Meet Sophie & Izzy Uwins | Chief Design Officers of SOZY Pencils

We had the good fortune of connecting with Sophie & Izzy Uwins and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Sophie & Izzy Uwins, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?

We had an idea and a vision to invent a new writing instrument because we were forever switching between pencils and highlighters when annotating textbooks, causing us to lose time in class. Once we realized that there wasn’t a product on the market that could meet our needs, we started designing one ourselves. A year later, The Annotator was born and we started a stationery business called SOZY Pencils.

We are twins and a team, who loves to design and collaborate, so decided to give it a try. Everyone loved our idea and told us to go on Shark Tank, but we just felt like it was something we wanted to keep in our family since it’s our first time. This way, we have control and can run it on our timeline/agenda.

We really didn’t know much about starting a business so we thought it would be a great way to learn about all the aspects first hand: research, design, product development and refinement, sales, distribution, branding, packaging, marketing, social media, and financials.

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?

We are a small stationery business who design unique products geared towards students. We are most proud of getting into 50+ stores after doing our first trade show in NYC: The NYC Stationery Show. We had no idea what to expect, but it was so exciting as buyers were so excited to see us and our new product out on the market.

It wasn’t easy and still isn’t. But, we do the best we can with the time we have outside of school. When we are selling at in-person at Trade Shows, we are on fire and typically get the most orders from buyers. It’s so exciting.

But, it’s really hard to market our products online, if we aren’t in-person. For some reason, online marketing isn’t converting to sales.

One of the biggest challenges we faced was getting the prototype right. There were times we wanted to give up but we stuck with it as we really believed in our product. Then, getting The Annotator manufactured during pandemic was even harder as most manufacturers wanted to make masks, not pencils. Finally, getting the colors right on the metallic line was hard and it took over 1 year to get it right. We were just patient and didn’t give up.

We want the world, specifically young entrepreneurs, to be inspired. To know that if you have an idea, believe in yourself, and go for it. It’s achievable.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?

There are so many unique places to visit in Los Angeles. Where do we start!

We love to be outdoors and active, whether it’s playing tennis, hiking, beach volleyball, or swimming.
Manhattan Beach has many volleyball courts and it’s fun going and playing with new people you just met. The Annenberg Beach House in Santa Monica has great access to the beach, where you can park, then rent bikes, and cycle down to Venice Beach. And, there are so many great parks that have tennis courts, so anywhere there is an open court, we are in.

We love great food and there are so many choices! Century City Mall is a favorite — you really can’t go wrong, as they have it all, great shops, food, environment and a movie theater. We are partial to getting Boba from Wushiland.

Sushi is a must in LA; Sugarfish and Iroha are local favorites.

Japanese and Koran BBQ are also great places to go with friends as its fun to cook and share different foods — we like Gyu-Kaku (many locations) and Quarters BBQ (Koreatown).

Ice Cream at Salt & Straw, McConnell’s, or Fatamorgana Gelato are always a treat.

We’d also take our friend to a few independent shops on Ventura Blvd, such as Annabelle’s Book Shop, as she has a wonderful selection of unique books and gifts.

And, we do love college sports, the energy and support is so fun, so going to a tennis or basketball match at USC/UCLA/Pepperdine/UCSB is something we love doing on weekends.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?

There were a few people who have been instrumental in helping us get our business going. We couldn’t have done this without them.

First, our parents, who believed in us and supported us along the way in this journey.

Second, Lori Caden at Caden Concepts who helped take our idea, create a prototype, refine it, and help us get it manufactured. She is truly an expert.

And Hayley Antonian, at Scenario PR, who helped us get exposure and buzz.

Website: https://www.sozypencils.com/our-shop

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sozypencils/