OHIO — As concerns continue to stir surrounding tariffs and price increases, Spectrum News 1 took a closer look inside one military spouse owned company that puts American-made good at the forefront with a bigger purpose.
“These just came from the warehouse,” said Lisa Bradley as she unboxed a new purse.
Bradley is the CEO and co-founder of the handbag company R.Riveter.
Bradley’s husband served in the US Army and their family moved 13 times.
“My co-founder and I were having difficult times finding jobs as military spouses. We would go to interview after interview and you could just see people putting our resumes at the bottom of the pile because they knew that we move so much. They could see it right there on the paper. We said enough is enough,” she said.
What started as a small sewing operation in an attic in Georgia in 2011 has exploded into a production with the purpose of helping to provide employment and empowerment to fellow military spouses.
“Now we’re a national network of military spouses across the country who plug into our distributing and manufacturing model. Even to today, we have our signature line is made by military spouses across the country on what they can do from a home sewing machine and they send those parts to us in Florida where we assemble all of the products,” Bradley said.
Every single product includes an item made by a military spouse.
“We send kits out to their homes and they’re able to make the liners from home and they actually stamp the liner that they make with a riveter number and that’s a throw back to Rosie the Riveter and really being able to know where your products come from,” Bradley said.
“I think the most important part to us is that the bag lasts and it’s something she can count on and it makes sense for her every day life,” said Director of Marketing Christene Logesky.
R.Riveter’s flagship store is in North Carolin near Fort Bragg, while manufacturing takes place in Central Florida.
More than 30 military spouses make up the remote team across the country.
“It’s really triple American-made. There’s really nothing else like it where we’re sending parts literally across the country in order to provide job opportunities,” Bradley said.
“Every one of our bags has a name and it’s named after a woman in history. So this is the Whittle, we have the Dot, we have Elinor Otto. Every bag we make sure you get the name card inside of it and it tells the story of her and how she was a landscape changer,” Logesky said.
Spouses also make candles, jewelry, and accessories.
The team sells thousands of bags a month and customers can even get creative.
“If you have a uniform or maybe a jacket that your dad wore, you can send in that material to our riveter and we’ll make a custom handbag out of it,” Bradley said.
For Bradley, being able to give a gift of empowerment and purpose makes it all worth it.
“In a lot of our life’s biggest moments we always have a handbag next to us so that’s really why we chose handbags and it’s really neat to be able to create a product that people are emotionally connected to and it’s very fulfilling,” she said.
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