There is no shortage of entrepreneurs inspired by the movie Wall Street or the stories of Sam Walton or Steve Jobs. I recently had the opportunity to interview Andy Keller, whose inspiration is a little more, shall we say, down to Earth.

CA -- Tell us about the origins of ChicoBag.

AK -- I used to sell software for an enterprise software company down in the Bay Area. I ended up getting laid off when the company was bought out by a company in the UK. The community and lifestyle in Chico (California) really appealed to me, so it was important for me to stay here. We have one of the largest municipal parks in the United States, it’s a very bike friendly town, and a great place if you in to recreation.

So I took a sabbatical and started doing some home improvement work, which brought me one day to the Neal Road landfill, the landfill site for the City of Chico. So it was at a landfill site in 2004 where I had my “Ah ha!” moment. It was the end of the day, and there I was overlooking a day’s worth of trash for the community of Chico, which is about a hundred thousand people. And what I saw just blew me away. Aside from the sheer quantity of garbage, what struck me was how useful some of it still could have been. I remember seeing a woodstove, a dresser, and all kinds of other things that were totally useful. There were these giant bulldozers running over everything, and I was actually forbidden from taking anything out of the landfill to try to salvage it.

So a good percentage of this stuff was reusable, but an even greater percentage could have easily been recycled or composted. We’re talking about tons of plastics, bottles, cans, containers and stuff like that.

But the thing that really struck me was all the plastic bags. Everything was inside a plastic bag. They were blowing all over the place. They were caught on the barbed wire fences. They were caught on the tie-downs. The birds were pecking at them. So that was the moment when I said to myself, “I am going to stop using single-use bags.”

CA -- This was a moment of intention.

AK -- Absolutely. And then on the way home, I got to thinking about all those bags. “Why don’t people use reusable bags?” I asked myself. Some of the conclusions I came to were, number one, they just haven’t integrated them into their lifestyles. It’s very easy to be in a single-use lifestyle. It actually takes quite a bit of work to develop a reusable bag lifestyle. Traditionally, people use canvass bags when switching to reusable. The biggest challenge is remembering to bring it with you when you go shopping. Believe it or not that‘s the biggest barrier to people using reusable bags – people buy them with the best of intentions but then forget them at home or in the car.

So it was clear that people want to use reusable bags but are inhibited by the impracticality of the current variety of canvass bags. I immediately decided that was a problem I could help solve. So that was the moment that I set out to make a reusable bag that was unforgettable.

That day I went to the Thrift Store, bought a used sewing machine, took it home and got set up right on my kitchen table. After buying some canvas, I started making prototypes. This didn’t last long with a broken sewing machine, so I brought it to a repair shop, where I was told that it was beyond repair. Back to the Thrift Store I went to buy a second sewing machine, which, once again, I set up on my kitchen table. I was very inspired, as you can see, and that inspiration saw me through some initial set backs.

That day I started making prototypes of bags and giving them out to friends to test different designs.

CA -- How many prototypes did you go through before coming up with the first market-ready version? Tell us about the R&D process.

AK -- I’d say about five, with various differences. One had a drawstring, and some were made of different types of fabrics. We ended up going with nylon because it’s very durable and efficient to make.

It’s also stain and water resistant, not to mention machine washable. So the key was to make it easy and comfortable to use but also that it would be small and compact enough to fit in your pocket. This is what our customers needed but our competitors didn’t understand.

The final property that was important to us was style. All the reusable bags out there at the time still exuded that canvass, granola-hippie image. We introduced something that was easier to use and lasted longer, but also that looked good and fit with peoples’ sense of style.

But usability was key. I do Bikram Yoga. I’ll often come back from yoga with my sweaty yoga clothes in my ChicoBag, and I can just throw the whole thing in the washer. This was the goal: to make it really easy to integrate into your lifestyle.

CA -- Tell me about the challenges in getting this thing in the hands of consumers. Has the market been really receptive to ChicoBags?

AK -- Well, I started selling ChicoBags on Earth Day in 2005. Back then I had to work hard to educate new customers. I found myself answering questions like, “What’s the problem with paper bags?” What people are learning is that paper bags are no better than plastic. Most of the impact of plastic bags is on the disposal side, whereas with paper, the impact is up-front, on the production side. Educating people on those topics is the bulk of what I was doing in the early days.

CA -- What about the challenges in terms of getting distribution?

AK -- Educating retailers has been a challenge. The natural food stores get that they need to offer their customers a variety of reusable bags. But a lot of the larger, more traditional retailers fall into the trap of thinking, “Oh, we already carry a reusable bag,” as thought they would only carry a single product in other product categories, coffee or blue jeans. So when they tell me they already carry a reusable bag, I think to myself, “We know. That’s why we’re calling.” Our philosophy is that stores should carry a variety of reusable bags. Just think of the mustard isle in your grocery store. You’ve got your fancy Dijon mustard, your stone ground mustard, and the list goes on. My grocery store carries four or five types of garbanzo beans. Variety is important to people, and this should apply as much to reusable bags as to mustard or garbanzo beans.

Some retailers have been slow to embrace reusable bags because they see it as a threat. Many state and provincial governments are considering enacting outright bans on single-use bags. So retailers see this as something that’s going to make life more difficult for them. Our message to retailers is, “Hey, this is a huge opportunity for you guys. It’s a chance to turn an operating expense into a profit center.”

Another challenge we’ve come up against is that single-use bags are free, and the perception is, “Well, how can you compete with free?” Retailers don’t think customers are willing to pay a premium for a premium reusable bag, so they want the price point to be, like, a dollar.

CA -- What’s your response to that? I believe that ChicoBags sell for five dollars?

AK -- Yes, the product retails for five dollars. We take a great deal of pride in the design and functionality of our bags. Having a karabiner, for example, on the bags, so that it can clip onto a belt loop, makes our bags easier to use, which encourages more frequent use. So this adds a great deal of value in terms of usability for our customers, but that added value has its costs. We feel that there’s enough room in this market to offer a wide variety of bags, with a price range of anywhere from ninety-nine cents up to twenty-five dollars, or more. There are people out there who are buying bags for fifty bucks. So our pricing is in the middle of our category, and our customers see a solid price to value ratio.

Another thing we’re pushing against is the so-called reusable bags out there that are so cheaply made that they fall apart after a few weeks of use. To me, if it only lasts for ten or twelve uses, it’s virtually a disposable bag. Ultimately, we believe that a reusable bag should have a lifespan of at least three to five years, ideally much longer.

CA -- What does the future hold for ChicoBag?

AK -- The intention that I set shortly after that trip to the Neal Road landfill site in 2004 was to help humanity adopt a reusable bag habit and kick the single-use bag habit. The entire company is focused on that goal. Every decision we make reflects that goal, including how we approach product development. We’re definitely working hard to keep the product fresh and to innovate new ways of accomplishing that goal, so I would encourage your readers to stay tuned for new innovations that we’ll be releasing shortly.

CA -- So our readers should stay tuned into the Chico story?

AK -- For sure. Stay closely tuned because we’ll be coming out with some new stuff soon.

CA -- Andy, it’s been a pleasure learning more about your story. Quite inspiring. Thanks for doing this.

AK -- My pleasure, Chris. Thank you.