JUNO TALKS with Alexander Hein
From Kindergarten to the Meeting Room – the backpacks from the Cologne-based companies baesiq and FOND OF accompany us through half of our lives. We talk with Alex Hein about how to build five successful brands in the backpack and bag industry within just a few years – including the stylish urban brands AEVOR and pinqponq.
Alexander Hein is B2B Corporate Sales Manager at AEVOR and pinqponq.
FOND OF has built five successful brands centered around bags and backpacks in just a few years. How did it all start?
It all began with the brand ergobag in 2010. Four founders had the idea at a party: children have to carry huge and heavy school bags, while adults use ergonomically optimized and padded backpacks. ergobag solved this problem and was already producing sustainably back then, using materials like recycled PET bottles. From the beginning, we focused on close relationships with specialized retailers because the topic was highly emotional and required extensive consultation, which is still the case today.
The founders were all business graduates. How did they know so much about backpacks?
The founders refined the idea together with a physical therapist. They also sought expertise in product design. We quickly learned a lot from reviews and feedback from retailers and customers, allowing us to clearly define use cases, like where the water bottle should go, where the reflectors should be placed, and the best spot for pens. It quickly became practical and well-rounded. Functionality, alongside ergonomics, was one of the success factors for ergobag and the other brands.
After ergobag, you launched a new brand of school backpacks almost every year. Couldn’t you have covered this field with just one brand?
Early on, we had the vision of “From Baby to Business”—having the right backpack for every age group. That’s why after ergobag, we launched the brand satch for the time after elementary school, and the brand Affenzahn for kindergarten. Around 2014, we started our lifestyle brands: pinqponq for Gen Y and AEVOR for Gen Z.
The owners of these brands are FOND OF and baesiq GmbH. Can you tell us something about these two companies?
Until 2020, there was no speed limit on our growth. However, the COVID-19 period brought challenges that made a new sales structure and corporate organization necessary. This led to a split: FOND OF is home to the children’s brands Affenzahn, ergobag, and satch, while baesiq is responsible for the lifestyle brands AEVOR and pinqponq.
What distinguishes the two lifestyle brands, AEVOR and pinqponq?
AEVOR stands for urban mobility, community, and a clear attitude. The brand supports people in being active, both physically and mentally, in line with our motto “Encourage Movement.” You can find us in specialty stores like Blue Tomato and Sportscheck. The products are high-quality but priced below pinqponq. pinqponq, on the other hand, stands for functionality, aesthetics, and sustainability. Our products target a more mature audience, with a clear, timeless design, and are bought by people who consciously choose this style. It’s positioned more in the premium segment, comparable to brands like Sandqvist and Carhartt.
What feeling do the two brands convey?
pinqponq used to stand for balance. However, we realized that wasn’t easily explainable, so we decided on a 2024 relaunch with the new concept “all in,” which better aligns with our understanding and market position.
What does “all in” stand for?
It means that your backpack can accompany you both to the office and to the mountains. It’s a lifestyle of flexibility and versatility. This allows us to meet different needs without requiring a new backpack for every situation, supporting sustainability in the process. We’re also focusing more on topics like New Work. How do I move around? Do I work remotely or in a hybrid setting? We want to answer these questions with “all in.” This image might describe the “all-in lifestyle” well: You see a person in a split-screen image with a pinqponq backpack, standing in front of both a waterfall and a traffic light in the city. You can move between different worlds, look good, and be fully equipped functionally. You go to work, have your work laptop with you, and on the way back, you have your sports gear in it. It’s always the same backpack, no matter what you’re doing. “All in” is also more emotional. Anyone who has traveled with a backpack knows what it means to look at that backpack and say, “Hey, I’ve been everywhere with this. It’s with me no matter what I do.”
What feeling does AEVOR convey?
It’s a lot about movement and community exchange. One example is our presence on TikTok, where we encourage people to express their creativity. We’re very successful with that.
The backpack market also includes outdoor brands like Deuter or VAUDE. Are you approaching them with “all in,” or how do you differentiate yourselves?
Our base is lifestyle. Our terrain is the Urban Jungle. The outdoor brands you mentioned are very focused on performance and functionality. If someone wants to go on a demanding hike, they might choose a Deuter backpack. But for a city trip to Barcelona that includes a hike in the surrounding mountains, they’re more likely to pick a pinqponq or AEVOR. Our products are designed for people who want to feel comfortable in both the city and nature.
What other brands are in your competitive environment?
Kapten & Son, Got Bag, and Carhartt. Many of them are also strong in retail, while others have successfully expanded from e-commerce into the physical market. I’m now more involved in corporate business, so I don’t have every competitor analysis in my head.
What are you doing in the corporate sector?
Many companies want to equip their employees with our products and put their brand on them. After receiving more and more requests, we professionalized the process and are proactively entering this market. It helps that we publish a CSR report every year and meet all the sustainability requirements of the CSRD and the EU Green Deal. This transparency and the corresponding KPIs are a huge help because corporations have to prove everything.
In the near future, EU guidelines like the Empowering Consumer and Green Claims Directive will likely be passed, preventing misleading information about sustainability. Does that make you nervous?
We have valuable partnerships, like bluesign and Green Button, that ensure compliance with regulations in the supply chain. We ensure that as few emissions as possible are generated, not just on paper but also through regular on-site visits and monitoring. The FAIR WEAR Foundation in the Netherlands takes care of social aspects like working conditions and hours. They regularly audit us and ensure we maintain our standards. We’ve been recognized as a leader by the Fair Wear Foundation for five consecutive years. So, the regulations don’t make us nervous; on the contrary, we welcome the market’s move towards greater transparency.
Do you think your end customers read through the entire CSR report before buying a backpack from you?
I think many would have been satisfied if we had just written “PETA Approved” and “made from recycled PET bottles” and simply said we’re sustainable. But that’s not enough for us! Retailers like Bergfreunde or Avocado Store wouldn’t have accepted that either. They only carry brands that meet certain criteria. We’ve always fully invested in sustainability with all our brands to be clean and authentic. That’s part of our identity. But of course, it also helped our image when we won the German Sustainability Award in 2016.
What should you consider when launching a new brand? What should be avoided?
There’s no fixed concept that always works. We’ve found that flexibility and adaptability are crucial. The most important thing is to stay alert, stay close to the market and your customers, and then be able to react quickly. That’s why we rely on an omnichannel strategy that combines both the online world and brick-and-mortar retail.
How do you manage to bring brands to market quickly?
The art of a fast market entry lies in a strong sales structure and training. Initially, we used existing retail structures to place our products. However, it doesn’t work without training. You can’t just introduce a new brand and expect it to succeed without support. With AEVOR, we entered the market in the first few years by using the existing structures of leather goods retailers who were already selling school bags. We offered training and built long-term relationships with the retailers, instead of just focusing on short-term gains.
So both brands wouldn’t have been as successful without brick-and-mortar retail?
E-commerce has developed strongly, and we now sell the majority online. But brick-and-mortar retail remains crucial. Many people want to see and touch the backpacks and get advice, especially with school backpacks.
Do you get regular feedback from the retailers?
Yes, for example, during the spring and fall collections. We’re constantly in contact and talk to the sales staff on-site. That way, we stay close to the action.
How do you get feedback from end customers?
We regularly conduct surveys managed by our online team to systematically collect feedback on customer satisfaction.
You also regularly analyze the development of the brands, right?
Yes, we constantly monitor how our brands are developing. We analyze brand image, awareness, and other typical brand KPIs. We also look at what other brands are doing well and consider how we can translate those insights into our own brand language.
How important is design to you?
We’ve managed to give our customers a certain “Apple vibe.” When our design hit the market, it was different from what was available and also very functional. A backpack that you can use like a suitcase, carry sideways, convert into a sports bag, or pull over a trolley—people were excited about that. My sister once described it well: “It’s just a backpack, but I’ve had it for a year now and I’m still discovering new pockets.”
You often see your backpacks on the street. Is biking also part of your lifestyle?
Definitely. In the U.S., we saw early on that the bike is used as an expression of personality, similar to clothing. People show who they are with their bike and need cool, versatile bags. The bike is the new skateboard. And the cycling community is steadily growing.
Are there any bike brands you’d like to collaborate with?
Yes, there are some cool brands like Brothers or Bombtrack that are more niche and operate in the gravel space. Or Standert from Berlin in the performance sector. Working with such brands would be exciting.
Where can you find the bike community? On Instagram?
Yes, mainly on Instagram. TikTok isn’t as strong in that space yet, but we’re very active on Instagram and tell a different story there than on TikTok. On TikTok, we entertain our community, while Instagram has a deeper purpose.
How do you decide which target audience to address on which platform? Do you use TikTok for AEVOR and Instagram for pinqponq, or is there overlap?
We decide based on the target audiences we want to reach with our brands. Currently, we use Instagram, YouTube, and Pinterest for pinqponq, and TikTok and Instagram for AEVOR.
How many pinqponq backpacks do you have at home?
I think I have three pinqponq and five AEVOR in all sorts of evolutions and designs. But I’m also spoiled when it comes to backpacks. The backpack has to match the shoelaces and the weather. For example, I have a pinqponq backpack in a monochrome design with the old silicone logo. I’ve had it since 2017, and it’s indestructible. I still like to use it.