Adam Baker, CEO of SodaPup

Adam Baker: SodaPup was founded in October 2013 in my basement, and I launched as a rubber toy brand with only one design, a treat dispenser in the shape of a soda can. We did everything we could to make ourselves look bigger than we really were. We made the Can toy in four sizes and three different rubber compounds and five colors. Molds are very expensive, so we had to stretch the Can toy molds as far as we possibly could.

Since those early days we have expanded into nylon chew toys for dogs and also a wide range of enrichment products, from lick mats to slow feeder bowls, as well as a number of other enrichment-related products. We have also extended our product into treats that can be used with our products, including baked goods to put in our treat dispensers and, most recently, a range of peanut butter flavors that work great with our lick mats.

Adam Baker, CEO of SodaPup

Baker: SodaPup focuses on three types of products: rubber dog toys, nylon dog toys and enrichment products. At our core, we are an enrichment company. Even many of our rubber and nylon toys have an enrichment functionality to them.

In terms of rubber toys, we make treat dispensers, chew toys, tug toys, retrieving toys and flyers. Our most popular rubber designs are our treat dispensers, like the Honey Pot, the Coffee Cup and the Cupcake. Food-related designs always do well for us.

We took a very different approach with our nylon dog toys. We like to say that we “think outside the bone.” Since dogs don’t show a preference for bone shapes, and since there are many brands already making nylon bones, we decided to make our nylon toys in novelty shapes like electric guitars and snowflakes. Then, we took it a step further by creating designs with textured surfaces that you could spread soft foods into. In other words, we created a totally new type of nylon toy that is not only a chew toy, but also a licking/enrichment toy. Our most popular designs are the Peanut, the Butterfly and the Starfish. All of these designs have “treat pockets” where you can spread soft foods.

Finally, we’ve been very focused on the enrichment category for the past several years, and this category is exploding around the globe. We started with novel lick-mat designs, and then created a new product called an Ecoin, which is a durable licking device. Then, we created a shallow slow feeder bowl called an Etray, and finally created our first couple of slow feeder bowls. We’re [a] product of the fun and functionality that we’ve brought to the enrichment category—giving consumers far more choices than they’ve ever had. Our best-sellers in this category are our Jigsaw Design lick mats, our Mandala Etray and our Honeycomb Ebowl.

I believe we are successful for a few reasons. First and foremost, the designs are fun and unique and speak to our target consumers. They are also well made and last a long time. They’re produced in the USA, and they’re made from [U.S. Food & Drug Administration] FDA-compliant materials. These products are designed to satisfy both sides of the consumer’s brain: the analytical/practical side of the brain and also the creative/emotional side of the brain.

Baker: Canine enrichment is growing around the world, and we’re seeing more and more of it in the USA thanks to social media that helps spread new ideas at lightening speed. As a result of this growing interest from consumers, we are focusing on making new and different enrichment toys. Our newest rubber treat dispenser, the Honey Pot, has an open top that allows consumers to fill it with food and broth, like a cup. This product has been very popular, so we’re further evaluating this product development path. Similarly, nylon products like our Peanut and Butterfly—which are licking toys, as well as chewing toys—have also been very popular. So, we are exploring new designs that have this functionality. The key to success, we’ve found, is to create a design that will somehow “hook” a consumer emotionally while also providing great value for the dog.

Baker: The creative process starts with the consumer. Prior to joining the pet industry, I worked for apparel and footwear brands (Nike, Under Armour, Crocs), and at those companies, I learned to put the consumer at the center of everything we do. At the end of the day, we are creating products for people, and those products have to work great for dogs. Since not all dog owners are alike, it’s important to segment them into logical subsets that are easier to define and understand. From there, we design different products to appeal to different types of consumers.

For instance, we have a toy collection called USA-K9. It’s red, white and blue, and the designs are inspired by military objects. The flagship product in that collection is a grenade chew and reward toy. Many retailers would never carry the Grenade Chew Toy because their customer would not be drawn to it. They might even be offended by it. But this product sells incredibly well to men of a certain age, as well as to professional K9 handlers in law enforcement, security, search and rescue, and the military. Retailers located near military bases do very well with this product.

By contrast, the SodaPup brand is designed for an entirely different demographic. With this brand, our inspiration comes more from food, nature and graphic design. It has a completely different feeling to it.

SodaPup stands for “dog love,” and we recognize that dogs’ love looks different to a suburban mom with kids and a family pet than it does to a duck hunter on the Delmarva Peninsula. To truly be an inclusive brand, we need to understand and embrace the differences between different types of consumers.

In a nutshell, our inspiration comes from our consumers. As we gain a deeper understanding of who they are, it helps us understand the types of things they like—and that leads us down different design paths.

Baker: Being made in the USA is a pillar of the SodaPup brand. Whereas some brands produce some of their products in the USA, we produce everything in the USA. We do this for many reasons. First, we believe it’s the right thing to do. If we can find a way to produce things here in the U.S., we should do it because it creates jobs in our communities as well as tax revenue that support our communities. Domestic manufacturing is a better choice from an environmental standpoint. Since the U.S. is our largest market, producing where we sell rather than shipping goods halfway around the world to save a few cents reduces our carbon footprint. It also reduces our transportation costs. USA manufacturing also shortens lead times and allows us to build inventory on a just-in-time basis. We also have greater visibility and control over the manufacturing process because auditing factories is easier.

Finally, and most importantly, both retailers and consumers prefer USA-made products—for many of the reasons listed above: They want to support businesses that help build the American economy. They want to buy products that they believe are well made and safe for their dogs. Given all the supply chain challenges of the past couple of years, domestic manufacturing has also led to a reliable supply of inventory when other brands have struggled to get inventory from overseas.

Baker: Safety is a top-three consideration for most pet parents, so it is at the top of our list as well. The safety of dog toys boils down to two things: the material that the toy is made of and the design of the toy itself. In terms of materials, SodaPup exclusively uses FDA-compliant materials so that they are completely safe to be in your dog’s mouth and to be in contact with food as well. Our materials are also formulated for superior tear strength. By engineering more durable materials, we simultaneously increase the safety of the toy.

In terms of toy designs, we try to create shapes that are highly durable. While there is always a small percentage of dogs that destroy everything, if you purchase the right size SodaPup toy for your dog, it should last a long time. We have a very fast cadence of new product creations. We introduce new products every month and, in some cases, even more frequently than that. The benefit of constantly introducing new designs is that we are constantly learning from past designs and iterating quickly to best practices so that new toys perform even better than the last.

Baker: Independent retailers play an absolutely essential role. They are the true leaders in the industry. The reality of big-box retailers and the largest online pet retailers is that they are slow moving and risk averse. When a retailer tries to please everyone, it leads to safe choices that are often uninteresting and unchanging. But the reality of retail, particularly in the e-commerce era, is that you need to surprise and delight consumers if you want to keep them coming back for more. Independent pet retailers have the ability to make decisions quickly. They can tailor their assortments to their specific clientele, and they have the incentive and the ability to take risks by trying new things. Without independent pet retail, the industry would stagnate. The No. 1 way for independent pet retailers to thrive in the face of competition with big-box is to be more nimble and more adventurous. By being early adopters of new ideas, they will always have an edge over their larger competitors.

SodaPup supports pet specialty in a number of ways. First, we have limited distribution, focused on pet specialty. Second, we maintain a [minimum advertised price] MAP policy across all channels. Third, we introduce new products every month, so there are always exciting new products to flow through their assortment to keep customers coming back again and again and help brick-and-mortar retailers compete against the “endless assortment” found online. Our broad product offering also helps independent retailers tailor their assortment to their unique clientele. Unlike some brands that look the same everywhere, the breadth of the SodaPup offering allows SodaPup assortments to look different for different retailers. Finally, when a retailer buys direct from SodaPup, they get 10 percent off wholesale all the time plus free shipping over $35, which is typically worth 10 percent of order value. Our everyday discounted pricing enables retailers to have better margins all the time.

Baker: We are a small team where everyone plays an outsized role in the success of the company. What’s amazing is that a band of ordinary folks can achieve extraordinary results when they are bound together by a common vision and purpose. I am so grateful that all of our teammates love SodaPup and make big contributions to our success.

Charleen Adams runs our warehouse and manages all of our warehouse staff. She is a stalwart at SodaPup, making sure orders go out quickly and accurately. She also somehow remembers and celebrates everyone’s birthdays.

Val Kroeker runs our accounting department. Aside from being incredibly diligent in everything having to do with our finances and inventory, she also has an amazing sense of humor that keeps us all laughing.

Jason Bott was our first employee, and though he is no longer employed by SodaPup, he still does all of our CAD [computer-aided design] design. He brings my crazy ideas to life. I think Jason has probably designed more dog toys in the last decade than anyone else in the pet industry. Jason is a real renaissance man, combining the technical skills of computer-aided design with a real eye for design.

Baker: Our mission is to be the leader in the injection-molded dog toy and enrichment categories. Our strategy is to combine thought-leading design with domestic manufacturing and a fast cadence of new product introductions to generate and sustain consumer interest in our brand. Our goal is to get people to fall in love with SodaPup because of what we make and what we stand for.

Although it sounds a bit old fashioned, we believe in organic growth because it is the healthiest and most sustainable type of growth there is. Without debt and investors to answer to, we are happy to grow the business at a rate that allows us to remain true to what we stand for. Having said that, we have experienced quite a bit of growth in the past several years and now sell directly and through a network of 27 distributors around the world. Roughly half of our sales come from outside of the U.S., and those international businesses are seeing rapid growth. We are looking to expand our U.S. business in 2023. Strangely enough, we have no sales team calling on accounts, so all of our growth has come from retailers and distributors approaching us to sell our products. The visibility we’ve received from social media platforms has made that possible.

Baker: Our philanthropic efforts focus on three areas. First and foremost, we focus on product donations to animal shelters in need. We donate almost daily to a wide range of 501c3 animal shelters across the USA.

We also donate quarterly to Military Working Dog Team Support Association (MWDTSA). This organization sends care packages to military K9 handlers and their K9 partners serving at home and abroad each quarter. My first career was as an officer in the Coast Guard, so we are committed to giving back to those who serve.

In 2021 and 2022, we also worked with the Susan G. Komen organization to raise money for the cure for breast cancer. We selected several pink products and contributed a portion of the sales of those products.

Also, in 2022 we made donations to the International Committee of the Red Cross that has been working directly in Ukraine to help ease the suffering resulting from that terrible and unnecessary war.

Baker: They say that the best predictor of future behavior is past behavior, so what you can expect from us is the unexpected. We will continue to launch new designs at a fast pace, and we will do our best to completely surprise consumers with designs that they fall in love with and have to buy, even if they don’t really need more.

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