ONTARIO, Ohio — Chad and Victoria Diez met 10 years ago through mutual friends in Los Angeles, fell in love, moved in together and continued working in the corporate world — he as a web designer for AOL, she as a marketing agent for Bacardi USA.
Four years ago they decided to marry and just last year they moved to Mansfield.
In March 2015, Chad landed a job with Spazz Monkey, a Mansfield company specializing in customized collegiate memorabilia, as Creative Director. Months later, the couple bought the business.
“When we moved here last year, we had been wanting to own our own business and kind of work for ourselves,” Chad said. “So it seemed to work itself out by buying Spazz Monkey.
“It’s something I’m passionate about, which is design. And then my wife is in marketing so it just seemed like a good fit.”
Under their ownership, Spazz Monkey has expanded to permanent storefronts in both the Richland Mall and Polaris Fashion Place in Columbus.
The Diez couple means business.
“We don’t want to go back to working for people everyday,” said Victoria, laughing. “All of our eggs are in this.”
Taking ownership
When the couple bought the company from owner Jim Rosser, Chad said he and Victoria looked to solve their biggest challenge: creating something new for their existing customers. What came of that brainstorm was the desk topper that charges devices like phones and tablets.
“That’s something that we spent two or three months developing, making sure it was logistically possible for us to manufacture,” Chad said.
The new product, which before was solely decorative, is now decorative and functional, attracting a younger demographic, Chad said. It also has a patent pending, and Chad noted the product’s uniqueness in the market.
“Nobody in the market does decorative docks … it’s pretty unique to have that,” he said.
The new owners also saw fit to purchase a special, multi-k UV printer to use for their custom prints that they turn 3D. They can print any picture, either on canvas, paper material or wood.
“The canvas print market where you get your photos printed on a canvas … that’s sort of been exhausted. That market is very saturated,” Chad said.
Retail locations
The company moved to retail locations in the Richland Mall and Polaris Fashion Place in November 2015. Although the Diezes offer their products through their website store, the products are now visible and touchable for their customers.
“We’ve seen from our customers base that they keep coming back, they want to know that we’re still here,” Chad said. “And with the expansion to the Polaris mall, you know, it’s a legitimate, high volume mall, and we’re here now.”
Victoria said the increase in foot traffic a mall offers has been valuable to Spazz Monkey.
“People come in all the time just to see what we have — it’s been great,” she said.
Local support
“Our customers really like that we don’t outsource. We do everything local and we’re a local company,” Chad said. “We do it all.”
The couple attributes local support to that fact: Spazz Monkey is locally owned.
“The Richland Mall in general has been incredible to us,” he said.
Victoria echoed the shout-out to local supporters, both from customers and from fellow local business owners.
“It’s just the most supportive local crowd. People come in all the time and just want to wish you well and check back on you. Richland County has become a great experience for us so far,” Victoria said.
As the company continues to grow and expand, Victoria said they are looking to hire retail staff, both for the Richland Mall location and the Polaris location. For more information, visit the website or call 419-709-8716.
