Meet Stephanie Wiggins | Founder

We had the good fortune of connecting with Stephanie Wiggins and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Stephanie, what do you attribute your success to?
A key factor behind the success of DJANGO (djangobrand.com) is originality. Everything about DJANGO — our unique dog apparel and accessories collection, our brand image, even our popular dog blog— is a reflection of my and my husband’s life, adventures, and travels with our dog Django. We’ve been fortunate to live in some amazing locations throughout the United States: New York City, Oregon, Southern California. Our experiences in these incredible locations have weaved their ways into our designs. There is a story behind every DJANGO product. I think DJANGO fans appreciate this genuineness and consistency.

I designed our popular waxed canvas and leather dog carrier bags, for instance, from my tiny 1-bedroom apartment in NYC. My goal was to create a modern, durable, and functional dog bag that met NYC’s high standards for quality and style.

Our best selling Adventure Dog Harnesses were inspired by our dog Django’s love of the ocean. We were fortunate to live next to one of the most beautiful beaches in San Diego: Windansea. Every evening after work, we’d run down the street to the beach with Django and let him play at the water’s edge until the sun set. DJANGO harnesses are made with premium and water-repellent neoprene, super soft custom webbing, and solid cast brass hardware. They are purposefully engineered for water play, rough play, and everyday wear.

What should our readers know about your business?
As mentioned before, the originality and quality of DJANGO products definitely set us apart from others. We pour a lot of resources into new products to ensure they are both thoughtfully constructed and unlike anything you’ve seen before.

Our newest design, for example, is a high qualiy dog walking fanny pack called the Nolita Belt Bag. Technically, the Nolita Belt Bag wasn’t designed only for dog parents.  Rather, we intentionally designed the Nolita Belt Bag to be a beautiful accessory for anyone with street style. With that said, every feature of the Nolita Belt Bag was designed with dog parents in mind!

The sleek and stylish fanny pack features a spacious main compartment that is large enough to hold an iPhone, passport, dog leash, small dog toys… even a standard water bottle. This roomy compartment also has a smaller zipper pocket and secure key clip. Several other pockets offer additional storage options for organization and safe stashing. Even the back pocket is thoughtfully designed. Its discreet poop bag holder and dispenser also doubles as a headphone portal.

What are we most excited about? Continuing to grow out our collection! We’re working on new designs all the time and can’t wait to introduce them to our passionate, dog loving customers. We’re also excited to continue growing our wholesale business (django.faire.com) this year. You can already find DJANGO products in many brick-and-mortar pet boutiques throughout the United States, United Kingdom, and European Union. We look forward to being in more and more pet stores near you in the coming months.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
We were in New York City for several years and very recently relocated to New Jersey during the pandemic. If a friend were visiting us in NYC and up for anything, we’d start the day with some coffee to-go and an early morning walk in Central Park with Django. The park is so beautiful in the early morning, and dogs are allowed off leash before 9am each day. After the morning stroll, we’d take our friend to an outdoor (and dog-friendly) cafe for brunch. The afternoon would probably consist of walking around the West Village, stopping for a snack and glass of wine (Buvette is a personal favorite for this), then walking along the beautiful Hudson River Greenway. We’d rest up before dinner and go to a neighborhood gem and old favorite of mine, something like Casa Mono in Gramercy. Then we’d head downtown for drinks and possibly end up at a karaoke bar. You never know where a night in NYC will take you!

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
Shoutout to my husband and best friend Mike. We met right after college when we were both in finance and unsure of where life would take us. He supported me when I left my career in financial sales and launched DJANGO shortly thereafter.

I also want to give a shoutout to my adorable dachshund, Django. I would never have started on this journey if it wasn’t for his adventurous lil self!

Website: https://djangobrand.com

Instagram: @djangobrand

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/liakos/

Facebook: https://facebook.com/djangothegent and facebook.com/djangodoggear

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHOKTVffTVj46N0pj2GIlXQ

Other: https://instagram.com/djangothegent https://www.pinterest.com/djangobrand