A Mom-tested and women-led company
Forti Goods is a company born out of necessity and a with deep passion for sustainable design. With over 20 years of experience in interior design and the retail industry, I've seen the good, the bad, and the ugly sides of these industries. Forti Goods is my response to that! It’s the first American-made furniture company with app-controlled lockable drawers, thoughtfully designed to securely store your things under lock and key – or just out of sight.
What Brought Me Here
Before Forti Goods, I spent over a decade as an interior designer and later developed indoor and outdoor furniture for a mass retailer. It was during this time I had to make many trips to overseas factories, where I bore witness to the harsh realities of "fast furniture". Not all factories overseas are “bad,” but when you work in mass retail, you’re looking for cheap products. Unfortunately, that means that in some of those factories, the working conditions aren’t great - and there’s a lot of industrial pollution.
I went on a factory trip in 2014 when I was about 20 weeks pregnant with my daughter. When we landed in Shanghai, there were air quality alerts and the media was directing young, pregnant and old people to remain indoors as much as possible. I was there for work, so that wasn’t an option, and by 5pm I felt like I was coming down with a bad cold: scratchy throat, watery eyes and a lot of congestion. I wasn’t actually since – my body was just reacting to the air I was breathing. On this same trip, I noticed people working in bare feet (in a furniture shop this is dangerous), and spraying solvent-based finishes without respirators. This experience made me reconsider the environmental and social impact of the industry I was a part of, and it inspired me to create a company that stood for something different.
A Near Accident
The story of Forti Goods is not just a business adventure, it’s also a personal journey sparked by a need for safety and privacy in my own home. You see, when my daughter was three, I experienced firsthand the struggle of keeping certain items out of her reach, despite my husband’s and my best efforts. A near miss incident with a candy stash led me to a startling realization: kids see everything. They’ll find your hiding spots! If those candies had been infused, we would’ve faced a situation that was traumatic to us and our child and could’ve resulted in legal and/or financial troubles. I knew we needed lockable storage in our home immediately!
I wanted a solution that was both secure and stylish, something that would fit seamlessly into the aesthetic of our home. The market offered me bulky safes and small stash boxes, but none of these options felt right. I knew I would have to keep these safe storage products out-of-the-way in my closet, basement or garage – making it less likely I would use them. With my background in furniture and interior design, I felt compelled to take matters into my own hands. If the solution I needed didn't exist, I would create it. I even posted about this on our social media.
A Company Is Born
And so, Forti Goods was born – a line of app-controlled locking furniture that is beautifully designed, durable, and most importantly, provides secure storage without compromising style. Designed originally to keep cannabis products safely stowed away from curious hands, we rebranded in 2021 to be "stash agnostic." Now, you can stash anything safely, from weapons to weed, cash or prescriptions. You can lock it all up, conveniently and discreetly, using an app on your phone!
My mission with Forti Goods is to challenge the status quo of today’s furniture that does not cater to the demands of a 21st-century lifestyle. This is modern privacy for modern living, and I am thrilled to lead the charge in making our homes safer and more sustainable, one smart locking device and piece of furniture at a time.
Thank you for being on this journey with me. Feel free to reach out any time to say hello or share your own story with me. I love talking to our customers!