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Local Generation Zers are putting turtle fitness on the map with tees and hoodies
Written by Tina Traster
Even General Zers with an entrepreneurial motive sometimes starts with a lemonade stand.
Eric Bonkowski was eight years old when he “started the business” selling that vintage item from his driveway. Today, 20-year-old Generation Z — part of the group born between 1997 and 2003 — is a serial entrepreneur who studies sales and marketing at Ramapo College in New Jersey and works for Turtle Fitness, a branded clothing company with an online presence. .
The Sloatzburg native, who transitioned from lemonade to gardening and snowshoeing during his adolescence, only sowed the seeds for this fledgling business. But it’s worth noting that his entrepreneurial drive and energy are worth focusing on at RCBJ. Bonkowski is a prediction of what a generation of young strugglers might look like: they understand online marketing, they understand branding; They understand the trade. And often, like Bonkowski, they build their companies out of their parents’ homes, where they still live.
When Bonkowski mowed “for a living” as a teenager, he would make logo T-shirts and post them to customers to thank them for their loyalty.
In high school, the entrepreneur borrowed inspiration from his pet tortoise Frank — he said the family never had a cat or dog — and put the reptile on a T-shirt.
“I have always enjoyed designing,” said Bonkowski, who is not an artist but sketches out conceptual ideas before outsourcing his projects. “I did this when I was on the skateboarding team in high school. Actually, this is where the turtle logo started. I put Frank on the labels. And one of my friends suggested I wear it over his T-shirts.”
And here’s what he did—and battalions of his enlisted “buddies”: In 2018, his last year of high school, the team produced T-shirts for $15 and sold them at school, and to friends and family. The team includes Santiago Balbuena Jr., Director of Marketing, graphic artists Hector Gutierrez and Kevin Gonzalez, and photographer Matt Siofi.
Interest in their shirts—which Bunkowski initially admitted were of poor quality—gained momentum as they became a source of local pride. They were a sloatsberg tortoise. It was a character as it spread with youthful enthusiasm. Along the way, the tortoise slowly finds its way to Mexico, as some of the Turtle Fitness team has family there. The group also donated T-shirts to a Long Island turtle charity and recently teamed up with New City’s Petey Wheaty’s for a promotion.
But they got a big jump after stunt (not appreciated by the school management) as the company launched 18 beach balls with Turtle Fitness’s Frank during their 2019 high school graduation party.
The excitement towards the turtle led the team to post on social media, particularly on Instagram and SnapChat. They also produced exercise videos. During the height of the pandemic, Turtle Fitness “dropped” a wool beanie.
“It was a complete failure,” Bonkowski said. “I just got the wind out of my sails. I thought, maybe this wouldn’t work. It made me take a step back.”
Lesson number one for every entrepreneur: This first failure either puts you out of business or puts you back in your power.
For five months, Bonkowski looked at excess stocks in a chest in his bedroom. He kept reminding him that he failed but that he needed to do better. He knows his tortoises have legs, so to speak, and that this was a “COVID tortoise.”
With the world reopening, Turtle Fitness has doubled. The team has upgraded the merchandise to better quality. It raised its prices to $20 to cover costs and expenses. She moved production from an online company to Promofect Screen Printing in Suffern, a T-shirt and print shop.
Late last year, the company built and launched an e-commerce site.
The products are released as “drops,” which means that the T-shirt, and now the added range of hoods, are available for a limited period of time.
“Limited editions make the product more competitive,” Bonkowski said.
Bonkowski, who will graduate from college in his spring, along with his team, who are pursuing careers in photography, technology and marketing, knows that growing this child will take time and persistence. But they have time.
Revenues so far have been modest – covering most of the costs – but Bonkowski says he thinks it can be increased with time and hard work.
“The work is hard,” said Bonkowski musing. “I wish it was easier. But I’ve learned that you don’t have to give up after failure. It doesn’t mean you’re a failure. It’s a lesson.”
A quick find of a young businessman described a turtle.
