After launching their small business, Cobra Paracord Brackets earlier this summer, two 10 year olds, Patrick Kelleher, the master bracelet maker, and Mason Pustay, his business manager, took their products on the road Friday to the Sounds and Sights Festival — with the help of Kollin Pustay.
Kelleher, who moved to Chelsea from Arkansas about a year ago, said he learned how to make the unique bracelets while living in the South, and after talking to his South Elementary friends, thought people in the Midwest might like them, too.
So he, Pustay and another friend, Russell Timmerman, started making the bracelets in different shapes and colors from parachute cords.
There are four basic types, a tri-braid, which has three colors, the cobra and fish tail, made of two colors, and the armadillo, made of a single color and looks, well, like the animal of the same name.
Kelleher and Pustay, with help from older brother, Kollin Pustay, 12, were selling the bracelets for $4, $5 and $6 and had already made more than $40 in the first hour, and they planned to return on Saturday.
Kelleher estimates he’s probably made 1,000 bracelets to date, and depending on the type, each takes between 5 and 15 minutes.
“I help with pricing and dealing with the money,” Mason Pustay said, adding he doesn’t plan to make the fledgling bracelet business “my life. I plan to grow up and become a veterinarian.”
Kelleher said the business partners weren’t sure how the profits would be split up. “We kinda make it up as we go,” he said.
But they hope to set up an email address and perhaps an online business down the road.
But in the meantime, the friends were busy Friday keeping up with the supply and demand of their popular products.
And maybe they’ll have some great stories to tell their friends at school this fall about how they spent their summer vacation.
Good job guys!!!!