Meet Our Founder - A Bag Addict!
Meet Our Founder – A Bag Addict!
Tell us a bit about yourself
I have to say that if someone told me I was going to be selling kids backpacks for a living as I was sitting in my law lectures… well, I’m not sure what my reaction would have been!
Hi, my name is Wendy Fleisher. My husband and I have two beautiful children aged 8 and 11. I am originally from the UK and moved to Wellington, New Zealand in January 2008. My husband's work brought us to Canberra, Australia in February 2021.
My career has taken me lots of places, including retail management, a supply and logistics role in the British Royal Navy at sea and ashore, contract manager for GE Aviation, and procurement roles in New Zealand working in the health, banking and local government sectors.
Bet you didn't know that I have a qualifying Law and Accounting honours degree, a post-graduate certificate in legal practice and a Master of Business Administration (MBA). Yep, I like to learn.
What do you love about what you do?
Confession time… I love bags and I have a crazy number of handbags and travel bags!
I was once asked to provide examples of some of my weaknesses at a job interview. I took a chance at some humour with the interview panel and I said "shoes and handbags!" They naturally looked a little shocked at the response and I thought I had blown it. Over drinks a while later they later told me it was this answer which had got me the job!
Designing my own brand of kids backpacks and bags and selling them in an online store is the perfect job for me. Alimasy allows me to use all my market knowledge and customer feedback I have gathered over the years selling kids backpacks and then I get to add my own innovative design ideas and prints to our bags. It is so much fun that I forget I am working most of the time.
What do you do in your downtime?
When I am not running around to Cheerleading competitions and training with my daughter and cricket, rugby and football practice and games with my son, I love being outdoors and you will often see me walking our labradoodle Coco. We have just set up our own little “home gym” with a spin bike and some light weights, so I have absolutely no excuses about not being able to get to the gym!
Why did you start Alimasy?
For years I have been selling kids backpacks sourced from leading brands all over the world in my New Zealand kids store and as a result I have collated so much market knowledge and customer feedback about what makes a great backpack for the needs of preschool, kindy and school aged children.
Launching Alimasy though wasn’t just about designing a great backpack, it's about creating a brand to fix the problems with the children’s bag category.
In recent years I had seen first-hand how the quality of children’s bags had decreased as more and more manufacturers choose to pursue the “make it cheaply as possible” approach. Yet at the same time the price of bags was continuing to rise in response to increased supply chain costs (particularly in relation to the covid19 pandemic). For manufacturers reliant on distributors to sell their products, even higher prices were being passed on to consumers.
Alimasy is about providing an alternative for customers to the cheap bags which just don’t last, or over-priced bags with an equally short lifespan.
What is Alimasy about? (Hint: Not Just a kids backpack and bag Shop!)
Alimasy is about customers and design. Everything we do is driven by our customers, and all our products are driven by their design.
What makes Alimasy different from other online stores?
Alimasy is totally driven by customer service. We strive to make every stage of the shopping process quick, easy and hassle free. All our products are responsibly manufactured in China with trusted partners, and we stand behind every single product with a lifetime warranty on every product.
We don’t increase our retail pricing to enable us to hold false sales. Customers don’t have to wait for a “sale” to secure a great price as our prices are genuine all the time.
What’s the future for Alimasy?
More of the same! Making customers happy by delivering a superior online shopping experience, selling unique, innovative, quality design driven products.
We are already finalising our next kids backpack design, and we have lots more ideas for Alimasy in the pipeline, so watch this space!
The Favourites
Favourite Movie: Shawshank Redemption
Favourite Song: I did it my way by Frank Sinatra
Favourite Quote: Life is what we make it, always has been, always will be. – Grandma Moses
Favourite Alimasy Product: Our Lucky Cat Large Kids Backpack
