About fifteen years ago, the zealously enterprising Mia Galison sat in the corner of a sales rep’s booth at The New York Gift Show. Her entire “line” consisted of three different kinds of packaged cookie cutters: Garden Bugs, Monsters, and a Solar System Set showing how to decorate the cookies with icing so they looked like the planets. “I manufactured in rural Pennsylvania in this funny little factory with Rube Goldberg machines operated by ladies who tied their dogs to their chairs.” Her fledgling company was called eeBoo. (See story in Shopping Around for products).
This was eeBoo’s first outing. A lot depended on its reception. All 3500 pieces of the Garden Bugs were bought by a single catalog completely wiping out the debt incurred by her first foray. “I’ve never been conservative about making stuff. I don’t make things unless I really like them.”
Mia Galison was born and raised in a creative household on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Her parents sisters, who met in art school, introduced them. Mia’s father was a painter. The children were encouraged to be creative. “My father didn’t want us to have coloring books.” The whole Galison family painted huge murals on rolls of brown Kraft paper before each holiday.
Graduating from childhood art projects, Mia sewed and sold skirts made out of old jeans when she was in high school, baked muffins for the flagship Silver Palate store on Columbus Avenue and hand crafted jewelry. The freewheeling Hampshire College taught her “discipline above all else.”
Before founding eeBoo, her many visually oriented occupations have included photo research for documentary films and textbooks and running the Gift Division of Stewart, Tabori, Chang Publishers. On and off, Mia worked at her father’s then museum-centric company, Galison Books, finding paintings and photographs out of which to make paper-based gifts. In 1993, desirous of more creative control, she founded the MUDPUPPY division with licensed art from children’s books. She also took the company into domestic and green production beginning with soy-based ink.
Success with cookie cutters enabled Mia to think about adding additional SKUs, but not yet about quitting her job with STC. Against popular advice, she moved on to polar fleece hats and vests. Her choice was partially inspired by news stories about the plight of Malden Mills Industries of Lawrence, Massachusetts, the original manufacturer of Polartec polar fleece.
The Malden Mills Factory burned down on December 11, 1995. Aaron Feuerstein, its CEO decided not only to use his insurance money to rebuild, but also to continue paying the salaries of all his now unemployed workers. Mia admired Feuerstein and booked her production with Malden. “It was a way to do something that was tied to American manufacturing. I’d make a couple hundred at a time, sell that and make more.” eeboo’s first mass produced paper items were sets of laminated cardboard stacking blocks. She was still working out of her apartment.
The company now supports ten office employees, all women. Much of the art is freelanced out; sales reps are independent. Located in a comfy, custom renovated loft on the ground floor of an old Upper West Side building, the “vibe” is friendly and calm. Solid, secondhand furniture creates scattered work stations under skylights. Staff comes and goes as they please as long as the telephone gets answered and business is conducted in a timely fashion. “I don’t like overseeing employees. Everyone here is a chief.” A full time customer service person works out of the Massachusetts warehouse. There’s a studio downstairs for Saxon Freymann, Mia’s artist/photographer husband, who contributes to the business as well as pursuing his own projects.
eeBoo products share a distinctive look and definite point of view, despite utilizing the talent of varied illustrators. There’s clearly one visionary at the helm. “I like old fashioned, wholesome playthings, nothing plastic, nothing that makes noise, except perhaps bells.” Mia approved when her own three children played together or with others; when they made things, not from kits, but with crayons, paper or popsicle sticks. She discouraged television=being lead by “a device.” The eeBoo line is based on interaction and the development of young imaginations. “Our slogan, which we don’t really use is: get down on the floor and play (with your kids.)”
Though potential earnings would be considerable, Mia has chosen not to work with big box stores. She feels very loyal to her relationships with 4500 small, often struggling stores. Nor does she want to spend nights in her office worrying about money and logistics when she could be taking time off to be with her kids. Her priorities have always been very clear.
Mia Galison is a woman whose values and beliefs are consistent throughout every aspect of her life. Eeboo is as green as she can make it. Suggestions from sales reps and customers alike are thoughtfully considered. A woman from the Midwest wrote to say she so enjoyed lacing cards when she was a girl and could find none for her granddaughter. Encouraging Mia to do market research is like encouraging a fish to swim. Result: a small group of traditional sewing cards. “They’re not a huge seller, but they sell.” Nor does the company advertise. At all. “We’re an anomaly.”
eeBoo is not swayed by trends; it cultivates perennials. When Mia decided to create a set of flash cards to teach reading, an educational specialist working for The State of Connecticut was hired to consult. The Read to Me line is designed to help children grow accustomed to the look of letters and the use of words. There are even picture bingo sets in French and Spanish, packaged with printed definitions and pronunciation guides. ‘Never out of date.
Mia was a tomboy growing up and so, she says, is sensitive to gender assignment. Offering only unisex product is, however, unfeasible. Because there are grandmothers, mothers, and little girls who want girly stuff, some is included, though her fairies are “not princesses, they’re like little creatures that fly around.” You won’t find anything ballet themed. “I’m doing my best, going as far as my comfort level will let me go.”
The most expensive product in the current catalog is a set of Alphabet Wall Cards: A-Z theme decorated cards that make wonderful classroom, playroom or bedroom decorations, retail $25. Mia feels her niche is providing “nice, safe, attractive educational toys at about $20 or under. I’m not looking to make the maximum amount of money on something.” She means it. As protective of her staff as she is of the integrity of her line, she’s forgone expansion until the market stabilized in order to keep them all.
“I’m not a businessy businessy person. I don’t have a ten year plan. I’d like to spend time with my family and keep eeBoo small so I don’t get distracted…I’d like the company to grow at the rate it’s been growing, about 15 percent.” Despite a couple of bumpy years, sales are steadily climbing. Mia still enjoys product development most of all. For the new playing cards, she researched back to the 1920s. Recently, she spent weeks and weeks comparing pipe cleaners from all over the world for upcoming packages of art and craft supplies. Honestly.
eeBoo is an old fashioned company based on traditional values, accessible aesthetics, creativity and soft sell education. You can depend on the quality and research behind its products in the same way you could depend on Mia in the PTA or on the Zoning Board.
And her family has flourished.
What about the name eeBoo? Before Mia settled on MUDPUPPY while still at Galison Books, she found everything they came up with was already taken: The Happy Turtle, The Jumping Dolphin, Jumping Jacks…She knew the name of the new venture must be completely original. Her first thought was Hibou, which is owl in French, but there was concern people would pronounce it every which way. “So we went to E and B for the sounds. It’s fun with the big B.” (This was before ecommerce and eBay.) Thus, eeBoo.
Woman Around Town’s Six Questions
Favorite Place to Eat: Max Soha on 123rd and Amsterdam—inexpensive Italian and really good; a Galician place called Raizor on 16th between Sixth & Seventh to which we’ve been going 20 years; and Awash on 107th and Amsterdam—Ethiopian.
Favorite Place to Shop: I really don’t shop new. For everything else, the 26th Street Flea Market
Favorite New York Sight: Bethesda Fountain
Favorite New York Moment: Finally seeing this office cleared out down to its original state. When we came in, it was so disgusting—there were bugs all over the place. The original and windows were walled in. We spent five months working on it. It was a turn of the century ballroom-right here, a block from my parents, near where my kids go to school…all this space right here in Manhattan.
What You Love About New York: All the people in this office, to come to work and have all these people working with me.
What You Hate About New York: The dirty secret of the classist and segregated public schools. Education can really suck here for people who don’t have lots of money.
Photos, from top:
Mia with her husband, Saxon Freymann
Mia
Mia with designer Fumiha Tanaka
Mia in her office
Mia with her children, (left to right), Elodie, Finn, Mia and Eyck
