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Prof dresses little superheroes around the world

Brian Wolfe.

Pip and Bean even sells personalized adult capes, as modeled here by Wolfe.

By MATTHEW BIDDLE

Published May 13, 2016 This content is archived.

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“The worst part of having an online business is never getting to see the kids open them or put them on for the first time. But then you get a picture of a kid going through a heart transplant who is wearing his cape walking through the hospital. It melts you a little. ”
Brian Wolfe, assistant professor of finance
School of Management

Over the past six years, Brian Wolfe, assistant professor of finance, and his wife, Alyssa, have created thousands of little superheroes around the world through their business, Pip and Bean.

It began six years ago when Brian was studying for his PhD in finance at Indiana University. The couple needed a birthday present for a little boy and, short on cash, decided to make one. Alyssa sewed a custom superhero cape the boy loved and later decided to bring several to a local craft fair. The capes sold out, and Pip and Bean was born.

Zoom image: The handmade capes can be personalized with the individual’s name or initials, or customized for special events like weddings and birth announcements. The handmade capes can be personalized with the individual’s name or initials, or customized for special events like weddings and birth announcements.

The handmade capes can be personalized with the individual’s name or initials, or customized for special events like weddings and birth announcements.

Knowing they could never compete with inexpensive, mass-produced products, the Wolfes carved out a niche in handmade capes, personalized with the individual’s name or initials, or customized for special events like weddings — ring bearer or flower girl gifts — and birth announcements — baby’s first cape or big brother/sister capes. In addition, they make princess and costume capes, and accessories like masks and armbands.

Alyssa handles daily operations, marketing and customer relations, while Brian oversees finances and human resources. They employ a small team of Buffalo-based, part-time seamstresses and get their kids — Charlotte, 9, Penny, 8, and Harry, 4 — involved, too.

“When they were little, their job was to put stickers on the outside of the packaging,” Wolfe says. “When we take product pictures, they’re the first models. My oldest daughter was learning to sew last summer, so she'd make armbands.”

Over the past six years, they’ve sold through Etsy and the Pip and Bean website to customers on six continents and in more than 25 countries.

Zoom image: Pip and Bean also makes costume capes, like this hammerhead shark cape. Pip and Bean also makes costume capes, like this hammerhead shark cape.

Pip and Bean also makes costume capes, like this hammerhead shark cape.

“We still pack up all of the orders personally and sign every receipt to say ‘thank you’ to our customers,” Wolfe says. “It’s amazing to see something that’s going to Amsterdam or France. We’re like, ‘Somebody in Australia actually bought something we made.’ It still blows our minds.”

The Wolfes also give back with a buy-one, give-one option, in which customers can donate a cape to regional charities.

“The worst part of having an online business is never getting to see the kids open them or put them on for the first time,” Wolfe says. “But then you get a picture of a kid going through a heart transplant who is wearing his cape walking through the hospital. It melts you a little.

“Running a business is an incredible amount of work, but whether it’s the charitable things we do or the example we set for our kids, it has its own rewards, too.”