Fort Hunt Couple Finds Success in ‘Lay-n-Go’

Adam and Amy Fazackerley quickly learned that Legos and Oriental carpets make a bad combination.

The Fazackerleys, Fort Hunt parents of three boys age 8 and younger, had begun to dread picking up after their children after they spread the tiny toys around the carpet.  Amy searched for something that would organize the toys better than bins but came up short.

“When I heard every morning — when they would start to get those bins out — I thought, ‘Oh please, not the Legos. Don’t get those out. Anything but those,’” Amy said. “And then I’m thinking, 'Why am I doing that? That’s the best toy for them.'”

Adam added: “When you get to the point as a parent where you are almost groaning at your kids wanting to play with something that’s mind building, that’s kind of the point where we [said], 'We need to fix this.'”

Hence Adam, a graphic designer, and Amy, who has an MBA and specializes in sales and marketing, created the Lay-n-Go. The large nylon bag holds toys and other small objects and can also be spread flat on the ground as a play surface. When playtime’s over, a drawstring neatly turns the mat into a bag with a shoulder strap for easy transport.

“Whatever they were into at the time, we needed something that was going to allow them to play the way they wanted to, but then it was going to allow us to kind of clean up and hang it or store it the way we wanted to,” Adam said.

The original Lay-n-Go is 5 feet in diameter. The Fazackerleys also developed the Lay-n-Go Lite, which is 18 inches in diameter and perfect for airplane rides or in restaurants. The bags are made of water-resistant ripstop nylon, are easily washable and are designed to last. They come in blue, green and pink.

With four prototypes in hand, Amy participated in a Florida trade show in March 2011 and sold more than 200 units immediately. Recently, the couple returned from the American International Toy Fair in New York, where they sold to 25 toy stores. Amy has appeared on Fox and Friends and on MSNBC, promoting the Lay-n-Go.

Coming soon, in time for Mother’s Day, is a small, black Lay-n-Go cosmetics bag with quilted stitching. Amy came up the idea because the Lay-n-Go was already popular among mothers and grandmothers, and because powder and other make-up quickly washes away from the Lay-n-Go fabric.

“I have the same issue with the cosmetics bag,” she said. “They’re all tall and skinny. A lot of times you have to dump them out in the sink, or you put a towel down and you dump it out so you can see everything on a flat surface. So, on morning I was thinking, why isn’t there a cosmetics bag that does the same thing? You can now see everything.”

The Fazackerleys are growing their business at a fast clip. They manufacture the Lay-n-Go overseas and are planing to meet with a fulfillment house to oversee their shipping needs. They are pursuing a licensing deal with Lego.

College students are using the original Lay-n-Go as a laundry bag, Adam said. The couple is also creating a small black and silver bag designed for men and considering creating a beach bag. They’ve shipped the Lay-n-Go to Australia, the United Kingdom and Canada.

They’re also updating the Lay-n-Go website, although Adam says the product speaks for itself.

“If you don’t have the product in this industry, you don’t have anything,” he said. “People will buy the product with a horrible website. They won’t buy a horrible product with a good website. They just won’t. And the product, and design, and making sure it functions and it really did what we needed it to, was really the critical lynchpin to make the thing work.”

The Lay-n-Go is available locally at the , where manager and buyer Amanda Mertins fell in love with the product. She also liked the idea that a local mom spearheaded the project.

“The reason we decided to sell it is it’s a great product,” she said. “... I think it’s a great little invention, and it’s doing well.”