Retired fishing sails are washed, dried and tailored into new forms. – GOOD BEHAVIOR BRAND
A mother and daughter duo’s internet search rabbit hole has led to prosperity for them and for dozens of women in developing countries. Eleanor Kubacki was dreaming of travel. She didn’t know it, but it would be months before she went anywhere—the pandemic was about to sneak up on all of us—but there she was, falling in love with a weekender bag on Pinterest late at night.
“I have to find this bag,” she thought.
She tracked down its origins and talked to its creator, Daniela Bateleur. There was a problem: The bag wasn’t in production. It was made, she found out, in Lamu, a fishing village in Kenya, and there weren’t enough sales to keep the team of artisan women who made the bag working.
Kubacki knows business. She’s run EFK Group, her successful Trenton-based marketing firm, for 25 years; and she’s helped countless businesses—PNC Bank, Honeywell, Rita’s Italian Ice, Nike—grow and evolve. She’d never worked with a business based so far away before, but she loved the idea of helping out creative women.
And she really wanted that bag.
Working with Bateleur, Kubacki and her daughter Dakota Silver made a deal to order bags from the artisans in Lamu. They worked with her to redesign certain features of the bag and to come up with new plans for it—big, bold messaging like “ESCAPE” and “REBEL,” and ideas on how to streamline the creation.
The bags are made from retired fishing sails, washed, dried, and tailored into a new form.
“It’s really cool that the bag gets it life through the sea,” Silver said, “and it gains a new life [when it’s turned into] a bag.”
Something similar can be said about the artisans who make them. The livelihood of Lamu’s residents has long been wrapped in the fishermen just off the coast. Much of the village’s food comes from the sea, and the town’s livelihood comes from selling fish. Proceeds from the sale one bag for a Good Behavior Brand — the company Kubacki set up to sell the bags in the states — feeds a family of four for a month, according to Bateleur.
Timing is everything, and Kubacki’s was exquisite: Bateleur told her that she and Silver were the only people who bought from the village during the pandemic.
Mother and daughter duo Eleanor Kubacki and Dakota Silver built a company especially for the weekender bags. – GOOD BEHAVIOR BRANDS
“She just said to us about a month ago, ‘thank God you bought from [our village,]’” Kubacki said. “It’s been really feel-good all around.”
While developing Good Behavior Brand, Kubacki found other handmade products in Mexico and India that she wanted to bring to the U.S. market. A rug from India with the message “All you need is love” and a blanket from Mexico adorned in peace signs caught her attention—both, as the bag had, on Pinterest—and she coordinated with their makers to create products under Good Behavior Brand.
Good Behavior Brand is also partnering with screen printer Bridgetown Customs, another member of the Trenton business community. EFK Group has been based in Trenton for 25 years and Kubacki said she and her husband are “big supporters of the city.” The first floor of the 17,000 square foot office building they bought and renovated is an incubator for artists. The community she said, is “quirky.”
“I’ve got to tell you, the thing that keeps me grounded and tethered to Trenton is being able to work within the community. We have character, I’ll give you that. But Trenton is really trying,” she said.
The venture is still young. Good Behavior Brand’s online store launched Mother’s Day weekend but they didn’t do any advertising until September because of limited inventory. Within five days of starting to advertise on social media, 20% of their stock was sold.
The weekender bags are thus far the best seller and the sweatshirts are selling well, too, with messages like “Hustle for Peace” and “Human Kind.” The models on their website are diverse and the clothing comes in sizes 2 to 22, details Kubacki said are important to making it a welcoming brand.
An artist at work in Lamu, a fishing village in Kenya. – GOOD BEHAVIOR BRAND
“When I asked one of my girlfriends to model, she was like ’me? I’m 50.’ But she went and had the time of her life. It was important to have diversity, a reflection of what society is. As we’re building our brand, we wanted to be inclusive in every aspect. Because it’s a new brand, we’re just dong it off instinct,” she said.
Looking ahead, Kubacki and Silver hope to make it to the villages their products are created in to work alongside the artisans themselves. For now, they’re working with the artisans in Kenya, Mexico, and India remotely, and hoping to entice others to collaborate.
“We’re a very good advertising agency, we have big clients,” Kubacki said. “So we can also teach them how to grow and market their business. Twenty-five years ago there were not a lot of 25-year-old women starting companies … [and when I started EFK], I got a hand up. Someone to show you the ropes … that’s huge.”
Dakota grew up watching her mom run EFK Group, and she said her mom’s passion for her job has always given her a good role model.
“I’m really career driven because I’ve grown up with her and my dad doing this company together. When she came to me and said ‘let’s do this Good Behavior thing,’ I thought it would be a really good opportunity for me to work with my mom and her business knowledge so I could take that into my career as I move paths and move on my own,” Silver said.
“Being an entrepreneur is definitely more difficult than I thought it was, but it’s fun, you learn a lot. She’s made me take some risks as well – she’s had to push me a little,” she said.
Both women acknowledge that Kubacki is the risk taker of the two, and Dakota reels her in sometimes. But why wouldn’t she be? She started EFK from the ground up with her husband, and they’ve enjoyed their successes. She took cues from her own mom, too, who became an entrepreneur at 50.
For her, partnering with Dakota is “amazing,”
“Now Dakota is looking to see what her life will look like, and it’s Interesting, to see how the generations do business. For women, it opens a path forward,” she said.
