Gloria Hwang created her helmet brand, Thousand, to make safety seamless and get people moving.
Helmets reduce the likelihood of getting a serious head injury by 60%. Even though they make it safer to ride your bike, skateboard, one-wheel, or even roller skates, a lot of people don’t wear them, citing bulkiness and inconvenience. Gloria Hwang felt the same way, so she designed a more exciting, user-friendly helmet and launched the product on Kickstarter. Since the first sale, her company Thousand has become a thriving brand in the outdoor industry and is changing the helmet game.
Connect with Gloria:
Gloria Hwang:
We started in a place where we wanted to help make safety more seamless for people, from people who didn't want to wear helmets to wearing helmets and I think now we're in a place where, again, how can we make tools for urban travelers who are trying to get around their cities? So for us, taking that next step is what gets me up every day.
Shelby Stanger:
That's Gloria Hwang, founder of Thousand, a company that makes really cool helmets. I love riding things with wheels; bikes, skateboards, one wheels, even roller skates. Yep. They're awesome for commuting, heading out and exploring new places and just burning off some steam. Doing these things with helmets is a pretty wise idea. I mean, helmets reduce the likelihood of getting a serious head injury by 60%. A lot of people find helmets bulky and inconvenient, though. Gloria Hwang felt the same way, so she designed a helmet that people are really excited about. I'm Shelby Stanger and this is Wild Ideas Worth Living.
Shelby Stanger:
Gloria didn't grow up with a dream to create a better helmet, but she's always been business minded and she fell in love with cycling in college. Gloria has been using her bike to commute and to explore for a long time, and she has a ton of technical knowledge and experience.
Shelby Stanger:
Well, Gloria Hwang, welcome to Wild Ideas Worth Living. I'm really excited to hear your story today.
Gloria Hwang:
Yeah, for sure. Thanks for having me, Shelby.
Shelby Stanger:
You started a helmet company. That must mean you're a big cyclist, right?
Gloria Hwang:
Yeah. I'm definitely more of a city rider. So I commute to our warehouse or office. It's a mile away. When COVID first hit, I had a lot of just cool rides because downtown is usually super packed and you can't bike in it without feeling a little risky.
Shelby Stanger:
Oh, yeah. So you're in Downtown LA, just for reference.
Gloria Hwang:
I'm right outside of downtown, so it's getting to ride down the streets and see super cool historical landmarks, the Walt Disney Concert Hall and the Broad. For me, on the bike was awesome just because I never really did it before because it's super car packed, but I started biking in college and learning how to build bikes was super fun for me.
Gloria Hwang:
I got into the old 1970s and 1960s frames. So I love old steel frames. I'd go to events down there called FrankenBikes, so I learned how to kind of put together bikes too. My first build was an old Italian bike and I put all the kind of era appropriate, campy things on it. So for me, I just developed a love of high quality products in biking and that's probably one where I tell people, because I think people don't think I'm super into biking just because we make it more for recreational brands. But yeah, I learn how to build old steel frame bikes and single speed fix gear. That's how I got around.
Shelby Stanger:
Where did you go to college?
Gloria Hwang:
University of Texas at Austin.
Shelby Stanger:
Wow. Okay. So is that a big bike school?
Gloria Hwang:
More than anything, the campus is big, so it's five miles and you can get around by walking, car or bus. I didn't have a car and walking is just so slow because it's five miles and it's Texas heat and that's why I started biking. For me, I'm like, "This is the quickest, easiest, cheaper way to get around, " and yeah, I've loved it ever since so I kept on going.
Shelby Stanger:
Okay. So you got to see a lot of LA on a bike during the pandemic that you normally wouldn't have seen. That's actually a bright side about the pandemic in LA.
Gloria Hwang:
Yeah. That was a super fun one, and also just taking time to do trails. Again, I'm more of a recreational biker, so Frogtown is a really cool place in LA. It's this river path, there's really cool cafes along it, so you can kind of just-
Shelby Stanger:
Where is this?
Gloria Hwang:
Frogtown, if you have ever been. It's super cool.
Shelby Stanger:
It sounds amazing, but it's in LA?
Gloria Hwang:
Yeah, yeah. So that's the thing. It's in LA, it's this river bike path and there's cool cafes and a brewery on the track. So you can grab a growler and a sandwich and you can bike around and kind of just sit on the reservoir and hang out on a Saturday. It's the perfect weekend thing to do.
Shelby Stanger:
What's your relationship to nature and the outdoors. I know you to bike and you've seen ... there are some actually really cool trails in LA. It's not just a big city in Hollywood.
Gloria Hwang:
Yeah. I'm personally, again, not a mountain biker or a roadie. I really just like to probably more explore and to commute. I bike because it's easier for me to go to my local taco spot on bike than to try to find parking. Right? I bike to our office warehouse because it's just kind of nice in the morning to kind of wind in your hair, but that's probably my relationship to biking, but I would also say we do a lot of ... I personally like just e-mobility in general. So we have a Super 73 in the office and I kind of cruise around on it, or a scooter. But for me it's just getting around in a different way. Then on the weekends, I like to camp and stuff, so hitting up BLM spots during COVID was a big thing. So just finding somewhere to disconnect and smell better air. If you get to be surrounded by trees and your cell phone's not on, who can complain?
Shelby Stanger:
Gloria doesn't need to travel far away to enjoy the benefits of nature. She's found easy ways to get outside that fit with her lifestyle, close to home, like the one mile bike ride to her office and even the few miles she bikes to get drinks with friends on the weekend. Gloria is a longtime bike commuter, but for much of her life, she did not wear a helmet. She noticed that a lot of other riders didn't wear them either. She wondered if a more attractive, functional helmet could help increase the numbers and keep people safe. So she came up with designs and launched a crowdfunding campaign to bring her wild idea to life. Since the first sale, her company Thousand has become a thriving brand in the outdoor industry and is changing the helmet game.
Shelby Stanger:
Tell me the inspiration of why you created Thousand brand.
Gloria Hwang:
So I was a longtime bike rider, never wore a helmet, just kind of thought they were goofy looking if I'm honest. Not a great answer, but it was my answer. But a friend and a mentor of mine passed away from a bad bike accident. He was riding around New York City, wasn't wearing a helmet and it was a head first injury, and passed away an impact. So after that incident, I really knew I just needed to start wearing a helmet just to be responsible for myself and the people around me. I went out to a store to find something and I f ound things I thought were kind of passable, but nothing I truly wanted to wear. So I stopped riding my bike so much. But my background is in philanthropy and social impact.
Gloria Hwang:
My thought at the time was if you make a bike helmet people actually want to wear, I think you can help save lives and more than that, I think can help connect people to the cities. One of the biggest reasons I heard that people didn't ride a bike or a scooter or a skateboard or anything with urban mobility is they just didn't feel safe. So for me, it wasn't necessarily about helmets. It was just on a mission to try to make safety less of a barrier for some people.
Shelby Stanger:
That's really cool because that's why I don't ride a bike. Too many people get hit and it's scary. I used to ride a bike all the time, and you're right, helmets are kind of dorky looking. But really quickly, why the name Thousand?
Gloria Hwang:
That came actually back from our mission. For us, we had a goal at one point to help save a thousand lives, and it's really cool. We have something called our accident replacement policy where we actually replace all helmets for free if you get into an accident or a crash and we've replaced over 500 at this point, so kind of to our mission of helping save a thousand lives.
Shelby Stanger:
That's rad and also wild. I mean, 500 accidents that have happened then while wearing your helmets.
Gloria Hwang:
Yeah. For me, it's awesome because I know a lot of those riders, just from our customer surveys, are first time helmet wearers. That's what we're trying to do. We're trying to get more people who don't wear helmets to wear helmets. That's what we were always about as a brand. So for us, that's impactful just to be able to save people a hospital trip or hopefully even more.
Shelby Stanger:
So what makes your helmets different? What did you want in a helmet, besides the fact that it was good looking, that wasn't out there in the market? I think I've read that there's ... Oh, there's two things that I read that I thought were pretty badass about your helmets. One, vegan straps. Two, there's this connection in the helmet that you can literally attach your helmet to a U lock and tie it up. So how'd you think of that? Genius.
Gloria Hwang:
So I think that's the thing you're talking about. What makes our helmets different is, for me, it's not even that it's good looking, it's consumer insights driven. So what we did differently is in the process, we talked to customers about what they really wanted. Our perspective was how can we get people who aren't wearing helmets to wear helmets? That's the different place we came from, so we asked people in the beginning, "What are barriers to wearing a helmet?" A lot of people were saying convenience, like you said. People don't like bringing them into a cafe or a shop or even their workplace. Style was a big one. People just wanted something that looked good at the end of the day.
Gloria Hwang:
But when you looked at other products in the market, they really focused on technical innovation or because something is super lightweight or Bluetooth technology, and those things are cool and important, but for the person who wasn't wearing a helmet, they didn't care about those things. They just wanted the basics. Make me look good and feel good about myself, make it convenient for me to use. So that's what we stuck to in just our product philosophy from then on out.
Shelby Stanger:
So you said your main goal is getting people who don't wear helmets to start wearing them. How are you doing that?
Gloria Hwang:
Yeah, it's a good question. I'd say a couple of things. So in our customer surveys, actually about 25% of our customers say they were not wearing a helmet before and are now wearing a helmet for the first time. For me, that's what the mission of Thousand really was, and we do it in a couple ways. I think it starts with product. At the end of the day, you have to solve a customer's functional pain points, but you have to solve their emotional ones too. For helmets we learned there was a lot of emotional pain points that people had around them. So it was overcoming that.
Gloria Hwang:
But I would say positioning helmets more as a lifestyle accessory than a safety commodity. I've always believed if you try to force people into behavior change by shaming them or saying you need to wear something or something can happen, they're not as likely to change. If you give them the option to be like, "Hey, do you want to wear this cool thing that'll make you feel safe and protected and it's part of your it while you're moving around a city?" For me, the second option is the option where people are morely to opt into. So that's how we position Thousand and that's what we've always tried to do to get more people wearing helmets,
Shelby Stanger:
Shaming people doesn't work?
Gloria Hwang:
Yeah, go figure. The PSA is not so effective.
Shelby Stanger:
What do you mean by emotional pain point? I'm guessing something like, "This helmet is so ugly. I don't want want to wear this big bulky thing."
Gloria Hwang:
I think you're dead on, Shelby. It's like there's an emotional disconnect between the joy of riding and a safety product. So how do you remove that? Then how do you make something joyful, a product joyful? How do you make it so the customer interactions are really fun and you actually want to wear it? How do you put something on and you're getting compliments all the time so you're feeling good about yourself? So for us, that's what it is. If people can feel good about our products because they no longer feel they're dorky anymore, they feel like it's just such a cool product to own because the quality of the materials are so good, that kind of bridges that emotional disconnect.
Shelby Stanger:
What Gloria said about the disconnect between the joy of riding something with wheels and having to wear a safety product is interesting. Biking and other wheeled sports are opportunities to be outside, to breathe in fresh air, to feel the wind on your face and to hear the sounds of the city or nature around you. Thousand's goal is to make safety a seamless part of the ride. When we come back, Gloria talks about launching Thousand on Kickstarter, the company's give back program, and what she's learned as an entrepreneur.
Shelby Stanger:
Before Gloria started Thousand, she worked at TOMS, the shoe company. Gloria had quite a career at the company. She started working there when it was just 15 people and by the time she left, it was a 500 person organization. Gloria's work at TOMS taught her a lot about building and growing a mission driven brand. That experience really helped when it came time to launch Thousand on Kickstarter.
Shelby Stanger:
I think what's really interesting is you started on Kickstarter, which is bold and hard and its own little wild ride, but it's also accessible for entrepreneurs to bring out an idea and sort of make it a reality. Can you just tell us a little bit about the process working on Kickstarter? You had this idea, it's one thing to have an idea, but it's a whole other thing to take an idea and make it a reality.
Gloria Hwang:
Yeah, totally. For me, Kickstarter was just an awesome process. I would say less wild, bold idea and more just didn't have the money to start what I wanted to do.
Shelby Stanger:
Yeah, exactly. It's hard.
Gloria Hwang:
I had started Thousand on my savings account, so I had 20 grand in the bank and for me that was enough to get up to a prototype and get together marketing collateral to do a Kickstarter. So from there I was really a banking on the Kickstarter community to help me pay for the down payment on my molds. It was awesome. It was beyond my expectations. I wasn't a marketer and just seeing how the Kickstarter community reacted to this was life changing in a lot of ways.
Shelby Stanger:
So what was that moment that you knew that this idea would actually happen?
Gloria Hwang:
It was the first day. Even the first couple of sales that came in from the Kickstarter weren't from people I knew. Then at first I was like, "Man, this Kickstarter must be broken. There must be some sort of glitch. I need to contact them. There's random sales coming in." Then from that day, my phone died just because the sales were so continuous and I would get a sales notification. So after the first day I think we had hit our goal. We were trying to raise 20 grand and we hit it in day one. So from then I knew we'd be good. I quit my job 10 days after it just because I knew I wanted to do this full time.
Shelby Stanger:
That's such an amazing story. Okay. So there's more that went into it than that. How did you create something that was so badass that people that you didn't even know wanted to buy it? I mean there had to have been a lot of work that went into that first Kickstarter campaign. I know it sounds easy probably now because you're so far from that. But I want you to take me back to that moment when you were like, "Okay, it's live."
Gloria Hwang:
Yeah. It took a lot of work for me. I worked nights and week ... I had a full time job. So for me, the only time I had was nights and weekends and I basically had my savings account to try to get close enough to an idea that people would back it on Kickstarter. So I don't think I took vacation time or PTO that year. I was just using all my time to try to figure out how to build a helmet people actually wanted to wear. So I was going to a trade show to meet designers who would actually help me and that was kind of my big move, but it was a hustle. When no one really understands what you're doing and you don't have any money to really incentivize them, you really have to sell people on the idea of, "You want to try to be helpful to the world somehow, so can you kind of cut me a break and help get us there?"
Gloria Hwang:
You know what? A lot of people were willing to do that. A lot of great people in the beginning believed in Thousand and me and for me that's largely how this got off the ground.
Shelby Stanger:
How did you actually make it happen? So, I mean, there's molds that need to be cut, there's materials that need to be gathered, and usually all this comes from overseas and it's made and shipped here, and sometimes having worked in the helmet industry and worked in the shoe industry, what you think you're making comes back looking really different than what you told someone to make or thought you told someone to make?
Gloria Hwang:
For sure. Yeah, for me, I was familiar with how to do a go-to-market process and the steps it took to create a product just because I was at TOMS and worked with the product team. So for me in the beginning, I worked with an industrial designer named John Larkin. He basically helped ... I had the idea for Thousand. I had the sketch of what I wanted it to be, but I didn't have the technical expertise to actually execute on it. John did all that in terms of making sure the clay was good and all the technical specs and there's enough EPS foam and stuff that. So it was largely that, and then meeting factories that would want to work for us. Again, I kept on talking to people and talking to people until I had a factory list of people who had done this before and, again, partnering with someone there to get our initial products into market.
Shelby Stanger:
Okay. So I've been to plenty of Interbike shows and outdoor shows. I mean, you're someone who's not a white dude in the bike industry. What's that like? Talk to me about that, because I've read that you've also said that it's been actually a benefit.
Gloria Hwang:
It is a benefit. I think in the very beginning I would was actually kind of self-conscious that I wasn't a white dude with a beard in the industry because I went and I just stuck out like a sore thumb. I think I went to my first Interbike and I wore a leather jacket and I was like, "Man, I'm just out of my depth here." I was self-conscious in the beginning. I really didn't want to be in the marketing and I didn't really want to do interviews. I was very much behind the scenes leader, and a friend of mine at the time told me ... she was a marketing person and she asked me, "Why don't you kind of do more for Thousand? Why don't you tell your story?" I told her, "If I'm honest, I don't look like people in this industry. I don't know if I'll have consumer trust because I don't look people in this industry."
Gloria Hwang:
Her response back to me at the time was, "Your difference is actually what makes you really unique and what brings in a new customer group probably that this industry hasn't seen." So I think from then on out, I had really started to build confidence that my differences were actually my strengths and not my distractors. Ever since that, I think thousands really leaned into that philosophy. Being different is better in a lot of ways.
Shelby Stanger:
So how big is Thousand now? You have an office in LA, you're in REI, you're in probably a bunch of other outdoor retailers.
Gloria Hwang:
Yeah. Thousand has grown super healthily over time. Business has been great. We're about 20 employees. It's been a great ride.
Shelby Stanger:
What is Thousand Gives?
Gloria Hwang:
Yeah, that's actually one of my favorite programs. So one, we have a revenue commitment that we make every year as just a thousand to give back to nonprofits that align with our values. As part of that, we let our employees take part in it. So every employee basically gets 1,000 bucks to donate to the nonprofit of their choice that aligns with one of our values and we do it as a big campaign at the end of the year. For me, it's one of the funnest times of year because you get to see all the cool things people really care about.
Shelby Stanger:
When Gloria started Thousand, she wanted to create a successful business that also gave back. She wanted to find a way to weave her values into her business and her life as an entrepreneur. Along the way, she figured out a way to make her helmets more sustainable, to support organizations that her team cares about, and, most importantly, to save lives.
Shelby Stanger:
Did you ever think that this would be your path? You would end up owning a helmet brand?
Gloria Hwang:
For sure not a helmet brand. A dream of mine was to start something mission and purpose oriented. I didn't know if it was going to be a business. I was always interested in entrepreneurial things growing up. I wouldn't say I thought I'd do it. It's just something I always tended to gravitate towards. Probably my entrepreneur spirit started in maybe middle school, elementary school. I never had a retail job. I was super clumsy growing up. I just knew I couldn't be a waiter or anything like that. So when my friends were working hostesses jobs or scooping ice cream, I bought skateboard decks on eBay. Then I bought a huge roll of grip tape and I would go to skate shops and ask them for a bunch of free stickers and I would break them up into lots and just sell the lots on eBay. That's how I would make Christmas money and I got into drop shipping on eBay. This is back in the '90s.
Shelby Stanger:
Wait, you'd break them into what? Lots? What do you mean by that?
Gloria Hwang:
Yeah, so I buy a lot of 10 or 20 skateboard decks and then I would buy a big roll of grip tape and go to shops and asked them for free stickers. I learned how to make skateboard wax. I would make these bundles, these skateboard bundles, and then I would sell the lots on eBay. A skateboard, grip tape, stickers, and this homemade skateboard wax I made, and I'd sell it for 50 bucks when I paid 20 bucks for it.
Shelby Stanger:
Amazing. Wait, how would you make skateboard wax?
Gloria Hwang:
Not well. So I don't think that many got out there into the world, but I don't even remember. As a kid, I would melt down candle wax, and then I would ... I looked up on the internet all the other things you're supposed to put into it. So I'd make this concoction. Actually, my mom was a pharmacist back then so she had all these extra pill bottles. So I would put it in the pill bottles. I think I called it pharmacy skateboard wax or something that. But it was-
Shelby Stanger:
There's a famous skateboard shop named Pharmacy. You were on to something.
Gloria Hwang:
Oh, is there really?
Shelby Stanger:
Yeah.
Gloria Hwang:
But yeah. I did that stuff as a kid. So it was weird back then because being an entrepreneur back then, wasn't a thing or a career. I just thought I was avoiding a job. So it came in handy later, I guess.
Shelby Stanger:
I'm really awe of makers and people who can fix things because I grew up in a household where if something broke, you called a handyman and I just don't know how to fix anything. Even changing my bike tire is just so intimidating. I had to basically hire a guy to teach me how to change my bike tire and do it over and over until I didn't feel intimidated anymore because I just was so embarrassed about the fact that I couldn't change my own tire. So I'm really curious how you got over that fear. You don't seem to have a fear of building things and making things.
Gloria Hwang:
I think I'm just curious. For me, I'm like, "You can learn most things. You can YouTube a lot. You can Google what you don't know." I just like learning stuff more than anything. So I wouldn't say I don't have a fear, but maybe I'm more curious than I am nervous that I won't succeed at something.
Shelby Stanger:
Speaking of building new things, I think you have something new coming out this spring. Are you allowed to tell me about it?
Gloria Hwang:
Yeah. For us, it's a big one. Again, this theme of how can we be making tools for urban travelers? We're launching into the lights category next. So it's our traveler's light. I think it's super cool. Basically you can take off the lights on and off with a magnet. So customers hate removing their lights on and off because of thieves and it's difficult. So again, the magnetic on and off makes it super easy. We also heard customers don't like kind of fiddling with a button while they're trying to ride their bike back there and it's hard to find. Ours work kind of a camera aperture dial system. So they're super cool and easy. Again, there's a really cool extension products coming out after that. So we're making a portable charger. So again, you can pop on those magnetic lights onto this charger and just charge as you go. But again, the vision of Thousand is how can we make stuff for the way people get around and the way that people get around is changing.
Shelby Stanger:
What are some other lessons you've learned as an entrepreneur? I mean, it's wild being an entrepreneur and you have to make decisions daily. Do you have any stories or lessons you've learned along the way that you wish you knew then but now you know?
Gloria Hwang:
Gosh. Probably a good amount, but I guess for me, one of the biggest lessons learned and the biggest things I think about is in the journey of Thousand, I think I've never been the one to have the most resources or to have the biggest networks or the most money. That was never Thousand's story. We weren't venture backed and we didn't start out with this massive team. It was really just me and a couple of people in the beginning. But I think what I did have more than anyone else is I just cared more. I was willing to go through hell more than the person next to me. I would tell that to any other entrepreneur, you'll never have the perfect circumstances, but what you can control is your ability just to fight harder than the person next to you, and that got us through a lot.
Shelby Stanger:
So what are some of the best pieces of advice people have given you about being an entrepreneur and running this big company?
Gloria Hwang:
Probably it is trusting your gut. I think in the very beginning, a good advisor of mine said entrepreneurs get in trouble when they don't trust their gut and their point of view. Because there's always better operators than you, there's people that are better than sales and marketing and finance and supply chain and you'll ever be. But what I think an entrepreneur does well is they have a crystal clear picture of what the world should be and when they don't lean into what that should be, then you're just kind of like everyone else. So just to trust your gut and lean into it.
Shelby Stanger:
What advice do you have to other people who have a wild idea and they're just not even sure where to start?
Gloria Hwang:
I think my advice is no one else knows where to start either. That shouldn't be the barrier. No one really knows what they're doing in a lot of ways. Everyone is trying to figure it out and everyone's trying to move in the best way possible with good intentions.
Shelby Stanger:
Gloria, thank you so much for coming on the show and sharing your story with us. Your mission is so powerful and I can't wait to see what Thousand does next and to get my own helmet. You can find more about Thousand and check out their helmets at explorethousand.com and you can also find them on social media @explorethousand.
Shelby Stanger:
Wild Ideas Worth Living is part of the REI podcast network. It's hosted by me, Shelby Stanger, written and edited by Annie Fassler and Sylvia Thomas of Puddle Creative, and our senior producer is Chelsea Davis. Our executive producers are Paolo Mottola and Joe Crosby. As always, we love it when you follow this show, rate it and review it wherever you listen, and remember, some of the best adventures happen when you follow your wildest ideas.