Speaker 1: Pet Life Radio Let's Talk Pets.
Speaker 2: Hello, pet lovers, Welcome to Best Bets for Pets. I'm
your show host Michelle Burn and this show is for
what's kind of like the Pet Parents. It's a really
cool story about a pet parent that created a brand
to honor his pets and with very cool merchandise. So
stay tuned and we'll be right back.
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Speaker 4: Talk Pets on Petlifradio dot com.
Speaker 2: Welcome back everyone. I'd like to welcome Chris McFadden. He
is the founder of box Vino and he launched the
brand while there's a story to that that I'll let
him share in twenty twenty one. So it's a new,
growing brand of really cool merchandise.
Speaker 5: Welcome Chris, thank you, thank you for having me, Thanks for.
Speaker 2: Being on the best bets. So what is fox Fino?
Speaker 5: Fox Feno is an athleisure apparel brand focused on mental wellness, normalness.
Speaker 2: Okay, and what now? Foxpino stands for something You launched
it after something devastating with your pets. Can you share
that with us?
Speaker 5: Yeah? Sure can so. Fox Fino stands for two pups
that I had that I lost in twenty twenty one,
named Foxy and Vino. They were vashless if you're familiar
with the breed, little redhead short hairs. They were my
kids at the time, since I didn't have any, and
they were my world. They both passed in the same year,
twenty twenty slash twenty twenty one, back back to back,
so both health issues ten years old and thirteen years
so it wasn't really expecting them to pass that early
or that close together.
Speaker 2: I'm sorry. It's devastating when it happens. There's no words it.
So what made you decide to from the devastating loss
of Foxy and Vino to Okay, I'm going to create
an ath leisure brand because most people just dwell in
the loss and muck through it or you know, get
another pooch or I don't know, just find ways to
make it through.
Speaker 5: Yeah. Really interesting idea. Right, So is my background in
apparel or did I have this plan all along? It's not.
So my background is not in an apparel and that
wasn't my plan. But I think what I learned through
my own life lessons was how things worked for me
and how I can help spread the message that you're
not really truly alone going through things in life. And
what's a big stage four that?
Speaker 1: Right?
Speaker 5: We all wear clothes and do we feel comfortable in
our own skin? And can I create a garment that
mixes the two?
Speaker 4: Right?
Speaker 5: Can I create something that you love to wear but
also as a conversation starter but can also help deep
down with the person wearing it?
Speaker 2: Okay? And how do you think creating fox you know
helped you with this dark time in your life? Deal
with you know, the grieving and the healing or did
it or did you get through the grieving and healing?
And then decide I'm going to create at leisure where
you know.
Speaker 5: It was a dark time, and I'm glad you brought
that up because I think a lot of us out
there do go through that piece with pets. For me,
I had to learn how to heal before I could
move on. And I think the turning point for me
was once I was able to reflect on the positives,
the good memories, and through that I was able to
then say, well, how can I How can I think
about the pets that I had long term? How can I?
And then that was a fear of mine and I'm
sure I'm not alone on that. Well I forget my pets, Well,
I forget the good times? How can I remember them
every way in a positive message? And I think through
their life lessons and teaching me how to love nature,
how to love myself, how can I help others in
that same way? So I created the brand in lieu
of their memory?
Speaker 2: Okay? Thanks? Did it? Did creating the brand help with
the mental anguish you were going through? Or was it
after you, you know, felt better that you decided I'm
going to do something that's going to be in their memory?
Speaker 5: It was afterwards. It was a passion project. It was
an idea. Can I make something that I'm energized for
turn into reality? And that's where you know, it snowballed
from It turned from an idea into what it exists now.
And then I have such ideas for the future of
what the brand can be or advocate for or support
maybe through other business aspects.
Speaker 2: Okay, so Fox Pino is clothing at leisure were for people,
That's correct, So make sure in case because we have
clothing for you know, pooches on the best bets as well.
Speaker 5: It for for now, it's a pretty small company. We
launched last fall, so we only have a few garments.
There's plans, big plans to continue that for pet parents,
and I'm not saying that it will stick to pet parents.
I do have ideas and I'm in the works right
now talking with other brands that create great products such
as coats or collars, that we could maybe integrate the
two and have something for the pups as well.
Speaker 2: Okay, so here's a question for you. What ties in clothing,
mental awareness, and our relationships with our pooches. How did
those three intersect for you?
Speaker 5: That's a tough one because how do you mix all
three of them together right.
Speaker 2: Well, for me, Number one, clothing has to be comfortable.
I've had to wear stuff that's not, but most of
the time i'd rather not, you know, because I don't know.
Life is short. Be comfortable and your clothing is comfortable, right,
And I think if you're comfortable, your mental health is
better because you're not you're thinking about what you have
to think about, not that something is bothering you.
Speaker 5: No, you've hit it right on it, Michelle. When I
worked with a design team, I said, as important as
what I'm trying to get across, the main idea is
can we create something that people are comfortable wearing? So
what took so long of a product to be launched
was fabric sourcing. It was does it fit correctly? Do
we want to wear this every single time that it's clean?
I think if you feel comfortable working out or going nature,
or even laying on the couch or going to work,
That's where I think, not just my brand, but brands
as a whole are kind of gravitating towards to let
us be comfortable. That sizes not might not necessarily matter
as much anymore, is do we feel comfortable in our
own skin? So I put a lot of emphasis on
that in the brand.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you're right, and I think we're coming to that
as a culture. You know, business casual used to mean
you know, maybe not a suit but for little sexist
here sorry, but for men it was, you know, dress slacks. Well,
for women, dress slacks too, or something you know, more basic,
but not a suit. Now business casual and even officewear
is genes, you know, as long as they're not wholly
in messy. But in some corporate cultures even that works
and T shirts, so it's kind of become an awareness
a thing. I think what I like about the Fox
Veno brand is, like you said at leisure, it reminds
me like it's on the thought of like yoga wear,
So it has that holistic vibe to it to.
Speaker 5: Me, right, can it be versatile? Can you wear it
to work or for a walk? I'm not the only
one out there in athlesure, I'm not the only one
in mental awareness. But can I combine the two where
you could wear it to work? So I like the
minimalist look of it. I like the idea that it
can match with many different outfits or layer appropriately. The
messaging from the mental wellness stampede is subtle, but it's there,
but it's comfortable overall.
Speaker 2: Okay, what do you want people to feel when they're
wearing fox, you know, clothing.
Speaker 5: I mean there's the physical piece right that we've touched
on a little bit. We want to feel comfortable. But
that's just step one. I think the second piece was
can I glance down and look at the message and
have that resonate to move forward in the day or
maybe you remember a great time and that's internal, but
it also can create a conversation. You can be somewhere
and hey, you see what maybe one of the messages says,
and start to talk about it, and you can say, wow,
I'm so glad that someone else's I had a pet
pass too, or I'm going through this in life. So
I think that's what I want the overall field to
kind of go towards the customer.
Speaker 2: Okay, thanks, We're going to take a quick break and
we'll be right.
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Life Radio.
Speaker 1: Let's talk Past Life.
Speaker 7: Radio, Heat Life Radio, pet Life Radio dot Com.
Speaker 2: Welcome back everyone. We're talking to Chris McFadden. He is
the founder of fox Veno, which is at leisure where
for people, for pet parents, for humans, all humans soon
possibly coming because it's a new brand for your four
legged friends as well. So we touched on this in
the beginning, but I want to just hit on it
a little more. We talked about, you know, emotional wellbeing
and how important that is. Why do you think pets
help us so much? And just to reiterate in the
beginning of our talk, you mentioned that, you know, with
the passing with Foxy and Beno, it was hard to
get through and I've been there. I lost mine and
in August twenty twenty. That was a bad year for
a lot of things and horrible for me. And it's
hard to describe, you know, whether it's whether it's sudden,
whether it's progressive, or whether it's a situation where you
have to call the shots. You know, you bring your
dog in and put them down. It's all so hard.
What do you hope that people can do better so
that they're not, as I guess, less traumatic, they feel
as traumatic. How do you hope the mental awareness helps
people that are going through the same loss.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it's layered and there's no right answer I can provide.
But what I can say is what have we learned
that pets play in a role for us?
Speaker 3: Right?
Speaker 5: We've learned through science and other natures that there's kind
of coon psychological effects and benefits when we own pets, right,
when we pet our companions, when we relay trust in
them when we come home from work. But I think
whether that be at the time on a good day
or time at the very end, is if we notice
and realize that that pets entire life was dedicated for
one thing and one thing only, and that was you.
When you can understand and be hit with that humbled
kind of sentence that you were their world, it's a
big gulp, It's it's a it's something that's going to
take a while to kind of understand, and you don't
have to understand it right then. But I think that's
one of life lessons that will make it a little
bit easier that they loved you in every way that
they could.
Speaker 2: Thank you I know it's hard, definitely hard to talk
about and never goes away, but the you know, the hurt,
but the memories help. So let's talk about Fox Veno.
You know, lately, it seems like there's kind of a
change in the marketplace where people are moving a little
bit away from big box mass and going towards smaller brands.
Some of it is possibly p which our show is not,
so I don't want to get into that, but we
probably know what I'm talking about, but part of it
could be other trends. Do you see that trend and
why do you think that's happening?
Speaker 5: If you do see it, I think so, and I
think we'll look back in time and realize it as well.
I think it's a great positive of what's happening right now.
People are becoming more self expressive in believing what hopefully
in good things, but they're being more self expressive and
they're wearing and wanting to wear something that reflects who
they are. And that's a lot less of being part
of the norm or being part of the herd, but
it's who they are as an individual, and can they
share who that is through their clothing and not just
clothing but a company, right, can they relate to a
mission that a company has? Or as consumers, who do
we gravitate towards? What's the story behind whatever product we're selecting.
We're seeing a lot less of the big box and
more of the niche garments or beverages or whatnot that
I think we're figuring out who we are as a culture,
figuring out who we are as individuals, and how do
we demonstrate that through our purchases?
Speaker 2: Okay, thanks? So fox Vino is rooted, of course in
love and unfortunately lost. How do you honor Foxy and
Vino today through your brand?
Speaker 5: I believe I honor them in two ways. One, I'm
very fortunate that every single time I get to work
with the brand or hear the name of the brand,
I get the recognition of hearing about them. And I
told you that was one of the fears I had,
was not maybe remembering them. The other side is I'm
able to honor them outside of the brand. So proceeds
of the brand currently and I'd like to expand on it,
but currently go to two organizations that hit home with me.
One of them is a rescue organization that's local here,
but it's to the breed of the v Schloss, but
it's called Vizwiz Rescue with a V. And the other
is the National Breast Cancer Society organization. So both of
those the foxing, you know, kind of I'm able to
honor them through those.
Speaker 2: Okay, And you can expand why you chose those organizations
if you likely have time.
Speaker 5: So VIZ was rescue. I didn't have the knowledge, I
think at the time when I got the Viichlas. I
was young and I liked the breed, and I just
went out and found some Vichlas. And I think after
learning a little bit more about rescues and how many
there are and the organization kind of taught me a
bit on that side, I was also able to start
again with another dog. And in that rescue organization is
all the pointers, right, so we have our Fichleas and
German short hair pointers and English pointers and Weimerheimers. I
rescued a German short hair pointer and she's lovely. She's
five now. We rescued her from Houston and she's wonderful.
So I like to give back to that organization if
I can. And the other is the National Breast Cancer Society.
My wife was diagnosed not too long ago, and she's
doing great. So we don't want to go on a
downward spiral of that. But she's doing great, and if
we can kind of help advance the technologies and things
of that nature, if we can, we'd like to.
Speaker 2: Okay, wonderful choices. So you have a new pup. Now,
how long have you had your new pup? What's your
pup's name?
Speaker 5: Her name is Summer. She is a German short hair pointer.
She is from Houston. She is five. She just turned five,
and we got her out of a bad situation when
she was roughly one and a half. She was surrendered
back to her breeder and she needed a lot of
work in terms of gaining her confidence. So another advocacy
towards the Visitor's Rescue is they create events where all
the dogs get together and they hang out as a
pack and they go for hikes. She was scared of
the world, and we brought her on these hikes and
now she's able to free roam and go off leash
with I think one event we had over one hundred
dogs together and we went on.
Speaker 2: One big hike.
Speaker 5: Yeah, imagine seeing a hundred points.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 5: So that was pretty cool. So she is a light switch,
but in a good way. She can run for fifty
miles or she can sit on the couch, but she
is a fantastic dog.
Speaker 2: Haven't heard that expression before A light switch.
Speaker 5: We brought her to the beach not too long ago,
and she ran fifty miles in three days. Whoa, and
we didn't move. We sat on a blanket, so she
ran back and forth. But there's other days where she'll
cuddle and go under the blanket. So she's she's a
light switch.
Speaker 2: So she would be the best dog if you have
to get steps in to thatch your watch or your phone. Right.
Speaker 5: Absolutely, she's a versatile dog, but she's not for the.
Speaker 2: Right, not for the exercise for you.
Speaker 5: You know she's going to demand or that breed's going
to demand some exercise.
Speaker 2: You know it not to go two off subject, but
I'm glad the breed you chose. You recognize that that
this breed needs, you know, exercise and hiking and all
of that. It always is mind boggling to me when
people you know, decide I want this kind of a breed,
and for some reason, who knows? They say every time
that while Golden's are pretty popular anyway. But anytime there's
a movie with a dog, oh, everybody wants that dog
without realizing that that dog there's requirements for their health.
There's requirements for you know, just their physical wellbeing. Don't
get an energetic dog if you want, you know, like
to sit on the couch, right, jack, Russels might not
be for you. Pointers might not be for you, right.
Speaker 5: And I think we see that through most of the
dogs needed rescued in that organization is most of them said, hey,
that looks like a cool dog, but they didn't realize
the energy we pursued. My wife and I that dog
or the Vichlas on purpose to force us to go exercise,
so that I think was missing too. And when the
Vachless passed, we sat on our couch too much. And
I think if you don't go outside and you don't move,
that deals a lot with that mental wellness too. So
I think energetic dogs can be good in a lot
of ways. We were going to get Vachlas again, and
we thought that we'd always have Vachlass. But I'm sure
not the only one that says it's tough seeing the
same breed once that breed passes. So the closest to
a Vishla that we thought would have been a spotted
version of a Vachhla. And that's the jury point.
Speaker 1: You know what.
Speaker 2: I'm probably a little strange on this because mine was
when she passed, she was a Border Colli mix, and
within a week, right before I'm in the South, so
right before a big hurricane, I found mister Zeus, who
unfortunately passed twenty twenty, but he was a Border Colling
mix too, and I already knew that I would be
because I live in a place that's warm, so there's
not a lot of hiking. But if you go at
certain times of the day dog park, you just have
to be set in your mind that you have to
do something you know for the well being of your dog,
which is also the well being of yourself.
Speaker 5: No, it's totally true. They get you out. They give
you a reason to do things. I've seen a lot
of the city that I live in right now by
having the dog and having areas that are dog friendly
that I don't think I would have explored before. They
take you on adventures, You bring them on vacations. Yes, Yes,
they're your world.
Speaker 2: Yes. Because my havingies, we brought on vacation, and he
unfortunately passed two in twenty twenty two. But I always
thought those little baby doll carriages, you know, baby carriages
were kind of silly. They actually serve a purpose. They
let your dog get out and see. But these little
dogs have little legs, they can't walk as much, so
it's not my baby substitute carriage, you know. But there's
a reason for that. I used to always go up
people with carriages because personally, I like bigger dogs that
they have. Anies is more my partners. He likes small,
little fluffy I like dogs that are black dogs, which
I know that's unusual too, that are forty pounds or more,
and border collies. You know, that's that's my requirement. Right now.
I have cats, so you know we're going down that route.
They're interesting, they're interesting, definitely.
Speaker 5: It's all interesting. I never thought i'd like cats. And
then one time when I was in college, my wife's
now her roommate had a cat, and I said, well,
I kind of like cats. So you never know what
life will bring on you.
Speaker 2: You never know, and I think the universe was thinking, Okay,
we're going to find a cat for her, but we
have to start the right with the right one because
the first my first cat was Dennis. He's part me
and Coon, I remember. I don't know if he was
ever tested, but he looks like one. He's not that big,
so he's only part. But he's very dog like. You know,
he comes when he's called. He's he's very friendly. You
could rough them up, and I thought that's how cats
were until someone said, no, your cat is unusual. Well,
because then I got some more and I realized yes,
So I think the universe said we'll start off with
this one and then she'll get used to the others
and realize, watch your hands because they scratch so and
you know what, that's oort of defense. And I don't
begrudge them the scratching. You just have to pay attention.
Let's talk more about Fox veno. What can you tell
us about maybe some teasers on what might be up
and coming.
Speaker 5: Sure, so, my experience with having pups for so long
let me learn a lot about quality products for pet wise,
and I think something that would be interesting would be
to add a pizza two or slowly introduce maybe Callers
or coats and partner with those brands that have already
established they've done it correctly. I don't have any plans
to go out there and say I'm going to make
the best coat that exists, but I know who, in
my opinion does, so can I collaborate with that manufacturer
or company and the same with the callers. So I'd
like to create some maybe special editions and partner with
those companies and put some messages or some logos on
there and then add that to the portfolio.
Speaker 2: That sounds great. So let's tell our listeners where can
they find your products and find out more about Fox Fino.
Speaker 5: Sure, So the website is Foxvino dot com. There's an
about section to learn more about myself or the brand,
and then we're on all the major social media platforms Instagram, Facebook, TikTok,
and then we're very fortunate to do learnings and listens
like this that we're doing right now. But the website
itself would probably be the best to see and learn
about the brand.
Speaker 2: Well, Chris, I want to thank you so much for
coming on Best Bets for Pets.
Speaker 5: Thank you for having me. It was a pleasure.
Speaker 2: I hope you all enjoyed the show. The samples from
Foxdena were amazing and the sizes run pretty true to size,
very comfortable. So thank you Chris from Fox Fino for
coming on Best Bets for Pets. Thank you to my
cat crew Dennis Charlotte and for teaching me about cats
and patients and pets and makes my life better and
helps my mental health. Absolutely. I want to thank also
everyone listening to Best Bets for Pets. Thank you so much.
I really appreciate it and of course the show would
not be the same without the magic of my producer.
Thank you Mark Winter for all you do. Now remember
cheap listening. You never know what we'll have next on
Best Bets for Pets.
Speaker 4: Let's talk bets every week on demand only on Petlifradio
dot com.