Gabriel Hargett is a native Mobilian, but spent most of his growing-up days on Mobile Bay at Point Clear. An avid mountain biker, fisherman, and all-around good guy, Gabriel’s tale has lots of twists and turns but is always forward. It’s an impressive story that just gets better and better every day.

Growing up on Mobile Bay, Gabriel was never idle. He was either riding or fixing bikes while in high school, or doing something on the water… anything really to pass the time and entertain himself and his friends. Whether its from a pier, a boat, or the beach, he is a passionate fisherman and still is.

After high school, Gabriel and his twin sister, Christina, entered Brevard College located in the small town with the same name an hour or so south of Asheville, NC at the edge of the Pisgah National Forest. The town of Brevard and the College is known as a hub for outdoor adventure. While Christina earned her degree in Wilderness and Experiential Education, school life wasn’t for Gabriel, and he left for Asheville, NC to see what he could find.

He started working in one of the many bicycle shops in Asheville repairing bikes and taking advantage of the prime mountain bike trails in the area. A hard worker who loved fixing and making things, it wasn’t long before he was recruited to work with a prosthetics manufacturer. It seems a lot of the same components that go into high-tech bikes also go into prosthetics, so it was a natural transition, especially for someone geared to understand how these things work.

Gabriel purchased a house in Asheville that needed renovation and built a basement workshop for his collection of bikes. In the prosthetics manufacturing process, leather is used often and there were always scrapes of leather laying around. One day he brought home a few of these scrapes and began playing around with creating a leather sleeve for a pint glass.

Asheville was the mecca for the budding craft beer industry, and the environment was ripe for something unusual to keep your beer cold while being enjoyed. His leather pint sleeves were a hit with local breweries and the orders started coming in. Soon, Gabriel couldn’t keep up with demand, so he left his real job and started Oowee Products. What began as an experiment in 2009 when he was 26 years old is now a thriving leather products company with 17 full-time employees.

The only common denominator between now and then is trying to keep up with demand. The original Pint Glass Sleeve is patented and is one of his biggest sellers. Oowee Products now works with national brands like Pendleton Whiskey, Budweiser, LL Bean, Cannoli Tools, and Ace Hardware making leather promotional products. He just picked up a large order for leather logo patch hats for Jimmy Johns Sandwich Shops.

A lot of Oowee Products' more than 60 product offerings today (with variations of each product) are for the corporate promotional and incentive market. They just attended three of the country’s largest trade shows in January. These are generally products with custom logos for corporate gift giveaways, employee recognition gifts, and awards sold through nationwide specialty advertising companies.

Oowee Products does a robust Direct to Consumer e-commerce business as well. These are more custom orders with personalized names and messaging. “Anything that you give to someone as a present,” said Gabriel. They sell through their website, Amazon and Etsy. Think weddings, graduations, and Father’s Day. This requires more gift packaging as they are generally given as a present.

In 2019, Gabriel started focusing on the wholesale side of the business. “This market is more about selling items with generic imprints on leather. We picked up a couple of hundred new accounts that are brick-and-mortar, like Mast General Stores and Ace Hardware  Stores.

“We get email orders all day long,” he says. “My next challenge is to work on our order processing to streamline and make it more efficient.” Gabriel is quick to say, “We are still a small business. We’ve always grown organically.” He started Oowee Products with three employees while working a full-time job. “It’s been exciting every step of the way.”

In 2011, he outgrew his basement and leased his first space in an old Burlington Factory converted into a business park on the French Broad River. “Since that first space, we’ve moved within that building twice, then purchased a 4500 sf building in 2018 where we are now, and have already outgrown the space we’re in, so I’m trying to figure where we will go next.”

From the very beginning, Gabriel decided to run a business based on ethical manufacturing principles. In 2011 he contacted the Autism Society of North Carolina to employ adults on the autism spectrum. “I can’t say enough good things about our partnership with the Autism Society. We provide employment for an underappreciated community of adults with autism that needs jobs and often has a very difficult time finding employment.” The nonprofit provides transportation for its employees to and from work and provides a job coach. “It has been an unbelievable relationship and I try to support the Autism Society every way I can.”

Once he had reliable employees through this partnership with the Autism Society, he was able to expand the product offerings and grow the company. “As we grew, I was able to purchase better equipment,” he said. Oowee Products averaged 20% growth per year and has been on a slow and steady growth model throughout the last 13 years. “I prefer to invest in people.” Last year’s growth was a whopping 40%, and 2023 is off to a great start.

Today Oowee Products sells custom leather goods in three different markets. Direct to consumers, wholesale, and through the promotional products industry. Oowee fulfills orders daily for everything from one custom leather wallet or belt for your dad’s birthday to thousands of custom items for your retail store or promotional giveaway.

Most bulk custom orders ship in three to five weeks and they turn around individual retail orders in about a week. Ooweeproducts.com offers a wide range of direct-to-consumer leather gifts made to order, as well as more information about the company and its autism employment program. Gabriel just launched a second website, ooweeleatherpromo.com to serve the personal products and incentives gift market. 

After catching up on the business side of Oowee Products, the conversation shifted to the Scenic 98 Coastal area. “Mobile Bay and the Gulf Coast is a big part of me,” he says. “It’s good for the mind and the soul.” Gabriel says he misses hanging around the bay and comes as often as possible with Jamie and his son Weston to see family and friends. Plan to do some fishing, though, “I love throwing the cast net, and catching crabs. I like having enough time to watch the tides, pay attention to the weather, and just be on the water.”

“What the Mobile River Delta has to offer is amazing!” He goes on to say, “The Scenic 98 Coastal area is a special place.” He likes what we are doing with the newsletter. “Getting involved with the community is important, but you have to have an audience to have a voice.” We couldn’t agree more.

Thank you, Gabriel, for walking the walk. Your story is truly inspirational and amazing!

Posted 
Feb 15, 2023
 in 
People & Business Profiles
 category

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