Meet the Maker: Jasmine Daniel and Justin Yonan of Neptune & Co.
Meet the Maker is a new blog series on The Dapple featuring Q&As with the small businesses, creatives, and makers who are crafting unique products for dogs and dog lovers. Know someone we should include? Email us at email@thedapple.com.
Elizabeth and Dave wearing Neptune & Co.
Today on Meet the Maker, we're talking with the founders of an inspiring new dog supply company, Neptune & Co. Jasmine Daniel and Justin Yonan chatted with us about finding inspiration in San Francisco, their French Bulldog Neptune, and their passion for helping rescue organizations.
Tell us what you make.
Neptune & Co. is a dog supply company that makes designer dog collars and leashes. We want our collars and leashes to be a true expression of each and every customer’s fashion sense. Our dogs should look as good as we do!
What led you to create Neptune & Co.?
After our dog Neptune came into our lives, we started learning a lot about animal rescue organizations. The amazing people who run these organizations and donate their time to help dogs in need are true heroes. We followed many stories of injured dogs that were surrendered to rescue organizations by their owners because they couldn’t afford the vet bill to properly care for the dog. Or other cases of abuse and mistreatment of dogs who deserve so much more.
One of the biggest challenges for a lot of these organizations is that they are solely dependent on financial donations. We would donate as much as we could, but we never felt like it was enough. We wanted to do more and make a bigger impact, so we started Neptune & Co., which is dedicated to helping dogs in need through monthly financial donations to rescue organizations.
Tell us about your Rescue of the Month program.
Each month we select a non-profit rescue organization that we want to help. They are featured as our Rescue of the Month and a blog post is published highlighting the amazing work they do. For every product sold during that month, we donate at least $1 to the chosen rescue organization, and we donate collars and leashes to their dogs. Our website also provides links to some of the dogs in search for forever homes.
What’s your process for creating a new piece?
San Francisco has cool patterns and vibrant colors around every corner. We find inspiration for our designs everywhere—whether it's while taking Neptune for a walk to the beach or during a visit to the museum. We’re always taking photos on our phones of anything that catches our eye and that we feel has the potential to conceptualize into future designs. We usually decide on the color scheme first, which we find always helps bring the pattern to life. Once we finalize the design, we’ll have a sample made by our manufacturer, make any tweaks, and prepare the new design for release.
Jasmine Daniel and Justin Yonan of Neptune & Co. with their dog, Neptune
Where’s your favorite place to work?
We just launched Neptune & Co. a little more than a month ago, so we operate mostly out of our apartment in the Marina District in San Francisco.
Any exciting upcoming plans for Neptune & Co.?
Right now we’re mostly focused on getting our product out there, but we’re already starting to work on designs for a spring/summer line. We’re also planning on attending various animal welfare events and fundraisers throughout the year.
What’s your favorite item from Neptune & Co. right now?
Our favorite design is “The Flagship” collar and leash. It was the first design we ever made and we really like the combination of colors. A close second would have to be our “Plaid Out” design.
What's the most rewarding part of your work?
We love knowing that at the end of every month we’re making an impact and helping dogs in need.
During January 2018, Neptune & Co. is offering The Dapple's readers 20% off their order with code THEDAPPLE. You can follow Neptune & Co.'s work to help rescue dogs on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter.
