Conway also arranged a meeting with the original owner of Bug Zoo, Bev Witte. She was wonderful to talk with and I learned much from her. Click on 'Interview with Bev'; it's a little over 8 minutes. We met for coffee outside of the very first Bug Zoo store, see pic at the left. Because we were sitting outside, you'll here some pretty loud background noise from some construction across the street that comes and goes.

It starts out with me asking Bev what made her start Bug Zoo. Bev was a fashion designer for ladies wear; she was on a sabbatical after having her second child. Not 3 months went by before she started designing kids clothes. Funny how the industry had changed just at that time... all the major stores and dept stores stopped selling children's clothes, which meant quite a few factories closed down as well in the 1990 timeperiod. Bev explains a little bit about Bug Zoo clothing being theme based to educate the children as well as provide fun clothes to wear. At first the clothes were unisex than changed to infant, boys and girls wear.

Bev also talks about selling the business to Conway and Chantel, which happened in 2005. Bev and Conway also had a bit of conversation about designs and such for which I did not include, but wanted you to hear her answer to my question about still being a part of what Bug Zoo is doing today.

In the end, Conway asks about a picture I had showed him of my daughter in an outfit that my older daughter wore and my youngest is wearing today. This was the outfit that first attracted me to Bug Zoo clothing and gave me the drive to go out and find them. Bev responds about "omer ads", which is like a washing machine ad for their clothes. As Bev states that due to their pre-dying process using combed cotton, the quality stands out wash after wash! She still has customers saying that not only do the clothes get handed down to their children, but also to cousins and younger cousins that wear the clothes... and they are still like new!