have, let’s just say, if they go shopping, like the Target.

Brittney Geleynse: It’s my staff. We have cool toys, don’t get me wrong, but when you come in, the city we’re in has a [00:16:00] lot of Uncles and aunts that aren’t familiar as much with kids and so one of the most frequently asked questions is my Niece, nephew, cousin is turning one two three. I don’t know what to get them. What do you recommend? And so just my crew is so knowledgeable. They are 

Jason Hsieh: certified play expert program that Astra does. 

Brittney Geleynse: So I went through it and then my goal, because they do offer it online is to have my crew go through it, too. 

Jason Hsieh: It was very helpful. Me and my sister went through it as well. They teach about child development, the benefit of play, and the consequences when you don’t have play. And a lot of very interesting experience. It’s almost like a college class that condenses in two days for toy industry. I also personally learned a lot from that certificate. 

Brittney Geleynse: Yeah. Really enjoyed the certified play expert. I think I [00:17:00] have too many pins on my board behind me. But the other thing that I find just really unique to our store and to toy stores at large is that there is space to play in here. We want you to come in and play in here. And I think my favorite is we have a few families that like, okay, after Tuesday gymnastics, we’re going to go to Clover toys and we’re going to hang out till dinnertime. That’s what they do and they’re not going to buy something every time they walk in our door, but every time they walk in our door, they have a good time. And 

Jason Hsieh: you also host birthday party at your store. 

Brittney Geleynse: We have talked about it, but even with our expanded space, we haven’t. However, we are right next door to a kid’s hair salon. That was my logic. And they do have a party room and I’m still feel like even though it’s been two [00:18:00] years, I’m getting my feet under me. And so when, once my feet are more firmly under me. I’m really looking forward to doing a lot more partnering with them. It’s a cool little hair salon. My daughter loves to go there because they put butterfly clips in the glitter in her hair and there’s nothing better. Circling back to an earlier question, I think that’s the other thing is as a toy store, I feel like it’s necessary to connect with the other parts of your community we do. 

Jason Hsieh: 100%, yeah. 

Brittney Geleynse: Little League 2, my daughter was supposed to be on the team, but she just, turns out T Ball’s not her jam. 

Jason Hsieh: Winding down and toward the end of today’s interview, one of the question I ask every single guest is if you had to share just one piece of advice with someone that’s getting started in the toy industry, what would that be?

Brittney Geleynse: So I had a hard time narrowing it down. So I’m going to go with the one I think is the most important and then share my other two. Trust your instincts. More than you think you do. [00:19:00] And by simply trusting your instincts and Trusting yourself a lot more gets accomplished than you realize. The next thing, make friends. As you said earlier, toy industry is all about playing. So let’s play. And the last, Questionably most important, ask questions. The more you know, the better choices you can make. So I guess those are my three key pieces for the toy industry. 

Jason Hsieh: And where can our listener find you?

Brittney Geleynse: Just for listening to our podcast today, or your podcast. I’m took ownership when I shouldn’t. I wanted to offer a discount code to clovertoys.com. If you enter the promo code unboxed 24, so U N B O X E D two, four, you’ll get 15 percent off your entire order. 

Jason Hsieh: Oh, thank you so much for doing that. Yeah. I’ll make sure our team include that in the show [00:20:00] notes. When is it going to expire? Is it expiring? 

Brittney Geleynse: It’s good till the end of the year. 

Jason Hsieh: Oh, okay. Okay. Perfect. I’ll let my team know that and we’ll include it in the show note and also in the email that we, sent out. So thank you so much for doing that for the, listener.

Thank you for so much for sharing your knowledge and running a toy store is very different than running a toy brand, which is I run a toy brand. I don’t run a store. I don’t have the, or I guess the good thing is I don’t need to go to a brick and mortar location. I just work from home. I don’t interact with the customer as much as you do, which I think that’s your advantage because I don’t talk to the customer I get email from the customer, I try to call them and try to have meeting with the customer sometimes, but definitely not on the daily basis that I interact with my customer directly the way you do. So I, I think your perspective when it comes to customer support and serving the customer is definitely very different than you have. I really love how you are really trying to get back and get involved in a local community. That’s also very wonderful for you [00:21:00] to, do that. And that’s something I’m also trying to do with my business. I’m trying to go to a lot of local networking event here in Phoenix and just me with other business owner and hopefully connect with someone. It’s all about connection. 

Brittney Geleynse: Exactly 

Jason Hsieh: So thank you again for being on our podcast and sharing your experience.

Outro: You’ve been listening to Toy Business Unboxed, hosted by Jason Hsieh. Thank you for joining us and exploring the fascinating world of toys and the ingenuity behind them.

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