As originally printed in the December 16, 2003 issue of the Waterbury Republican-American

Timely Designs
Son pushes mom into home business to create products

Written by Tracey O'Shaughnessy
Photographed by Tom Kabelka
© 2003 Republican-American

Tracie Gildea's career trajectory reads like that of many thirtysomethings.

After eight years with Timex, ending as a senior manager for fashion business, the Watertown native became pregnant with her first child. Initially, Gildea, 32, thought she'd return to work full time after her four-month-long maternity leave. After all, she had a supportive husband, Sean, 38, who also worked to Timex, a full-time nanny and a mother who was eager to spend time with her new grandson.

But it didn't work out that way.

One week back into her job at Timex, Gildea discovered that the time away from her son, Keenan, was unbearable.

"I basically left the house in the morning before he was awake and came home at 6:30 or 7 at night, which allowed me to see him one hour before he went to bed. The hours I spent commuting and working just weren't conductive to the parent that I wanted to be. I had to make the choice at that point, to make the sacrifice."

Gildea finished her first week at Timex and handed in her two-week notice. Suddenly, the idea of starting her own company, which had rested in the back of her mind and that of her husband for several years, loomed as an imminent possibility. Within a month, she and her husband created the business plan for Sozo, an online company that just launched last month. The company provides a line of nursery and kids furnishings that Gildea says will provide a sophisticated alternative to traditional design.

The company, which hopes to be available at retail outlets next year, grew out of the Gildea's frustration trying to outfit their son's nursery. The Gildea's, who live in Farmington, were frustrated by what they saw as sterile, stereotypical baby designs that broke down into pinks and blues and fairy princesses and choo-choo trains.

"We just couldn't find anything that resonated with us," said Gildea, a tall, trim, athletic-looking woman with blue-gray eyes and shoulder-length flaxen hair. "Everything was so predictable and stereotypical: Pink for girls and cars and trucks for boys. We sought something that had a more sophisticated design aesthetic that was still kid-friendly."

The result is children's decor products in a series of five themes, from Koi fish to sumo wrestlers, with bold and unusual designs in colors like vivid turquoise and citrus orange. Each of the five themed designs has nine products associated with it, from crib bumpers and quilts to night lights and valances.

Lynda Allen, whom Gildea knew from her consulting work at Timex, created the graphic images, with their sophisticated color schemes animated by rich embroidery and appliquéd detail. In a tribute to the virtues of telecommuting world, Gildea has only met face-to-face with the Orlando, Fla-based designer three times in the 14 months they have been working together. The rest of her communication has been via telephone and e-mail.

"I rarely meet in person with anyone," says Gildea, whose immaculate, lakefront house is furnished with numerous Asian-themed pieces of art, gleaned from the Gildea's frequent travels to China. "I don't need to, Phone and e-mail is perfect. If you're regimented about how you communicate and when you communicate, you establish a different kind of relationship that way."

Gildea estimates her start-up costs in the company at several hundred thousand dollars. Her husband, Sean, left his job as vice president of Brand Marketing at Timex in May to run the company with his wife. They still employ a nanny to take care of their 18-month-old son while they are working. "It would really be difficult to do it without the nanny," she concedes. "Good child care is a key part."

Gildea works upstairs in a spare bedroom-cum-office, and her husband works downstairs in the basement. Instead of facing Interstate 84 every morning, she faces a placid green lake that laps up against the conifers that line her house.

"Initially, there was an adjustment having everyone in the house," Gildea says. "Even with the nanny here, there are distractions. I close my door, but right outside is Elmo and "Sesame Street" in the background. But I'd much rather have these distractions than the distractions of corporate America."

Still, Gildea, who was a political science major at American University in Washingtion, D.C, and was on her way to pursuing a law degree when the job at Timex came along, has had a crash course in textile management. She has used her contacts in Asia, where Timex does frequent business, to find textile manufacturers that appealed to her.

"I didn't know anything about textiles at all," she said. "I had to learn the language and the difference between the types of embroidery and stitches and appliqués. There's a lot of hand work or specialized machine work in the products."

One of the products came directly from the Gildea's experience with their son. It is a Wee Block, a palm-sized, sponge-like cover that fits over a young boy's private parts. It is meant to act as a kind of umbrella for the frequent explosions of urine that can come shooting up at an unsuspecting diaper-changer. The other products, from square-shaped cribs to ultra-thick crib bumpers, are standard issue nursery equipment at a medium-to-high end price range. A full nursery component at Sozo costs about $450. Sozo's primary litmus test is that the products must stand the test of time and extend beyond infancy into toddler and childhood years. They also had to be high quality, machine-washable, and parent friendly.

Sozo's primary competitors will be premium specialty stores and catalogues designed for children. Sozo, which is Japanese for creation and imagination, plans to target first-time, expectant mothers in nine major cities, including Boston, New York, and Miami, as well as all of Connecticut.

Gildea admits, ironically, that what she misses most about work is the commute, which allowed her to "gear up" for the day before settling down to her task. That's one of the reasons she continues to teach yoga at a local fitness club. "It was a bit bumpy at first," she says. "But now I feel like I know I am doing the right thing in my life and I feel like I am in a huge growth spurt and I like it."

Eventually, Sozo hopes to expand its merchandise offerings to include furniture. Already, it has designed rugs that will be available on-line next year. Sozo's merchandise is available at Mommy and Me in Kensington, Kid's & Co in Avon, simply Baby & Kids in Monroe, and Baby's World in Plantsville. For more information about Sozo, visit www.sozousa.com.