In 2001, When the Haas family took over the then 20-year-old Vagabond House – a purveyor of pewter and horn giftware and jewelry – they held high hopes for building the operation into a real industry player. Scott Haas, his sister Julie, and her husband Will Hardy saw the merit in extending the family’s business holdings (mostly in the health care and financial industries) into a totally new realm. Vagabond House seemed the perfect possibility. “Will and Julie were looking to get out of retail,” Haas apprises, “and I had a huge interest in traveling and finding cool merchandise.” Eager to find a new challenge to get passionate about – the prospect of working with products and not services was particularly attractive – the Haas family found the allure of Vagabond House most enticing.

Vagabond House – founded by California housewives Susan Lord and Bella Spiegelman – carved a niche refashioning vintage silver scrounged from estate sales and flea markets into decorative accessories, flatware, and jewelry. Using antique flatware handles and new stainless blades, they reconfigured flatware. Then they plied the handles into innovative jewelry designs. When they added animal horn to their assortments, they stumbled upon the signature for which they became known at regional crafts fairs.

[Editor’s note: Regarding Vagabond House’s horn. No animals are ever killed for their antlers. Only naturally shed horns – mostly from Wyoming and Montana – are hand-milled and hand-ground.]

It wasn’t until the mid-80s when Lord and Spiegelman began exhibiting at trade shows that Vagabond House – whose name derives from an obscure 85-year-old rambling poem about a drifter who dreams of outfitting a house with long-sought mementos amassed whilst traveling the globe – gained momentum, maxing out as the $1 million enterprise which the Haas family acquired in 2001.

The four thirty-something Haas siblings found success revitalizing small businesses. “I’m very project-oriented,” Haas notes, “and we all become good at researching, analyzing, and organizing.” Something about Vagabond House – the first acquired operation to make and sell merchandise – was greatly appealing. “Our businesses prior to Vagabond House were not about creating product,” Haas shares. “Vagabond House has a unique product, great innovation, and an interesting story. We’re a big family that loves entertaining and food and we all had a great feeling about this company and were anxious to put our spin on it. This was something we were all very interested in doing.”

It wasn’t a seamless transition for the neophyte designers/manufacturers/wholesalers. “I was a fish out of water,” admits Hardy, whose decade of retail experience – he and his wife owned a Baskin-Robbins franchise – wasn’t enough to prepare him for what lay ahead. “I loved those five-minute relationships dealing with customers face-to-face, but this business was completely different and it was quite daunting at first.” He wasn’t the only apprehensive one. All of the Haases knew they were in uncharted territory and it would take time to learn the ropes. “There were reservations,” Haas underscores, “and there continues to be. I don’t think any of us realized what we were getting into.”

But steadily and surely confidence set in as the principals settled into a loosely structured operation which necessitates that everyone dons any number of hats. “We all do everything,” Haas relays. “We have our responsibilities but there’s a lot of overlap.” Helen Harris, the only non-family executive, joined early on, overseeing product development and sourcing. The seasoned veteran with strong overseas factory ties helped Vagabond House branch into new categories. “At the beginning, much of the line looked the same,” Harris notes. “We knew we had to offer unique, quality, high-end products that took us in new directions.” First up, Vagabond House started producing its own designs, not merely assembling existing components to create new merchandise. “Not only was supply for antique handles drying up,” Haas apprises, “but we realized if we were serious about growing the business we had to produce our own materials and design our own products.”