10/09/12 - 0 Comments
Life Lessons from Emily Sugihara of Baggu
Ladies, meet Emily Sugihara, the genius behind Baggu’s brightly colored line of bags. It really is a sweet story of a powerful mother-daughter duo, and, as you know, we are suckers for all things fashion that come with a good backstory. So we thought we’d get to know Sugihara by asking her to share her top 15 Life Lessons, and we’re loving the creativity!
See, back in 2007 when Sugihara and her mother, Joan Sugihara, realized that they had a need for a good reusable bag—you know, the kind you use to do your grocery shopping—they found that, while every grocery store seems to sell them, none of the available bags were particularly useful (or fashionable, for that matter).
And so Baggu was born—and they’ve definitely come a long way from a mother-daughter sewing project based in their garage in San Diego. Today, Baggu—that’s Japanese for bag, by the way—is based in Williamsburg, and business is definitely blossoming. Stop by their website or make your way to the closest Urban Outfitters to get your hands on the latest designs from Sugihara. Until then, check out what Sugihara had to say with…
Life Lessons from Emily Sugihara:
1. It’s important to love your job.
2. Habits are powerful. Be careful to cultivate functional ones.
3. Find a physical activity you can get obsessed with.
4. Wear sunscreen.
5. Eat everything, but mostly vegetables.
6. If you want to buy what you are selling, other people will too.
7. Yellow doesn’t sell.
8. Be outside as much as possible.
9. Buy yourself a good set of tools.
10. Prioritize your mental state.
11. When faced with a hard decision, think about something else and let your subconscious do the work.
12. Try to understand where the other person is coming from.
13. Don’t forget to add in your time cost.
14. The state of your house reflects the state of your life. Keep it tidy!
15. ABK (always be knolling).
Okay, we usually don’t do this, but we’re going to take a moment to explain Sugihara’s Life Lesson #15: ABK (always be knolling). No worries, we had to look up this concept ourselves—and we’re really glad we did, because we love the idea. It turns out that knolling has nothing to do with a small hill or mound, as the dictionary led us to believe. Really, it’s pretty simple: knolling is the art of arranging your workspace so that your tools are placed in a parallel/perpendicular sort of organized array. Check out this YouTube video by Tom Sachs that Sugihara’s team hooked us up with to see knolling in practice.
Photo credit: Baggu, Urban Outfitters
