IZIPIZI - Why IZIPIZI Thinks in Emotions, Not Just SKUs

Ramon Vela (00:02.671)
Welcome back everyone. This is Ramon Vela and like I said, I have this amazing guest that I can't wait to dive into and learn more about their brand. So please welcome Charles Brun who is co-founder and CEO of Easy Peasy. Welcome to the show.

Charles (00:45.827)
Thank very much. Hello, Roman. Very nice to meet you.

Ramon Vela (00:49.091)
Yeah, it's great to meet you. I appreciate you making time. There's a bit of a time difference because you're on a different continent. So I appreciate you making time. Well, you know, there's so much to talk about in terms of what you're doing and the brand, and we're going to get all into that in a second. However, I always like to start my interviews with, it's sort of my signature question, and it's a question on gratitude.

Charles (00:55.981)
Yes.

Ramon Vela (01:17.163)
And I ask this for two reasons for those who are new listening. One is I'm just a big believer in gratitude. I believe that it's a wonderful tool that you can use to relieve stress and anxiety, put things in context. I meditate, however, there's others who do journaling and praying and however you want to do it. It's just an amazing tool, which I highly recommend, especially during these days where some people are very stressed out, many of us are.

But I also ask it for another reason. I really want you, the listener, to know that there's real people behind these companies that we feature on the show. Now, it's easy to see a product on the shelf or online and just simply think it's a faceless corporation. But really, for many of these businesses that we feature, there are real people who care deeply about their product, about the quality, about the community, about their customers.

And a great way of getting to know people is by what they are grateful for or understanding what they're grateful for. So Charles, if you don't mind, can you share a moment or a memory when someone did something for you that just made you feel grateful because it meant that they believed in you, your vision or your potential?

Charles (02:33.411)
Yes, it's a great question. Thank you for starting with that. There's many things I'm grateful for, but I was thinking about one person in particular, one moment a long time ago. So we started Easy PZ in 2010 with my partners. We are three friends from high school, three partners, and we are very lucky because we combine the partnership and friendship. So I'm very lucky for that. We started the company in 2010, so 15 years ago, but we

were just graduates, very young, we were 23 years old, we had no money and we had decided at that time not to raise money. So it was only our own money that we had put in the company, a bit of bank loans. We had the first product that we had launched, which is linked to our current products, which was not a success, I must say. But we had other products in mind that we wanted to launch. And at that time,

We had spent all our bank loans, we had no more money to put in the company, so we had to raise a bit of money. But we wanted to do it with people who could help us really, because we have met many business angels, which were, would say, maybe greedy people, not so interesting, and who didn't really believe in the company, in our products, et cetera, et cetera.

Ramon Vela (03:52.196)
Mm-hmm.

Charles (03:59.019)
We felt they wouldn't help us much. apart from the money, we were really looking for a mentor, somebody to help us, because once again, we were really young and inexperienced. luckily, we won a trophy. And there was a guy making a speech. He was a French entrepreneur, a French successful entrepreneur. And he made this amazing speech. And at the end of the speech,

party, I went to see him saying, well, I would really like to spend more time with you, just to learn more about you, about your company. at that time, we didn't have in mind that this guy could invest in our company. And he said, yes, of course, please send me an email. And so following day, I sent an email.

Next week we spent time with him. At first he was mentioning it was only one or two hours. And finally we spent a full day with this guy. It's a big French company. He's products to many companies, many, many kinds of products. It's a billion dollar company. And he spent a full day with us showing his warehouse, his offices, his team, et cetera. He's a 70 year old guy now. He's a very experienced guy.

Ramon Vela (05:15.023)
Thank

Charles (05:17.857)
And we spent this full day with this man. And at the end of the day, with my partners, we said, OK, this guy is amazing, so much inspiring for us.

If he could accept to invest in our company, for us it would be amazing because it's really somebody who could help us. Apart from the money, he could really help us in terms of DNA, spirit, many things. So we asked him if we could see him again and we had prepared a full presentation for him. We were really stressed. We were in our suits, et cetera, et cetera.

Ramon Vela (05:48.431)
Thank

Charles (05:52.963)
And after 30 minutes, he said, OK, guys, don't worry. I don't need the business plan. I don't need numbers. I trust you. I like you guys. I like your projects. You can count on me. Yes, don't worry. I'll give you money. Whatever you need, whenever you need, I'll be here for you. And it was 12 years ago, no, 13 years ago.

And so it was in 2012. still now, I feel a lot of gratitude for this man. Because without knowing as much, without needing numbers or making sure he would make even more money compared to other guys we met before.

He believed in us, my two partners and myself. It was a human conversation, a human feeling. And he accepted to follow us. And I think 13 years afterwards, he's very happy because our company grew a lot. We paid him back what we owe him. And I think he made more money with us, luckily. But we are very happy because without him, we wouldn't be here today.

Ramon Vela (06:59.599)
Mm-hmm.

Ramon Vela (07:05.219)
Wow. I love that example. And that goes to the heart of the question, which is, you know, there are times where someone believes in you sometimes before we believe in ourselves, but they also see something within us and they take a chance, right? And he...

Charles (07:25.933)
Yes.

Ramon Vela (07:28.717)
You know, he actually embodies what I talk about sometimes is that when you're out there looking for investment, the idea of course is important and you know, the business plan potentially is important obviously. However, what investors are usually putting their money on is the entrepreneur. Their belief in that they're going to execute

and do exactly what they, you know, what's on plan and do what they're supposed to do. And that's what they're really investing in. So that's who he invested with after spending this time with you, hearing you, speaking with you, exchanging ideas, I'm sure. I think he got a good feel for who you are. And plus you don't get to be, you know, a billion, run a billion dollar company to be, and to be 70 years old or, know, whatever, how old are

Charles (08:06.989)
Thanks.

Ramon Vela (08:25.603)
however old he was at the time, you don't get there without having a pretty good sort of understanding of human nature, right? Like he can read people and obviously he read correctly with you and it's a great story. I love those stories, yeah. Yeah, so that's fantastic. And the reality is even though you paid him back,

Charles (08:44.375)
Thank you.

Ramon Vela (08:54.739)
He probably gave you guys a lot more than just, obviously just the money, right? It just his advice because, know, it's really, really interesting. was just thinking about this the other day. You know, there are some of us who have lived through recessions, lived through different difficulties in the market and all of this, all these different things. And then of course there are other entrepreneurs who are newer entrepreneurs who may not have.

Charles (08:57.581)
Yes. Yes, yes, yes.

Ramon Vela (09:23.183)
had a business and run it through difficult times or through the different recessions and so forth. So that experience is valuable. His experience, if he's 60 years old or 65 years old or whatever he was when he invested in you, he's lived through a lot of different business cycles. And so that experience to me is just really invaluable.

Realities, you probably got a lot more from him, but.

Charles (09:51.62)
And he started his company from zero also, which was also our case, so it was really interesting. And yes, apart from the money, he helped us so much in terms of values, spirit, common sense, and how to scale, how to act with our people when our company grew.

how to create subsidiaries, how to adapt. Yes, he was like a mentor for us or like a special uncle, if I may say. But yes, now we are really good friends, if I may say. So we are lucky because we are even closer together now than before. But it's still somebody we like a lot and we listen to a lot. And it's funny because every time he was seeing us, he was happy for us talking about EZPZ.

Ramon Vela (10:25.838)
Mm-hmm.

Charles (10:46.911)
and quickly about numbers but finally he wanted us to talk about projects and things to come and what were our challenges, we were facing, what was exciting for us, it was always more human things, personal things etc than numbers that he really never cared about.

Ramon Vela (11:08.045)
Yeah. You know, sometimes I wonder, you know, for someone like himself, obviously he sees, he sees things in you that he knows and understands and maybe sees, you know, something, a part of himself in you and your team. And, and then also I've had this conversation with other founders and CEOs. You know, there's a lot of founders who love the early stages of a business, the growing, the growth stages.

Charles (11:36.109)
Yes. Yes.

Ramon Vela (11:38.105)
They're not, they don't really love once the business scales to certain degree and it becomes a lot more about management per se. But there's a lot of people who just tell me they love, they miss that growth, the early stages of the business. And maybe in some ways he's sort of living vicariously through you guys too, because he remembers these days where like your boots dropping and you're spending all day in the office and whatnot.

Charles (12:02.817)
Yeah, And we were his first investment in a startup, so for him it was new. But yes, he told me that he saw himself in us many years before. So yes, he was starting a new entrepreneurial life, if I may say. Thanks to us again.

Ramon Vela (12:24.419)
Yeah, wow, that's fantastic. So let's, while we're sort of on the subject of the early days, let's start first from the idea, the inception. So I remember 2010, those are amazing days, especially in the performance market, like Facebook was brand new or it was close to there, like 2012.

Facebook was new and all these other apps were new. And so was sort of like the wild west. Like it just felt like there was just, you know, now when we look back on those days and we're like, my God, there, there was, it was so easy to get on Facebook or as less, less expensive and whatnot. So those are really exciting days. take us back there a little bit was, was there a moment, was there an aha moment when you came up with the idea or you and your partners came up with the idea.

was it an, I would love to know it. Was it a market opportunity? Was it based on research or was it an idea that came from some other, some other place? Where did the idea come from and why was it so moving for you guys?

Charles (13:39.363)
But the idea came from our mom. So we have three friends from high school. So we met when we were 17 years old. Now we are 37, 38 years old. So we know each other for more than 20 years. So it's been a long time.

Ramon Vela (13:51.321)
me.

Charles (13:57.219)
And at that time we had our mum who started to get a bit older, they turned 50, 55 years old, and they started to wear reading glasses. And they were always complaining of the fact that reading glasses were terrible, that they were ashamed to wear reading glasses. First of all, because they became a bit older, plus the fact that these readers were terrible and that they didn't like wearing them. We have pretty chic Parisian mum.

Ramon Vela (14:19.396)
Mm-hmm.

Charles (14:27.413)
if I may say. So our idea at that time was to say, okay, let's develop, let's design cool reading glasses, cool readers, because at that time there was nearly nothing in the markets, nothing at all in France, in Europe. We less knew US at that time. So our first idea was to develop cool reading glasses and not sell them to pharmacies or gas stations, et cetera. Since the beginning, we wanted them to be cool products sold in cool places.

So we launched them in a very known store in Paris at the time which was called Collettes, which was the temple, the concept store in Paris which closed since. But it was the best place to find the coolest fashion stuff, accessories, etc. Everybody was going to Collettes, local people, tourists, etc.

Ramon Vela (15:09.155)
Mm-hmm.

Charles (15:22.979)
So we launched our products at Collette at that time. And so at first it was reading glasses. And then we launched other products, reading sunglasses, classical sunglasses for everybody, blue blockers to protect your eyes from blue light.

then arrange for kids because we had more and more friends getting kids telling us that glasses for kids were terrible. So we wanted to do the mini me having our same adult products adapted for kids. And then we launched glasses for sports also. So that's why we say Easy Bizzy is glasses for all the family and every moment in life.

Ramon Vela (15:43.961)
Mm-hmm.

Ramon Vela (16:02.295)
Hmm. Well, and by the way, you guys sent us some sample and I meant to have it here with me so I could show the audience. But my my wife uses them and she loves them. Like I for you know, I texted her this morning. I'm like, hey, do you have your glasses with you? She goes, yeah, I always keep them in my purse. So she has them. Unfortunately, I don't have them to bring with me. But we'll show images. Yeah, she loves them, by the way.

Charles (16:08.545)
Yes, yes.

Charles (16:17.411)
Cooling.

Charles (16:25.239)
you

That's a good sign, it's good news. Cool.

Ramon Vela (16:32.079)
And so I'm curious right off the bat and by the way for everyone out there you can go to easy PZ calm and that is spelled I Z I P I Z I so easy P Z calm is The is the website and of course, we'll have that link on our podcast description when we release the episode so

One of the things that I, so I really love the idea of the readers. Right off the bat, when you were saying that, I was thinking, that is so interesting because, well, back then it made sense, but I feel like even now it made sense when you have such a large demographic of people here in the United States, they call them boomers. I don't know if they refer to that, those, you know, in Europe, but you know, you have this larger,

Charles (17:24.461)
Yes. Yes. Yes, I'm sorry.

Ramon Vela (17:28.727)
group of children who were born from the people who experienced World War II. And then they had children. And so those children now are getting older. And there's a large demographic of these. And I'm thinking, well, that's really interesting. Readers, it would make a lot of really great sense because you have this large group of people who would potentially require readers. But you also have

Charles (17:41.559)
Thanks.

Ramon Vela (17:58.435)
this cultural thing nowadays where people feel a lot younger. They don't want to wear, you know, products that, you know, are associated with older age necessarily, but they want to wear cool products, right? Like they don't, they still want to be fashionable. You know, there was a time, you know, like maybe when my dad was alive or whatever, but you know, where the products were just sort of like they were whatever the company designed them.

Charles (18:16.259)
Yes.

Ramon Vela (18:28.111)
how you had to use them, right? There was no really emphasis on fashion. Now, people want to look fashionable into their 60s, into their 70s, into their 80s. They want to look fashionable. So for me, when you were saying this, I was thinking, that's such a great idea. That makes a lot of sense. But now, of course, you have other demographics, children, you've got younger adults, you've got all these folks. How difficult is it to really have a...

Charles (18:30.115)
Yes.

Charles (18:34.37)
Yes.

Ramon Vela (18:57.901)
you know, like a comprehensive message to each one of those age groups or customers.

Charles (19:04.941)
Yes, but it's a great question and you're right. Our customers are happy to wear EZPZ because it's cool products, it's fashion products. So there's the function because it's readers, but it's a great quality, it's a great design. We have plenty of colors, we have our permanent collection, our seasonal colors, we do collaborations with cool brands. Now it's more than 15 shapes, 20 colors, all the diopters. So we have more than 1,500

500 references, so it makes a lot. We started with our readers and in the US, our biggest business is made with our readers because historically, we had a distributor in the US since 2013 who focused mainly on the readers. So now for the US, our main goal is to develop also and sell more and more our sunglasses and our kids glasses, et cetera, which are well known in the US, whereas it's a big part of our business.

in Europe. To answer your question, so the good thing, to come back to how we started in terms of distribution, we started through wholesale because in 2010 at that time e-commerce was way less developed than today.

Ramon Vela (20:21.711)
Mm-hmm.

Charles (20:22.049)
And at that time we didn't have money to open stores. So for us, a good way to sell our products all around the world was through wholesale, which means finding the best stores, selling EZPZ around the world.

which are great fashion stores, concept stores, design stores, high-end optics stores also, book stores, museum stores, department stores, etc. have a key because we have a very wide range of customers, stores able to sell easy peasy.

So now it's more than 7,000 stores around the world in 85 countries. And it's still a big part of our business. More than 50 % of our turnover today is still made in wholesale through all these amazing stores selling EZPZ around the world.

Step by step, we opened our own stores, EZPZ stores. So now we have 25 stores in Europe only, between France, UK, Belgium, soon in the US. It's a project for next year, 2020 season. And then we have EZPZ.com. The good thing is that thanks to retail and e-commerce, now we know more and more our final customers. It was the problem with wholesale, that as you sell your products to a store,

Ramon Vela (21:15.215)
Mm.

Charles (21:39.459)
Often you don't know who's buying your products afterwards, so we were less knowing our customers. Now we know our customers way better than before, so we know how old they are, is it more men, is it more women, where are they based, what are their zip codes, et cetera, what are they looking for? And it's funny because we are working now on...

how to improve our CRM and create a customer club, a loyalty club for our customers, to better serve our customers who are really coming to buy only readers, whereas we have, for example, cool moms or cool dads looking for sunglasses for them, but also for their kids, whereas other customers who love running or playing golf, who will come to buy our active line, which is our sport line.

Ramon Vela (22:08.345)
you

Charles (22:31.205)
And sometimes it may always be the same and sometimes we have customers buying, I don't know, 10 products because they buy glasses for themselves but for their wives, for their kids, or glasses to work, or glasses for going on holidays and glasses for their sport activity coming next weekend. So they are multi-easy-peasy buyers.

Ramon Vela (22:56.409)
Yeah, and it feels like at any point in the life cycle of that particular customer, you have an opportunity to not only make them a customer, a long-term customer, but you have also an opportunity to really have them introduce the Easy Peasy brand to others in their circle of influence. So like if you're young,

Charles (23:21.207)
Peace.

Ramon Vela (23:23.785)
and you are into athletic or hiking or whatever, you can buy easy peasy sunglasses and you're buying that brand. But now as you get older, maybe you have kids. So now you introduce them to your wife or your partner or...

Then you have, you know, you, then your children can potentially have them. So you really have to, you know, it's really interesting when you look at that from that perspective, it's almost any entry point within the brand. Gives you an opportunity to, how help them or have them become sort of like, an influencer marketer, right? Like they're in their own life because, know, and especially if you're in, if you enter your brand through the readers.

Charles (23:43.363)
Thanks.

Charles (24:05.699)
Thank

Ramon Vela (24:12.907)
Now you also have, have potentially young children or you have young adult children and they have grandchildren and whatnot. So there's a potential for there to be a lot of, you know, lot of interest going on and different from that, just that one person. So that's really, that's really cool. And that's where that CRM or the, you know, the life cycle marketing comes in, right.

Charles (24:28.107)
Exactly.

Charles (24:34.285)
Yes. And what's nice is that often our customers discover EZPZ thanks to amazing stores selling EZPZ. example, the MoMai in New York sells EZPZ, Museum of Modern Art, Bloomingdale, Sunbanz and Noble, and we have great concept stores in California, Hamptons, all over the country. especially in the U.S., our customers discover our products in stores. And once they know the product and they like it, then they

They go on easypz.com and they see that we have a way wider range and that they can find other products and everything online. Whereas usually in the store selling EZPZ, it's a small selection.

Ramon Vela (25:16.751)
And do you have your products through marketplaces, through like Amazon or things like that?

Charles (25:21.623)
No, no, no, Until now we have decided to only focus on concept stores, fashion stores, design stores, easypz.com. More and more, especially in the US, we hear that we should be on Amazon because everybody buys on Amazon. So it's something we are studying. I think it's different in US and in Europe. In Europe, people way less buy on Amazon, especially for fashion products.

I think in the US everybody buys on Amazon and I heard a lot you have to be on Amazon you have to be in another you have to be in another so we are studying Amazon

Ramon Vela (25:56.397)
He he.

Charles (25:58.827)
And also we are in discussion with Nordstrom to be on their marketplace because they launched it a few months ago, maybe one year ago, but it's the marketplace for department stores. And Nordstrom is an amazing reference for us. It could be an amazing customer. So we are in discussion with Nordstrom to enter EZPZ on their marketplace.

Ramon Vela (26:20.759)
Yeah. dipping your toe into Amazon is one thing, but to really fully optimize it, it becomes almost its own hungry resource, right? It requires a lot more attention than you may expect it to have. I know brands that in order to optimize Amazon fully, they literally have to hire one person or a team of people to manage it.

Charles (26:34.307)
Yes.

Yes.

Ramon Vela (26:49.592)
because it's such a potentially such a huge opportunity, but it's not easy. Like an Amazon obviously is not always the easiest company to work with.

Charles (27:02.819)
If we do it, we'll do it in the right way. If we have to hire people for that, we'll hire people for that. We heard it's good to have an Amazon agency also between you and Amazon to help you build your page, the assortment, the products, et cetera, et cetera, to operate. that's what we'll do.

Ramon Vela (27:18.798)
Yeah.

Yeah. And then of course, Walmart is like, someone was telling me the other day that all the Walmart's marketplaces, not as developed as Amazon. It's sort of where Amazon was like 10 years ago or so where it was, it's, it's still not developed, but there's, may be potentially more opportunity to kind of grow, but you know, it's its own animal as well too. and so, you know,

Charles (27:46.957)
Hey.

Ramon Vela (27:49.583)
In terms of the audience, I am curious about the branding component of it. You mentioned something really interesting about, know, now you have the selling directly to consumers gives you a lot more data. It gives you an idea of what they want, what they like, you know, feedback and whatnot. And you also understand who they are better and you can learn who they are better.

than let's say from selling wholesale, which you very rarely get any sort of feedback from a wholesale. However, when you were selling wholesale, was the easy peasy brand what it is today? Did you focus more on the product? Did you focus on the brand? Because it occurs to me that when you start selling direct to consumer, because everyone does it differently.

direct to consumer and they build the brand and the brand is very important and then they go into wholesale and they have more control over the brand and what people think of the brand. But when you do it backwards, which I know a lot of companies do as well, the other way around, which is starting wholesale, the brand is important, but it isn't as important when you sell direct to consumer, right? Because you have that direct relationship with them.

you know, knowing what you know now, would you have started direct to consumer and given what you did, was there a lot of emphasis in building the actual brand of the company?

Charles (29:30.689)
Yes, it's a great question also. For us, it was also the limits of wholesale because since the beginning, we wanted to build the brands. And when you only do wholesale, it's really hard to build the brand because you rely on, you depend on the store selling your brand and the space he gives you in his own store. Whether he puts your display, not your display. Now we develop many, many tools, merchandising tools for our customers.

to promote EasyPZ in the stores. Some of them do it, others don't do it. But at first, as we didn't have money when we started our company, was the good way to grow fast and to grow all around the world. However, when we realized that wholesale was not the good way to develop the brand, that's when we decided to open our own stores.

and to really develop our website, ezpz.com. And our website really grew during COVID. Why? Because our stores had to close and most of our customers around the world closed also. The thing is, in Europe, e-commerce has always been less advanced on e-commerce than the US.

Ramon Vela (30:50.553)
Mm-hmm.

Charles (30:54.091)
And for a long time, when we were working with physical stores selling EZPZ, they didn't really want us to sell EZPZ on their website because they felt it was competition. So for a while we had to hide a bit and not really officialize the fact that we had this ezpz.com website on which we were selling our products.

Ramon Vela (31:15.854)
Hmm.

Charles (31:16.117)
So we did it step by step. Our first store was opened in 2017. So it was seven years after we launched our company because we really took time to find the perfect location in Paris, the perfect neighborhood in Paris and the perfect streets in Paris with brands we wanted around us. But we had done tests before. So it was a pop-up, a kiosk, et cetera, et cetera. Because for us, opening a store was a big risk.

because at that time we had only raised a small amount of money so we have always spent money we made the year before so we were always very cautious on how we were spending the money we made so it was investments done year after year.

Ramon Vela (31:46.585)
Hmm.

Ramon Vela (32:05.859)
Well, you know, as you're saying that it just occurred to me because you mentioned COVID. So COVID was, you know, obviously one of those no one could plan for COVID. it just obviously just happened. But it really tested people's ability to to run a business. Right. Because it's so difficult. You didn't know what's going on. And it was a huge challenge. I'm sure. Especially if you had any stores and went on, you had to close them.

Um, which kudos to you. mean, like, I know a lot of folks who had stores had to close them and have just like decided they weren't going to open up anymore stores, you know, kind of scarred them. You know, so it's a difficult experience, you know? Um, and, and so we're now facing another challenge with tariffs. So I'm curious, how are you guys, uh, what's your plan or how are you dealing with it? And is it affecting you guys at this point?

Charles (33:02.945)
Yes.

And it's another good question. So, EZPZ, started our subsidiary in the US 18 months ago. Until now, we working in the US only through a distributor with who we worked during 10 years, who did a great job. But after 10 years, we felt that it was the good moment for us to open a subsidiary, open an office with a dedicated team to develop US and open a warehouse in the US also to have

of stocks in the US to deliver both our B2B, the stores selling EZPZ, but also our online customers. So we started our subsidiary 18 months ago. Yes, indeed, tariffs, it's a challenge for us. EZPZ, all our products are made in Asia. They are not made in China. They are made in Taiwan.

Ramon Vela (33:39.673)
Hmm.

Charles (33:59.363)
90 % of our products are made in Taiwan. It's a family business with who we work since 13 years now. We have really grown together. We became their biggest customers.

and it's an amazing relationship. It's often this with EZPZ. Every people with who we work, it's mainly or nearly always very long-term relationships and we grow together. So this is a family business mainly handled by women. It's funny, it was the great grandmother, then the grandmother, now it's the mother handling this company.

Ramon Vela (34:21.763)
Mm-hmm.

Ramon Vela (34:31.214)
He

Charles (34:33.78)
So it's made in Taiwan. They ship our products. We ship our products to Europe and now to the US. We have been B Corp certified two years ago.

And we have always worked really hard to make sure we did things in the good way. From the materials we use, how they are produced, how they are shipped, how we work with our team here in Paris, et cetera, et cetera. are certified a great place to work also. It has always been important things for us. So if I say this, it's because we have completely stopped doing air shipments, no more plane shipments now. It's only boat shipments.

Because thanks to that we are emitting two or three times less, how do you say English, per glasses. So this is something we've worked on since many years now. To answer your question about tariffs, yes, our products are made in Asia. So when they arrive in the US, we have to pay tariffs.

Ramon Vela (35:28.335)
Carbon emission.

Charles (35:42.669)
They are not made in China, so it's less tariffs to pay than because it's made in Taiwan.

However, it's a challenge. The thing is, with EZPZ, since the beginning, all our products are affordable. And it's part of our DNA also since the beginning. It's a great product, great design, but affordable prices. Our readers are sold $50. Our sunglasses are sold $60. Our kids' glasses are sold $40. Most of our competitors in the US are sold way more expensive than us. And usually, they are made in China or made in

So for now the decision we have taken is to keep our prices because we consider our prices are good. Of course it will impact our margins that we are taking this risk.

Ramon Vela (36:20.654)
Hmm.

Charles (36:33.494)
We want to keep our prices. We are observing around us who does what. Will our competitors raise their prices or not? Will these tariffs be maintained or not? I think it's a good question also. What I see from Europe is that one day there's tariffs and the following day it's changing that. So our philosophy at EZPZ is to take our time. We observe.

Ramon Vela (36:50.319)
Yeah.

Charles (36:58.571)
Every time when we take a decision, we prefer not to take them in a quick way. So I think it's how we develop the company since the beginning, it's step by step. So for now, no changes.

Ramon Vela (37:05.699)
Mm-hmm.

Ramon Vela (37:10.669)
Yeah, well, and OK, good. Well, and your prices when you go to the Easy Peasy website, the prices are very affordable. actually was that was going to be a comment that I was going to mention later. Easy Peasy dot com is a website. Easy Peasy dot com. I'd like to talk a little bit about the products in a second, but I did want to mention. Well, I want to make a quick comment and then I have a question for you.

Charles (37:19.03)
Yes.

Charles (37:39.895)
Yes.

Ramon Vela (37:39.979)
The comment is that Charles, mentioned about the B Corp. And I just want to mention to people who are listening, because B Corp is really, I think is, it's, it to me is a very special thing that a company does. B Corp is a sort of a certification that you do for those who don't know.

it takes a lot of time, a lot of effort to become a B Corp certified. And it basically is almost as if it's a, and it's not regulated. So it's not like a, it's not something a company has to do. It's something a company wants to do because they feel strongly about how they do business with their employees, with the consumers, with the world. There's sustainability that's involved. There's

employee practices, there's, you know, how you, how you get, you know, materials and your manufacturing plants. It takes all of this stuff in, into consideration. And essentially you are telling the world that you're going to do business this a certain way. And to me, it's very admirable because it's not something you have to do. It's something you want to do, but this is, but this

thing also takes time and there's a cost involved. so this is an extra. And so for me, when I see a company provide this, to do this extra step or this additional step, it just tells me like, wow, that company really walks the walk, really believes in what they're doing and is another way for, I think, consumers to trust you. So, you know,

So if a consumer out there cares about quality products, but they also want to make sure that that company is a good steward in the world, then they should look at someone like yourself who's doing that. so anyhow, that's my comment. I just think it's a big deal. know you kind of mentioned in passing, but for me, it's a big deal because it's not necessary, but you're doing it.

Ramon Vela (39:58.947)
Right. so, and it is, there is a cost involved. So, I think people should realize that. Yeah. So kudos to you. Congratulations. I really love to see that. And it makes me want to support companies like yours even more. So my quick question is before we get into some of the products is, so imagine, know, the, your gratitude story, you mentioned your, your investor, your mentor. Yeah. You know, imagine, you know,

Charles (39:59.99)
is.

And it takes a lot of time also.

Thank you.

Ramon Vela (40:29.347)
him, you are now, what was it, 15 years more experienced than you were back then, right? Or 12 years more experienced than you were back then. You're not, you know, you're not his age probably when you, you know, but he was probably in his six years or whatever, but you have some time, you have experience, you've lived through COVID, you lived through these different experiences. What advice would you give to someone who was where you were, you know, back in 2010?

Charles (40:45.741)
Yes.

Ramon Vela (41:00.579)
Given your experience.

Charles (41:01.934)
It's a good question. It's funny because when we started our company, we three friends with a similar profile. And I remember in my business school, teachers were saying, what is the most important for you? Is it the idea or the team? And at that time, I was not really able to...

to answer and you mentioned it at the beginning of the interview, but our first idea was terrible and if we had stayed with this first idea, our company would have collapsed within 18 months.

But we had this team with my partners. We worked hard and we challenged ourselves to launch new products. And the following products were successful, way more than the first ones. So if I had an advice would be to say, it depends if you launch your company by yourself or if are two, three, four, I think starting and being only one person, it's really hard. Personally, I would have

it would have been impossible for me to start a company being only by myself. I decided to start EZPZ because it was a friendship thing also, apart from an entrepreneurship thing. So I would say take time to select the partners with who you are starting the company because we often say that our partnership is like a wedding. We call ourselves a troupole, a couple of three.

Ramon Vela (42:38.935)
Mm-hmm.

Charles (42:39.267)
because you spend so much time together, especially at the beginning and you have good phases, but you have bad phases also, and you have to be supportive and always together, et cetera. So my advice is take time really to select your partners. And then even if your first product or your first idea doesn't work, it's not a problem.

work on it, challenge yourself and think about the other thing. Maybe it's the second thing which will be successful because one day it will come and maybe it's not the second thing, but it's the third product or the third service you will launch. Believe in yourself, believe in your partners.

Talk a lot about it, be transparent. think this is very important. When there's problems, you have to talk about it. When there's difficulties, you have to talk about it. We spent hours with my partners in a room, the three of us, to express our frustrations, difficulties we were facing, et cetera, et cetera. And I think this is part of the success also, why it worked well, because we have always talked a lot. And being transparent, listen to ourselves.

giving advice, etc. and try to win and lose together. When I say lose, it's face challenges together.

Ramon Vela (43:56.651)
Mm-hmm. Yeah, I love that. I appreciate it. I wonder also if, you know, I don't know if you do this in your course of business and what you do, but do you ever feel like you owe?

because of the experience you had with this gentleman, know, with this investor, do you ever think like, I owe it to talk to other entrepreneurs or younger entrepreneurs or you ever like feel like you want to pay it forward, I guess.

Charles (44:30.851)
We do it now since maybe five or six years, something like that. We are mentors with my partners for other young entrepreneurs, if I may say, or people just starting their company. I try to do it for things I understand and on which I can be helpful.

Ramon Vela (44:42.882)
you

Charles (44:51.981)
With EZPZ, I know products, know distribution, I know marketing, communication, prices. What is a brand, how to develop a brand. We sell our products in more than 80 countries now. We have subsidiaries in many countries in Europe plus US.

So usually it's more when it's a product than a service, for example, and it's more when it's linked to lifestyle, consumer goods, fashion, stuff like that.

This is where I have an added value. So sometimes it's investments we make in companies when people come to us and tell us, I would like you to invest in my company. Sometimes, most of all, it's for free because I'm happy to give back as we had many years ago.

Ramon Vela (45:44.527)
Yeah, I understand it. I always feel like when people who have been so kind to help me and I look back on my life, maybe it's a gratitude thing too. I feel like there's a need to help other folks.

Charles (45:54.143)
Okay.

Ramon Vela (45:59.691)
avoid the mistakes that I've made, you always helpful. So, all right, so let's go to the website. And for those, let's say someone's listening to this really enjoy this conversation, hearing you talk about your gratitude story, but also about your challenges and, and a little bit of the inside marketing and things that you've done within Easy Peasy.

Charles (46:02.196)
You

Charles (46:07.575)
Yes.

Ramon Vela (46:24.937)
Where would you like them to start with their, where would you like them to start their journey with the easy peasy brand? So if we go to the website, and for everyone out there, it's easy peasy.com, easy peasy.com is the website and you have to go there because you, you won't understand what we're saying until you go there because the designs are just amazing. The colors, you know, the shapes, everything.

really, really cool looking glasses. So Charles, where would you like someone to start? I mean, obviously, I guess it depends on who, what age group and who they are and what their, what their likes are. But do you have, do you want to talk high level about maybe how a little bit of how they're made? Is there anything that you want to point out about the, the materials or anything?

sort of like an overview on the classes themselves. Is there anything that you want people to be aware of?

Charles (47:25.463)
Yes, yes.

I think there's the product part and I'll talk about it afterwards. But there's the brand parts and there's a page called Our History, Our Brand, Our Mission, on which we took a lot of time to work on. And we are really transparent since the beginning, explaining how we produce our products, how are they made, which materials we use, how do we deal with our suppliers around the world, how do we work without

team, where is everything coming from, et cetera, et cetera. We have an office in Paris called the Easy-Busy House, which is in the center of Paris. It's a really nice building with a garden, et cetera. You are more than welcome whenever you come to Paris, by the way. And everything is designed here. All our products are designed here. All our stores are designed here. Our pop-ups, kiosks, are designed here. And all the identity and all the branding parts is made here.

here internally. What we don't do here is the production manufacturing parts and logistics of course.

So first of all, if people listening here have time, I would invite them to take time to read our story, how we produce, et cetera. We are sharing our B Corp certifications, our reports, our commitments to reduce our carbon footprint. We have reduced by two our carbon footprints since two years, which was a huge commitment. So we are very proud about it. And we'll continue to do that, our carbon footprints per pair of glasses.

Charles (49:03.845)
is really a commitment we took, no it was not two years ago, it was three years ago, So first of all, all these parts, and then of course discover our products. So it depends how the...

Are you? kind of needs do you have? But at least discover our different ranges, our reading ranges, our sunglasses ranges, our kids ranges, our sports collections. We have a virtual try-on, so we can try and test our glasses, our shapes, our colors pretty easily. And now everything, as I said, is for US customers. We have a warehouse in the US, so they are stocked in the US. So they are delivered within

24, 36 hours, so it's really quick.

You can pay easily and the website is pretty well done also. And you were mentioning nice colors, nice images, et cetera. Yes, we really take care of choosing the models, express our values on our website also. Sunny, smart, simple. This is really our philosophy. Sunny, because we want to bring sun around us. Joy, happiness. This is really the easy peasy.

Simple, because we really try to be simple every day in our relationship.

Charles (50:24.579)
Usually in the fashion industry, people are a bit snob, a bit posh, et cetera. This is really not easy, it's affordable price, easy relationship, et cetera. And smart in the good way, because it's a selective distribution. We work with really nice stores around the world. But it's also smart products, nice quality, nice design, even if the price is very affordable. Honestly, I don't say this because it's my brand, but it's an amazing price ratio quality

Ramon Vela (50:50.073)
Thank

Charles (50:54.665)
twice quality price for the great for quality for the price sorry

Ramon Vela (50:59.341)
Yeah, I agree. I mean, the prices are pretty reasonable here on the website. And I will just say to people, so when you go to the EasyPZ website, it's EasyPZ.com and EasyPZ is spelled I-Z-I-P-I-Z-I.com. EasyPZ. So really simple, EasyPZ. And...

I love the images that you have on the website. Everyone looks so cool. These glasses even make the little kids look cool when they're wearing them. There's an image of a little boy, I think, in a cowboy outfit. And yeah, he looks really cool. It's like, wow, I I want to look that cool. And like I said, the glasses there are really, are really...

Charles (51:33.143)
Okay.

Charles (51:39.351)
Yes.

Yeah. Yes, Yes.

Ramon Vela (51:56.783)
Lots of styles, lots of colors to choose from. I love the clear ones as well. So they're really beautiful. And then of course you have navigation buttons for reading. You've got sun sunglasses. You got glasses for kids. You've got the blue lights. You've got sport glasses. And then of course you've got the accessories and so forth. So it's quite comprehensive in here.

Charles (52:15.319)
Yes. Yes.

Ramon Vela (52:24.341)
In the sport, once you click on some of these navigation buttons, for instance, around sport, you've got different areas like mountaineering and running and cycling, trekking, golf, nautic sports, ski, snowboard goggles, other things, gifts and so forth. So really quite a...

Charles (52:38.967)
Yes.

Ramon Vela (52:48.469)
Quite a and I'm on the website right now. Everyone out there. So if you want to go to easy peasy.com you can take a look but just really beautiful and you're right when I go to the website, it's a very bright sort of happy feeling in terms of the website. The yellow reminds me of the sun and until yeah and then the images are just very clear and it's just right there. So it's hard not to see them really beautiful. Are there any?

Charles (53:07.149)
Yes, it's our corner.

Ramon Vela (53:16.835)
Given, I thank you for what you said, and I appreciate that. Is there any pair or is there any style that is your favorite?

Charles (53:25.185)
Yes, but it depends on for which activity I don't wear reading glasses. Not yet. I look forward to wear reading glasses. I don't have them here, but otherwise I wear the screen collection to protect my eyes from blue light. So when I worked on my computer or when I watch a movie or series on Netflix, etc. So I use a lot our screen collection. My wife wears a lot our sleep.

Ramon Vela (53:31.247)
you

Charles (53:55.141)
It's glasses that help you to better fall asleep at night. You wear them two hours before getting asleep and it helps your brain to produce melatonin you need to fall asleep. And then I use a lot of our sunglasses. I think I have...

20, 30, 40 pairs of our sunglasses, many shapes, many colors. Every time we launch a new collaboration, a new seasonal color, a new capsule, I'm very happy to wear them. These days, I use a lot of our polarized glasses also, which I love.

Ramon Vela (54:17.007)
you

Charles (54:32.811)
And then I love skiing, it's not the season anymore, but this winter I was wearing a lot of glasses to ski. When I run, when I go running, I use the Speed collection, which is a specific shape with specific lenses also adapted for running and bicycling. It really depends on what I do.

Ramon Vela (54:53.945)
Yeah, and you have something for everyone. I'm looking at the sports area and mountaineering and skiing and the designs look pretty cool as well there. And they're all designed for obviously for the purpose. So you have to go and check it out.

Charles (54:57.665)
Yes.

Charles (55:15.459)
So it's really baby, kids, teenagers, adults, men, women, everybody, yes, yes, for all the family.

Ramon Vela (55:22.733)
Yeah. And then you have a face guide there, which kind of helps you determine, I guess, what type of lens or glasses to use. So you've broken down to like round faces and you've got suggestions and square faces and oval faces and everyone has a little bit different. think I have like a circle sort of face, a little pudgy around the cheeks.

Charles (55:47.139)
you

Ramon Vela (55:49.443)
But you everyone has done something different and you kind of do your best here to kind of help people choose the right pair for their face, which is pretty cool. This is amazing. Like I said, everything I'm hearing from you really makes me feel like this is what I refer to as a brand, a product worth buying, a brand worth supporting, because there's so much of what you talked about that I really feel like I really want to support you guys. Not only just

The B Corp, of course, that's a slam dunk, right? I personally believe when company goes B Corp, it puts them into a whole different category, at least in my mind. But it's not just that. I love the idea that you have kept the glasses accessible to people. So the prices are really good. And you're right, I've seen other prices from other companies similar.

Charles (56:39.213)
Yes.

Ramon Vela (56:47.823)
where they're much higher, 20, 30, 40, maybe more dollars above what you're offering. And so for me, that's also pretty cool too, because I think accessibility is great if you can do it. It's not easy because obviously you need to make money, but I really, feel like that's another worthy call out. But Charles, this has been fantastic. I want to be respectful every time. Let's let people know.

where to go, where you want them to go in terms of the website or purchasing or any partners you want to call out. And then of course, maybe your social media or your Instagram. And then any last words you want to leave with the audience.

Charles (57:30.883)
Yes, but easy pc.com of course we have a store locator also on our website where you'll find all stores selling easy pc around the us and around the world depending on where you are In the us we have 500 stores selling easy pc now So it's 500 500 customers, but I think it's more doors. I think it's 650 or 700 doors Because blooming dance has many doors bounds and noble has many doors, etc, etc So you can find

a store selling EZPZ next to you. We hope to open an EZPZ dedicated store probably in New York next week, next year, sorry, 2026. And then we are looking at other cities. It could be Los Angeles, Miami.

I think we could open many stores all around the US, but we'll do that step by step. Then of course, we are on Instagram, we are on Facebook, we are on TikTok. I know how big TikTok and how well-known TikTok is in the US. We are launching a TikTok shop. For now, we are testing it in Europe. And if it's a success, we're launching in US also. So this is a next step for us.

What else I can say? I hope you liked it. Once again, yes, it's a product, but it's a brand behind. It's an amazing team. think it's important to say it. are 220, 230 now in the team between Paris, the US, and other places around the world. We are lucky because we have an amazing team, honestly, really dedicated team, happy to work with EZPZ and to develop EZPZ.

mentioned before, sunny, smart, simple. These are really our values for our products and for our team also. We want to make the difference with our competitors also. We have a lot of competitors and we respect them a lot. But we really believe that EZPZ is a bit special and we want to continue being special like this.

Ramon Vela (59:34.895)
Well, I appreciate you making time and telling us all about the brand and kind of give us an insight story about it. And like I said, I really feel like you guys are a brand, a product worth buying, a brand we're supporting as far as this show is concerned. And I appreciate what you guys do and I love your story and this has been really, really great speaking with you. So thank you so much for your time.

I truly appreciate it. And we're going to make sure to have all those links that you mentioned on our podcast description. And of course, you can find that podcast description on Apple, on Spotify, pretty much anywhere you listen to podcasts. Simply type in the story of a brand show and you should be able to find it. Beyond that, everyone. well, in terms of the website, go visit the website because you got to look at these designs. So you have to see them for yourself. But probably the best thing to do is sign up for their newsletter.

That way you can stay up to date on all the promotions and product launches and events and store openings and all those kind of good things. You'll be able to keep up to date on all of those. So do yourself a favor, go to the website and check that out. Beyond that, everyone stay safe, stay sane, stay healthy. And one last thing, we've all been going through some really difficult times the last five or six years or so with the pandemic and then...

the economy and politics and tariffs and all sorts of crazy stuff going on. Let's just do ourselves a favor and remember that everyone is going through something and let's just be kind to each other. And I know if we can make this human experience a better one, I know that just a little kindness can go a long way. that's what I'll say about that. But beyond that, thank you from the bottom of my heart for listening to another episode of The Story of a Brand.