
DATE: Wednesday, September 3, 1997          TAG: 9709030502

SECTION: BUSINESS                PAGE: D1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY PAM STARR, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH                    LENGTH:  104 lines

BROTHERS' SUCCESS IS IN THE BAGS 2 BEACH SIBLINGS TURNED AN IDEA FOR A FABRIC LUNCH TOTE INTO A NATIONWIDE SUCCESS STORY.

The Marx brothers are laughing all the way to the corporate lunchroom, even though they've never set foot in one.

In 1993, Jim Marx hit upon a ``crazy'' idea to create designer lunch totes that would replace the plain brown paper bag. He christened the line ``SAX'' and enlisted younger brother Brad to help.

That first year, Jim's company, In Touch Designs, sold $10,000 worth of the reusable and insulated fabric totes printed with colorful flower, wildlife, animal or nature patterns.

But as the brothers started marketing at trade shows and showrooms, orders poured in. By the end of 1995, they had sold $500,000 worth of totes to hundreds of department stores, boutiques, gift shops and zoos across the country. Since then, the totes have found their way to Canada, Japan, South America, Bermuda and the Caribbean.

Jim Marx, 30, is still shaking his head over the seemingly sudden popularity of their product. Since 1995, he has doubled the office space at Shoreline Shoppes on Shore Drive, where the orders are filled and shipped, and added a fast-selling fabric gift bag, made at their Virginia Beach location, to the line. Brad Marx, 27, went to Washington, D.C., to take care of production. There are three other employees.

``It's crazy; it's nuts,'' says Jim Marx, who started In Touch Designs in 1989 as a T-shirt screen printing company while attending the University of Virginia. ``But I was determined to make something like this happen. I knew it would.''

Two years ago, the Marx brothers did everything except make the totes. The SAX line is now produced by two sewing companies in the United States and Mexico and marketed by 123 independent sales representatives. National sales director Jennifer Rayhill oversees them from the Virginia Beach office.

Riding on the success of the totes, the brothers are introducing a line of diaper bags this month in the same patterns. They discovered at a trade show that customers were using the totes as bottle bags.

``The baby doesn't care if the bag has little bears on it,'' says Jim Marx. ``The parents have to carry the thing. We wanted to make a bag that doesn't look like a diaper bag.''

The brothers also are awaiting approval from Charles Schulz to market his licensed Peanuts characters on the totes. United Media already has given its blessing.

Among local retailers are Animal World and Monograms Plus in Lynnhaven Mall, Earth's Treasures at Waterside, the Norfolk Zoo, the Virginia Marine Science Museum and hospital gift shops. The smaller totes retail for about $12; the larger ones, about $20. The fabric gift bags sell for $2 and the diaper bags for $25 to $35.

Linda Hayes, manager of Heart and Hand Gallery in Virginia Beach, says the lunch totes and gift bags sell quickly.

``Their products' shelf life is not long,'' said Hayes. ``They're very affordable and made very well. The brothers seem to know the right combination for color and fabric.''

Jim and Brad Marx always seemed to have the Midas touch for businesses. Jim began his career with a paper route in elementary school. By the time he had graduated from Bayside High, he had owned a crabbing business, a gutter-cleaning business and managed a punk rock band, for which he played lead guitar.

Not content to produce only a skateboarding magazine at age 10 called The Ragged Edge, brother Brad grabbed opportunity when it knocked in their Witchduck Point neighborhood. At age 12, he and another seventh-grader stenciled neighbors' names onto trash cans for $3 a pop when the city first gave out the big black containers.

The brothers' business skills, Jim Marx says, came from persistence and creativity.

``I don't sit back and think about it,'' says Jim, who, like Brad, favors T-shirts and jeans for work clothes. ``I don't think you need to be brilliant or anything - you just always need to have a goal in mind and take steps for it.''

As with any small business, they've had their problems. Jim went through 12 manufacturing companies the first two years. Products got stuck in a warehouse during the recent United Parcel Service strike. They've ordered fabric to continue a fast-selling pattern, only to find it discontinued or sold out. Once, 600 totes were delivered with the handles upside down.

``Unforeseen problems are so much a part of the business,'' Jim Marx says.

The brothers have not allowed success to alter their work habits or lifestyle. They've shaved a few hours off their 16-hour work days but are constantly thinking of new products and designs. The only change for Jim and his wife, Holly, an insurance underwriter with USAA, is the house they bought last year.

The brothers' goal this year is $1 million in sales.

``The money will come in someday, but that's not it for us,'' says Jim. ``It's more about creating something that other people know about. We get calls every day from people who got a tote as a gift and want to know how to get more.''

He stops for a moment and smiles a little sheepishly.

``It's neat. It's really, really neat.''

MEMO: For more information about SAX, call In Touch Designs toll-free at

(800) 676-8337. ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photos]

Brad, left, and Jim Marx show off their SAX in the Virginia Beach

office of In Touch Designs. Jim came up with the idea for the

reusable, insulated lunch totes in 1993; by the end of 1995, the

brothers had sold $500,000 worth of the bags.

Betty Rodman lays out fabric to cut at the Virginia Beach shop.

About 120 independent sales representatives, coordinated from the

Beach home office, market the SAX bags across the country.