Lifelong Connecticut resident Annette Cook has discovered that there is a market for state/town/city pride with her business TownieSwag.
TownieSwag started as a fun crafting project during the COVID pandemic and now her products are sold at more than 100 wholesalers and 12 Big Y World Class Markets. Cook, 63, said her Killingworth business has doubled over the last year and has grown tremendously since starting in 2020 and there are more plans of expansion.
“I realized there were so many quirky, silly, notable, lovable things about the little town we’ve raised our family in, and I knew other locals would get a kick out of seeing all those tidbits lumped together,” Cook said.
As a sewist, creative thinker and crafter extraordinaire, Cook designed a word collage with about 150 phrases about her town, then printed it on printable fabric and made a tote out of it.
“People in town loved it. In short order I had people asking me to make more,” Cook said. “Then I had people asking me to create designs for other towns … and here I am, four years later, with over 250 towns and locations covered and multiple products that I print the word collages on.”
Cook set up shop at different markets and fairs around the state beginning at the Parmelee Farm Artisan Market with Killingworth-themed products. “I made a dozen of them, and they sold out immediately,” Cook said. “Everyone was like, make me one. I’ve had other people asked me if I can do their town.”
Cook grew up in Madison so that was the second town she made. She adds as many as 150 words and phrases to the tea towels, totes, aprons, pillows, matted prints, bottle bags and jigsaw puzzles. The towels are the top sellers, although pillows and aprons are also popular selections.
Cook said she gets phrases and names to add to the towns products by joining town Facebook groups and asks for suggestions. She said there are many examples where people have emotional reactions to her products.
“It was such a fun thing. And people just seem to really love it and I have many repeat customers,” Cook said. “I try to get the information straight from the people in town. What’s important to you? What are some of your favorite memories of this town? Where did you get in trouble as a teenager? What were the hotspots in town? Who were your favorite teachers? People have been generous with their memories and love revisiting them. We get hundreds and hundreds of responses, and it’s so much fun going through them. It’s all nostalgia.”
The business has continued to expand, and Cook’s Killingworth home has partially been taken over by TownieSwag. Cook runs the business with her husband, Geoff Cook, and six independent contractors. Annette Cook has been working seven days a week on the business, and Geoff Cook has been busy with the technical and behind the scenes aspects of the TownieSwag.
Geoff Cook, who has an engineering background, has created the displays that appear at 12 Big Y’s in the state. TownieSwag is responsible for providing the displays and restocking them. She said the connection with Big Y has helped her business.
“They have been so incredibly good to me, so good,” she said. “It started in Guilford, and it has just grown to 12 locations. We would like a couple more before the holidays. They have sent me to a new level. I have also developed my wholesale over the last couple of years. We were previously doing shows but I’m 63. I’m not 30 anymore and those are a lot of work. We have decided to focus more on wholesale.”
TownieSwag has over 100 wholesale accounts throughout the country.
“In the past year, we’ve more than doubled the number of items that we’ve sold through wholesale,” Annette Cook said. “We haven’t done all of the towns in Connecticut yet, but we’ve covered the whole shoreline, Middlesex, Fairfield and New Haven counties. It costs me about $250 to launch a town and get them on the website so I have to make sure there is going to be enough of a market there.”
The business previously used sublimation printing and now has two new machines that print directly onto the garments. A $17,000 grant from the Middlesex County Revitalization Commission allowed her to purchase the first one. She said these printers have been a total game changer and continue to keep the couple busy.
“Our original dining room is now my office,” Annette Cook said. “What used to be our living room is my workroom. And I’ve my husband, he was a general contractor for many years, so he had built this wonderful great room off the back of our house. I’ve kind of creeped into half of that as well.”
“Our house has become 30 percent factory,” Geoff Cook said. “We are lucky to have space in a rural area.”
Annette Cook said her background is in early childhood education, but she “has always been artsy.” After the couple raised two boys, now 28 and 31, Annette Cook was looking for something to do. She was previously in telecommunications, became a stay-at-home mom and later became florist and then started a handbag business. The couple has been together for 33 years.
Geoff Cook said during the COVID pandemic that people were selling cloth masks online for as much as $25 each. She decided she was going to make masks and give them out for free weekly in town. Geoff Cook said she gave away thousands of masks in Killingworth. He added that this is what eventually fueled TownieSwag.
Killingworth resident and realtor Debbie Huscher is a regular customer of TownieSwag. She buys them for clients buying and selling homes. She first learned about TownieSwag at the Durham Fair three years ago.
“As a realtor, these are a great gift for sellers,” Huscher said. “If they are selling their childhood home and they are given something from their town. It’s a way to have a great memory and a connection to home or a place to call home. It’s been a really good gift for us to give to our sellers as well as our buyers who are new to the town. The nostalgia part is so wonderful. … It’s my favorite gift to give to people.
“They always ask, ‘Where did you get this?’ They are great gifts if you are not looking for that cookie cutter gift,” she added. “It conjures up memories. It’s home. Home is not just your house. It’s the place that you live, the people that you know and the things that you do. This just connects you to that.”
Killingworth resident Susan Gumbart has known the Cooks for 25 years and has seen TownieSwag grow in popularity over the years.
“She started in Killingworth and then the towns around us,” Gumbart said. “It’s grown tremendously and it’s a booming business now. People love the idea of something you can grab while you are at the store for a unique gift for someone.”
Gumbart has a personalized “Sueology” pillow that was purchased by her husband and made by TownieSwag that Gumbart said she cherishes every day.
“She also makes Christmas or Chanukah themed products, too,” Gumbart said. “She’s tapped into something. When you get to my age, I’m 70, you don’t need a lot of material things. But something like this is a gift you can look at and smile.
“She’s wonderfully creative with coming up with all kinds of ideas,” she added. “I’m so proud of her. I’m thrilled with her success and i think the work.”
Gumbart has the pillow as well as aprons and tea towels. She also said she has Christmas bags that she purchased and uses every year for gift giving.
“It’s personal,” Gumbart said. “The world is so splintered and polarized right now this is a way to simplify your memories and is something that is really meaningful. If you can’t think of what to give something this is it. The quality is amazing, and the words are appreciated.
“Annette is not doing this to make crazy amounts of money,” Gumbart added. “She does this because she finds joy in it. She cares. I think she gets rewarded from putting it out there and giving it to people who love it.”