Moop Shop, Pittsburgh, PA (2026)

07/23/2024

Hi everyone! It’s been one year since I closed Moop Shop, and about nine months since I wrapped up the last production run of wholesale orders. The story from a year ago is still in the link in bio if you want to read it. Quite a lot has happened in the intervening space between. Initially, I went through a stage of extreme burnout recovery, which led to slowly rebuilding myself, understanding my identity outside of the brand and my lifestyle outside of the business operations, while simultaneously, trying to determine what I wanted to do next in my career. After a series of starts and stops, many many interviews, two moves within eight weeks and a lot of big psychic energy, I think I’ve found my footing again. This feed, which began when Instagram began, has been a bit of a confusing place to know how to more forward with. I’ve decided to change it over to my professional brand page.
So, hello! I’m Wendy Downs.
And, I am doing okay.

I launched a project called Cocktail Slob earlier this year. I’ll be posting a lot about that, alongside other projects I’m working on. We all know IG is not what it used to be. But, there is a community and an outlet that I’ve missed activating in a real way. If you haven’t already, I hope you’ll subscribe to Cocktail Slob. It is a writing project with some gory stories, some wild stories, a few that might make you cry, things I’m cooking and cocktails I’m making. Twice I’ve posted videos. My sense of humor is returning, as is my writing wit. I’m working on reading all of the posts aloud so they can become a podcast, and I’m excited to soon launch a shop to go alongside the Substack. I hope you’ll join me as I build again. Over the next few days I’ll be reposting about six months worth of Cocktail Slob photos. And then, I’ll share slowly as things go forward. So much gratitude for this community of hearts and minds who support small people doing big things. The world outside is wild and kinda scary. Hopefully we can all help each other through it with some engaging stories, entertaining cocktails, six minute eggs and plenty of levity.
###,
Wendy

05/16/2023

A very very big announcement about the last bags I’ll design and make at MoopHQ.
✌️🌞🤍✨
Click through to read!
https://www.moopshop.com/blogs/news/my-last-collection

05/08/2023

Good Morning, Monday! I spent my entire weekend cooking all kinds of fabulous things. I tend to funnel my stress through the kitchen, especially when I’m deep into making big decisions, working on new projects or just managing the day to day operations of this wild small batch manufacturing machine. I’ve been trying to recreate a few of the fantastic meals we had while in Miami a few weeks ago. A nice way to keep that vacation high going.
I also just released the newly redesigned Utility Tote. Did you see them?!? I’ve added interior slip pockets and changed the lining to cordura nylon so it is more easily wiped out. It is, after all, intended for utility…use and abuse this bag. It’s one of my all time favorites. Currently available in three colors.
The Blue Lobster is *very* limited edition. We used the last of that material to produce these and they are stunning. If you were lucky enough to get one of those Bun Totes, it’s a great pairing to that bag.
The Canoe and Charcoal are a cotton nylon blend, also with a waxed finish. This makes the material even more durable and gives it a smooth hand feel while concealing daily wear and tear nicely.
And, we added a few of those face cups to the shop! I use these as little prep bowls while cooking. Highly adorable. Highly giftable.
Off and running for another wild work week! Hoping the same positive energy for each of you, too. Someone about the recent full moon, Pluto being somewhere floating around Saturn and I dunno…I’m a Cancer Leo cusp amongst all of that which might just mean I like to be in charge and I cry a lot. Either way! The stars are doing something that’ll lend their hand or not to each of our immediate futures. I’m gonna say, the outlook is bright. Just don’t read the news or you’ll feel otherwise.
xoxo! Wendy 🌞🌕🪐✨🐰🙂🦩🐚

05/05/2023

I am constantly looking for reasons to fall in love with Seattle and one of my current favorites is the streets filled with bunnies. My first encounter with the PNW buns was on Whidbey Island, when my girl first moved out here. Those giant eared rabbits just hang out in that idyllic town at the start of the San Juan Islands, whales quietly swimming off shore, rabbits in the meadows on land. It’s surreal. While the city of Seattle might not always feel like a wonderland of wild animals, my neighborhood is filled with little rabbits, hopping across your path pretty much everywhere you go. Strangely, I rarely see squirrels…always these little bun buns, though. It’s the kind of magic I want more of.
We finished stitching up this limited edition collaboration with just before I went to Miami…where sidewalks are filled with wild iguanas and dolphins swim out at sea. Frankly, I’ll take all of it. But, for now, these Bun Totes are pretty reflective of my PNW days. Printed with water based inks on recycled cotton canvas, in the perfect catchall size for everything from groceries to city picnic supplies to beach hangouts on the Puget Sound.
Get yours!
xoxo,
Wendy & co!
🐰✌️🐰🐰

04/27/2023

There is an inherent value in taking a vacation. Aside from a few long weekends, the last true vacation I took was in 2018. The life of a small business owner who makes tangible products is as rewarding as it is challenging/time consuming and taking time away has been so difficult. With everything accomplished the last few years (read: pulling a small manufacturing operation through a global pandemic then rebuilding it on the other side of the country on her own), I did not fully realize how affected I’ve been by not being able to turn work off for a week. So, thanks for letting me indulge photos of non-bag related things, sea wind smiles, public spaces and general positive r&r energy.
xoxoxo
Wendy🌞🦩✨🌊🦞

04/23/2023

The Porter is one of our all time best sellers. These three colors are all made from water resistant canvas (not wax), making them perfect beach/pool bags.

WE ARE: in Miami 🏝️
FEELING: very happy to be here, would like to stay indefinitely 🙏
LOOKING: like a 🦞…not enough sunblock in the world for this Seattle skin

04/12/2023

Ever have one of those weeks where you try on swimsuits for the first time in a year because you leave for a sunny beach vacation in just a few days and that combined with a roller coaster of imposter syndrome and feeling starved for ideas but with an endless to do list and desperately needing your vacation to start, making you such a wild range of emotions that you actually cried last night for the first time in at least five months and you’re trying to just bring it all down a bit and so you ride to the studio/shop to photograph the late late spring collection and break your personal records on the way, topping out at 31mph but mainly riding around 17/18mph and that just fixes everything? Ya. Same.

BAG: Backpack no4 in charcoal - my favorite backpack.
EMOTION: 🍑🚲👙🌪️👾🌴🌞🏆
THOUGHTS: is Instagram a place for actual thoughts any longer? Or is it just therapy memes for people to apply their self diagnosis to their astrological signs? I dunno …should I keep writing here? …asking for a friend 🧐

04/10/2023

Heyo!! I’ve been mostly in the stories lately. Mostly reorganizing my brain, lately. Mostly redesigning a few bags, fielding questions and wholesale orders and training production teams lately. Ive been mostly cooking elaborate dishes on weekends, joining and deleting dating apps, writing lots, wondering what and where my future looks like, building a business plan for the dream bar I want to open, having meetings and meetings and meetings with people who’ve gained even more knowledge than I. Ive almost launched a substack. I will very soon. I’ve been riding the flattest roads I can find, wondering if I got the right bike. I’ve been carrying a Work Tote and the Laptop case, unless I’m biking with my Backpack no4. I’ve been convincing myself that I like this city. I’ve been prepping for an upcoming vacation. My first true time off since 2018. I’m going where it’s sunny and warm. For an entire week. I’m not renting a car. I am renting a bike. All of my morning to do list alerts are going off now so I must go. Here’s a few favorite moments from the last few weeks🐰👾🦩🌕✨🌴🌞

03/05/2023

I started this week with such excitement for a few new things I thought were happening. By the end, one of those hopes had been dashed, the others left in waiting and I found myself again wondering what it is that brings me joy.
It’s people.
Friends. Partners. Colleagues.
Opening yourself up to opportunities and projects, knowing most starts will have abrupt stops. But doing so regardless.
Cities. Neighbors. Pups.
I love to entertain.
I love to be entertained.
I love those magic feelings that happen when you meet someone new. The shared spark. The daydreams. The imaginations and creative energy that come from knowing that the person you are talking to is equally as excited to be talking to you. That brings joy. The conversations that lead to potential futures. This defines my personal and professional life. Two spaces inextricably linked. Forever in process.

I ended the week feeling rather deflated. One potential bubble burst. A little disoriented from thinking I could trust my own feelings, forgetting that other people are trying to trust their own as well. It can be hard to know why you have to just let certain experiences float away and move on when you find yourself holding on to a potential that has already vanished…even if that space was only occupied for an incredibly brief moment in time.
Then I realized I was closing out my work week on the exact day I officially launched Moop Shop, sixteen years ago. I celebrated with new people around me. People who are learning the storied history of how I built this. The experiences and studios and lives that have filled the time from then to now. Who do not fully know how I ended up, sixteen years later, on the literal opposite coast of where this began, filled with gratitude for the network of people who have very much helped me create that history. Who continue to do so. Who have learned my history and I theirs, in the forwardbackward way that we come to know those we truly love. These are not linear processes. These are portions of lives in process, forever being built, dismantled and rebuilt.

Sixteen years of small business manufacturing is One Hundred and Twelve Dog Years.
Woof.
✨✨✨

02/14/2023

An all time favorite love:
The Porter❤️❤️❤️

Happy V Day, however you choose to spend it✨😘❤️

02/12/2023

✨MidWinter✨

Moop Shop

07/23/2024

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