Meet Safely, a modern self-defense brand founded by women for women
When Ashley Raymond, Danna Tao, Margy McCallum, and Meagan Doyle teamed up for a class project at The University of Texas at Austin, little did they know they would launch not one but two companies together.
Due to growing safety concerns, especially for femme-presenting individuals and the elderly, the market for non-lethal self-defense weapons, such as pepper sprays or wearable devices, is expanding, especially in North America.
According to Verified Market Research, the self-defense products market was valued at around $2.9 billion in 2023 and is projected to reach $4.55 billion by 2030, growing at a compound annual growth rate of 6.8 per cent between 2024 to 2030.
Beyond the big players, such as Mace and Victorinox, there is a growing number of startups and independent brands seeking to enter this competitive market, such as Safely.
Inside Retail recently spoke with Raymond, one of the brand’s co-founders, to hear the story behind the concept and how the four friends worked together to take the brand from an idea to a reality.
From classmates to co-workers
Over the course of what Raymond joked was “a class project that never really ended”, the would-be entrepreneurs realised they all shared one major commonality, concern over their personal safety.
Amid rising concerns of female-centered violence across urban landscapes and college campuses, the classmates decided to start a business that would help individuals like themselves.
Raymond explained that she and her fellow co-founders found it especially odd that despite the safety weapons market being dominated by women, there were few female-founded brands in the industry.
Seven years later, Safely is filling this gap.
How Safely came to be
Balancing college and their post-graduation careers alongside running their first business wasn’t easy, so the co-founders’ first attempt at launching a safety products company didn’t reach fruition.
However, not to be discouraged, they gathered their learnings from their first entrepreneurial endeavour and went on to officially launch Safely in 2021.
After receiving funding from angel investors, the brand launched one of its first products – a keychain pepper spray, complete with a 10-foot-long spraying capacity and a UV-dye formula, and available in nine different pathways.
One of the product’s points of differentiation is the ability to remove the spraying component from the canister at airports and other secured venues. Customers can then order a replacement spray on the website for half the cost.
In May, the company plans to launch a multi-use, patent-pending product on its direct-to-consumer site for pre-order.
In addition to the brand’s DTC website, Safely products are currently available at the University of Texas’ student shop and in several specialty stores throughout Texas.
Safely also provides self-defense tips via its blog and public safety demonstration events on college campuses and other venues.
Safely’s plans for expansion
One of the issues the company has encountered on its path toward large-scale expansion is that the laws around selling self-defense items, especially pepper spray, vary from state to state. Currently, Safely is able to ship to 46 states within the US, excluding Alaska, Hawaii, Massachusetts and New York.
Another problem the Safely team has been trying to resolve is the issue of advertising their products.
Similar to the online media restrictions on marijuana-infused products or sexual wellness products, self-defense products face restrictions as they are technically labeled as weapons.
Raymond explained, “Something that is really difficult for Safely is that a lot of websites and payment processors consider us a weapon. We can’t run ads on Meta, so we can’t do Facebook or Instagram ads with our pepper sprays.”
She added that the company is unable to use the Shopify payment platform as the site considers Safely products to be taboo as well. Currently, the team is focusing on word-of-mouth connections and adding to their roster of bricks-and-mortar retailers.
However, despite these barriers, Raymond and another co-founder, Doyle, have recently started working at Safely full-time, and in the three months since doing so, they have been able to scale revenue by over 37 per cent.
The most rewarding part of working on Safely, Raymond stated proudly, is hearing the positive feedback from customers on how the brand’s SKUs and resources have made them feel safer in their everyday lives.
The brand’s long-term goal, in addition to launching new SKUs, is to sell through big-box retailers. such as PacSun or Macy’s, so that as many consumers as possible can have access to the brand.
- Further reading: Retailer’s bid to prevent violence against women
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