PETOSKEY — The idea seemed simple enough.

The concept, however, has taken years of planning and design, sweat and tears, successes and failures.

It’s all been worth it to Boyne City native Jackie Garrett and her husband, Travis Garrett, of designer diaper bag company Vilah Bloom, which recently opened a store front at 625 Connable Ave. in Petoskey.

“We wanted a store front to feel like Vilah Bloom,” Jackie said. “It needed to represent our brand and what you’d see in stores. We obtained this building, we’re only open Mondays from 9 a.m. — 3 p.m., but it’s been a great turnout where people wander in.

“It’s been a great testing station before we open a true flagship store,” Jackie added. “I think we’ve done the right thing.”

So far, it’s been a successful business practice for the Garretts, who named their product after their first daughter, now 10-year-old Vilah. The idea came to Jackie as she was constantly forgetting wet wipes to go along with her diaper bag.

“I created the first bag on our kitchen table when we were living in New Hampshire when Vilah was first born,” Jackie said. “I kept forgetting my wet wipes and thought to myself, ‘why aren’t these things just attached?’ I thought it’d help pregnancy brain for new moms.

“It was at first a running joke between Travis and I because I’d always forget them,” Jackie added. “We’d have to buy travel packs all the time.”

Jackie sewed her first wet wipe dispensing bag called “Harbor Side Tote” at her home, but discovered manufacturing the hole to dispense wet wipes was more difficult than it seemed.

“Especially because you have to make it so it wouldn’t leak,” Jackie said. “That was a huge developmental learning curve, so we developed our own wet wipe case which dispenses and holds the moisture in. You can load it and buy wet wipes from anywhere in bulk.”

Garrett said it took her about four years to fully develop her product and then go to market with it.

“We had to find cut-and-sew manufacturers and I couldn’t keep up with the demand,” Jackie said. “I was making them and giving them to my friends. I wasn’t the best sewer.”

The demand for her bags continued to grow, and as a result Jackie sought out a cut-and-sew manufacturer in New Jersey, and then another in Chicago where the couple used to live.

“We felt a little more at home working with someone in the Midwest,” Jackie said of the move to manufacturing to Chicago. “From there, we moved here to Northern Michigan and started using Traverse Bay Manufacturing in Elk Rapids, they helped us really launch and they did a great job, but really couldn’t keep up with the demand so we outsourced it.

“We work now with about seven factories overseas,” Jackie added. “It’s been amazing.”

Garrett noted the success of Vilah Bloom is the opposite of many other companies, which usually start by selling wholesale to boutiques.

“Our company took off via dot-com,” Jackie said. “We’ve been online for many years with Nordstrom, Buy Buy Baby, Macy’s, Jet and Amazon. We work with larger companies internationally, but we felt the urge to go smaller because we felt like it’s gotten out of control. We wanted to rein it back in and gain some recognition because if people don’t know who you are, it doesn’t matter.”

The opening of the storefront on Connable Avenue is the Garrett’s “grassroots effort,” as Travis said, to build the brand locally while staying true to its image.

“We’ve done a good job of gaining a lot of boutiques in the state of Michigan in particular,” Travis said. “It’s been a lot of hard work, perseverance and some road blocks, but we’ve just kept fighting and clawing our way to the top. That’s the message Id’ like to get out, this just doesn’t happen overnight and you become a millionaire. It takes hard work and you have to fight for it and believe it, have a passion about it.

“For Jackie, she wanted to develop a fashionable looking bag and you can look at the bags and think of them more as a boat tote than a diaper bag,” Travis said. “The goal is to be fashionable and very functional.”

With the slogan “For Life’s Little Messes,” Vilah Bloom aims to provide on-the-go-moms with stylish and functional diaper bags. The company carries bags in an array of shapes and sizes, including the “Harbor Side Tote,” “MOTG Convertible Backpack,” “Sail Away Satchel,” “Simple Clutch” and “Cottage Clutch.”

Last week, Jackie also launched a new product line entitled “Wipes Wallet,” in which users can store their cell phone and tech wipes along with personal belongings.

“It (Wipes Wallet) opens up a new clientele,” Jackie said. “From teens up until women in their 70s. I’ve had women come in and want them for travel. They’re very convenient.”

Jackie said she’d like more people to know of her product, as many people in the area are still unaware of Vilah Bloom.

Jackie’s “Sail Away Satchel” won best diaper bag four years ago at an ABC Kid’s Expo in Las Vegas, and was soon thereafter picked up in Nordstrom.

“A lot of our friends know about it, but there’s a lot of people who don’t,” Jackie said. “We started from the ground up, we’re both educators, but I went in the opposite direction and went more into the creative direction.”

Jackie said it’s her hope her story — which she loves to tell — will inspire and empower other women to do the same with their ideas and dreams.

“I’ve helped six women start their businesses who’ve had cool ideas,” Jackie said.

“It’s so cool to share out experience and mistakes we’ve made. We’ve made some huge mistakes and it’s a learning curve, but it was just a passion for what we wanted to do.”

Travis said ascetics play a key role in every design Jackie come up with, and the durability of the bags are second to none.

“You can carry them for years and they can grow with you,” Travis said.

For more information regarding Vilah Bloom, visit www.vilahbloom.com or call (231) 753-2999.