Interview: Gary from WaterField

Today we have an interview with Gary, from WaterField Designs. Thank you for agreeing to speak with me. Could you please tell me a bit more about yourself and how the company was started?
W/F was started in September of ‘98. Messenger bags were very popular at the time… just as they are still… and I wanted to combine the best features and style of a Messenger bag with a business brief. While working in the bicycle industry I was using my same Courier Ware messenger bag that I used while I was a bike messenger for two years in Boston. The bag was great for messengering but for work everything tended to fall into a clump at the bottom. This is how we came up with our first case the Cargo Bag. Our SleeveCases were designed in conjunction with the MIT Media labs in Cambridge for their small fleet of laptops. We went back and fourth quite a few times until we were all happy. Because all of our cases are made here in San Francisco rather than overseas we were able to expand the SleeveCase line to about 25 sizes in two orientations and with all the options to customize it. Most of our case ideas come from our customers who very vocal about what they want… and we listen.
I’ve had the opportunity to use some of your products and am very impressed with the design and quality of each item. Please share a bit more about the manufacturing process and how you ensure that your high quality standards are met.
Our sewing shop just does great work. We know making cases here in the US is expensive (let alone San Francisco) compared to Asia so to compete we have the best quality. Our sewers are really work hard to make sure everything gets done right. We don’t pay them by the piece so they can take their time to make sure the cases are done to the best of their ability.
I really like the customization options offered for your laptop sleeves, especially the “piggyback” option. How do you get your new product ideas? Are they mainly the product of your imagination, customer requests, or a combination of the two?
Yes, they mainly come from our customers who call or e-mail us. They’ll say something like “you know, this is great or that isn’t so great and what you really ought to do is ____.” If we too think its a good idea, or if we start hearing the same thing from other customers then we get on it. Our customers point us in the right direction and then its up to us to make the case functional and have a certain style.
The testimonials on your site are almost universally glowing. How do you maintain excellence in customer service in a strictly online business?
Yes, this is pretty good, eh? And folks just write us these unsolicited testimonials. When we want to post a customer’s comments we first write and ask for their permission and everyone has been fine with it. How do we do good customer service?… not sure. When the phone rings we answer it. When someone e-mails we write back. If a customer asks us for aspecial request we try to honor it and when we
make a promise to a customer we keep it. All sound pretty simple doesn’t it?
It seems that you are branching out to cover more mobile technology products with the recent iPod and Sony PSP case introductions. Do you plan to expand further into other markets, such as PDA and mobile phone cases?
Yes. Two things around here we enjoy most (1) Corresponding to customers and (2) designing new cases. What cases are we coming out with next… stay tuned.
Can you share any hints about upcoming products?
See above.
I really like your cases and am anxious to hear about your new designs, so I’m sad to see that I can’t get any previews out of you– but I thank you for your time!