How Founder Chantel Powell Kept Play Pits Afloat After A Fire Destroyed Its Inventory And Equipment

On Sept. 13, Chantel Powell, founder and CEO of Play Pits, got a call at 2:30 a.m. informing her that her deodorant brand’s warehouse was on fire. Powell’s husband Keeyon Powell overheard the call and didn’t have to say anything to her afterward about what to do next. The pair immediately dressed and rushed to the warehouse.

“What I pulled up to was an explosive fire. You could feel the heat from the street,” remembers Powell. “My [warehouse] neighbor was an iron welder and, apparently, she had combustible items like propane, oxygen and gas.”

Firefighters quickly arrived on the scene with three engines. “They had the hose just pouring into the building,” says Powell. “We talked to one of the firefighters, and they were like, ‘Yeah, we’re going to be putting this out until noon. This was a really bad fire. There were explosions. We’re trying to get it under control, so come back later.’’”

Before noon, at roughly 11 a.m., Powell returned, and the firefighters were assessing the remaining structure and talking to warehouse tenants, who were trying to salvage what they could from their scorched warehouse units. The firefighters didn’t have good news for Powell.

“They were like, ‘You’re not going to be able to get in,’” she recounts. “So, it was this moment of feeling like the fire was the knife, but the fact that I could not go in and retrieve anything, that was the turn.”

In Play Pits’ unit, a picture of Powell with her son, Kameron, who inspired the brand, and a printer was all that was left. Powell pleaded with the firefighters to let her retrieve them. Manufacturing equipment, raw materials for production and over 7,000 pieces of finished goods were destroyed by the fire.

Despite Play Pits’ heavy losses, Powell was relieved—and hopeful. It could’ve been much worse. Play Pits uses a separate warehouse for Amazon and Target inventory, and that warehouse was fine. And Powell underscores, “I didn’t lose an employee, my family or my life. Everything in that building can be replaced.”

“I didn’t lose an employee, my family or my life. Everything in that building can be replaced.”

As she sorted through how to replace what the fire consumed, she closed Play Pits’ website, which had hundreds of unfulfilled orders in the queue, and stopped taking online orders. The revenue from Target and Amazon “definitely helped,” says Powell. Still, she says, “We lost huge revenue during the time we were closed. We had to lean out our team and make some adjustments to get ready to pay a 3PL.”

In a serendipitous twist of fate, Powell had previously scheduled a meeting with Maire Rosa, owner and CEO of third-party logistics company Ecomspaces, just two days after the fire. When Powell informed Rosa of the fire, Powell says she responded, “’How are you standing here?’ And I was like, ‘Girl, what am I supposed to do? I have to figure this out.’” On Oct. 13, Play Pits’ secured space at the 19,000-square-foot headquarters of Ecomspaces.

Play Pits quietly went live again on its site on Nov. 5 and officially relaunched on Nov. 7. It sold over 700 products on the day of its relaunch and has maintained average sales of 200 to 500 units per day per day since. On its site, the brand sells three varieties of kids’ deodorant—Suga, Happy and Sonshine—for $11.99 each and two varieties of adult deodorant—King and Queen—for $12.99 each.

Play Pits had insurance covering its warehouse, but the brand wasn’t able to recoup the total amount of damages the fire caused. Powell advises fellow indie beauty brand owners to revisit their insurance policies annually to check that their businesses are adequately protected.

“Not only to have enough liability, but also for property insurance as well,” she says. “Make sure you have coverage for loss of wages or loss of income, any type of protection that will allow you to stay afloat while in recovery mode.”

Play Pits recently learned it won a $100,000 grant from small business loan company Kapitus’s Building Resilient Business contest. It won based on the support of its customers, which Play Pits calls the UnderArmie, who voted for the brand in strong numbers.

It also won a $50,000 prize from Pharrell Williams’ Black Ambition Foundation, a nonprofit program funding ideas by Black and Latinx entrepreneurs. It plans to put the grant money toward replenishing the inventory and equipment it lost in the fire along with marketing efforts.

In 2019, Powell told Beauty Independent that her retail dream was to place Play Pits in Target. That dream came true in March, when the brand debuted on the retailer’s site and in 365 of its stores. Today, Powell’s new retail dream is to expand Play Pits into Whole Foods, Walgreens and other drugstores and grocers.

The brand is currently focused on growing its brand ambassador program by partnering with youth athletes, parents and teachers. It’s also building out its charitable initiative by working with nonprofits that aid underserved communities by providing healthy hygiene access and education.