The original Vietnamese girl made the world's first cheap bulletproof fashion jacket

The vests look stylish and youthful, but the fact that bulletproof vests are revolutionizing the civil protection industry.

Vy Tran , the 26-year-old founder of Wonder Hoodie , is rocking the civil bulletproof industry by launching a shirt that protects the front instead of just keeping the body safe. as well as they are modern, youthful and reasonably priced.

Vy Tran, founder of Wonder Hoodie.

With a timely business idea and impressive business figures, Vy Tran, a native of Vietnam, was named by Forbes on the list of 30 Under 30 in 2019 (US and Canada) for young people under 30 years old. respectable achievement.

The idea came from a shooting

According to the family who immigrated to the US at the age of 8, Vy's father died shortly after because of liver cancer. After graduating from the University of Washington, Vy moved with her family to the San Francisco Bay Area and started forming business ideas.

Vy's company is a newcomer to the bulletproof vending market, the industry for civilian purposes has only been budding recently. Vy's goal is to make it possible for anyone to buy bulletproof vests, which makes this item normal but not out of reach like before when it is lowered in price.

The bulletproof vests look like a fashionable hoodie.

Wonder Hoodie was founded in 2018 with the most outstanding feature is the bulletproof hat . Sharing the idea of ​​founding the company, Vy Tran said that the shootings were taking place more and more in the US, the media reported weekly or even daily.

One afternoon two years ago, a neighbor of Vy was walking to her house in Seattle when a bandit blocked her way and attacked. Despite not fighting too much, this woman still got hit by the bandit 8 in the chest and died on the spot, in front of Vy's house.

The design of the Wonder Hoodie helps to protect the head before the shootings.

'If I were a mother and wanted to protect my son from being killed by a bullet, I would equip my child with a bulletproof vest with a hood. I have never seen such a product in the market before, but it is affordable for women and children. Instead of waiting for manufacturers to create this product line, I will do it myself , 'the girl shared.

From the USD 100,000 saved, Vy quit a management job with a relatively high salary to start a career at Wonder Hoodie. The first 30 bulletproof vests were hand-sewn by Kevlar's special fabric, then ordered in large quantities by DuPont.

Almost unique in the market

The price of such a shirt ranges from USD 100 to USD 650 , depending on the model and features. In the first 11 months, the company's revenue reached $ 500,000 and reached $ 4 million by the end of 2019. At the moment, Wonder Hoodie has 3 manufacturing plants in California.

Before industrial production, Vy personally sewed the first shirts and offered them to partners.

In addition to the jacket, Vy also developed a line of bulletproof backpacks for Skyline USA with an average price of only US $ 100 and a high-grade bulletproof jacket for Aspetto from US $ 2,800 to US $ 5,000.

The girl said in the future it would promote more product lines to help increase the ownership of bulletproof gear among the civilian. The global bulletproof industry was worth $ 2.1 billion in 2018, but the percentage of ordinary people who own these items is only about 10%.

'The company's numbers keep growing exponentially. Whenever there is a shooting, investors knock on the door and ask us questions , '' Vy Tran said.

Wearing bulletproof armor has never been so comfortable and fashionable.

Robert Davis, co-founder of fashion house Aspetto - partner of Wonder Hoodie - and also one of Forbes' top 30 Under 30 in 2018, said investing in bulletproof clothing brought tremendous value later. in the face of the US government's poor control over the use of free guns in this country.

Chris Dorn, a senior analyst at Safe Havens International - a school safety organization founded after the horrific school massacre in 1999 - said: 'Providing bulletproof vests for teachers, students and staff at school no matter how much money is legitimate, not wasted.

Bulletproof backpack, another product line of Wonder Hoodie.

Although there is not an everyday shooting, if the incident happens suddenly, these things will help save the lives of many people. Not to mention, this product line is trendy and reasonably priced, making it easier for us to equip students and teachers. '

Wonder Hoodie's first investor, Nicholas Tommarello, CEO and co-founder of the Wefunder Foundation, said: ' There is a lot of skepticism about this idea both in terms of feasibility and business opportunity, but we realized right away this was a useful job, contributing to social change and more people would be buying such bulletproof vests. '

In order to contribute to boosting the number of sales and taking humane actions, Vy's company launched the program that every 10 shirts ordered will be donated 1 shirt for teachers or employees working at the corresponding school. Wonder Hoodie customers not only have parents, teachers, but also the San Francisco Police Department, Los Angeles and many other customers.

'After knowing the cost of Kevlar's fabric, I realized that other bulletproof vests made up 95% of the profits from each shirt sold. This makes me feel unhappy because it will make it difficult for people to have access to safety products for themselves. My company has its own factory, so I will make the price of the product as low as possible.

I don't want to confuse the security people and buy my products, but if people feel safe using my shirt, I think I can help them. There are still many people who do not yet own my bulletproof vest, so I continue to create many other product lines for everyone to be protected from gunfire risks , '' Vy laughed, shared and said. The body is feeling the right way ahead.

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