It all started with a phone call.

While juggling the rush of Q4 orders, Jeff Davis, founder of Vinylux in Philadelphia, took a call from a producer at ABC News – they wanted to know if he’d be interested in having his company featured on a special small-business segment on World News Tonight with David Muir on Dec. 12.

Turns out, a fellow member of the ABC team had gotten hold of one of Vinylux’s unique products – housewares and gifts made of reclaimed vintage vinyl records – and brought it to the studio. The group was so impressed, they wanted to get the company, known as Record Remix (asi/93934) in the promo industry, on the show.

Jeff Davis, founder of Record Remix, in a still from the video that aired on ABC.

Immediately, Davis said yes. That gave him just a few days to use his iPhone to film his 13 employees in action. Editors at ABC then spliced the footage together and made it part of a “Made in America” small-business segment featuring companies across the U.S. creating unique gifts for the holidays.

Once he submitted the video, Davis realized how much business could come at them. “I told my staff, this could be ugly but in a good way,” he says. “I texted the producer and asked them to mention Uncommon Goods as the place to go to order our items at retail because they’re a big company and we wouldn’t have been able to handle the volume.”

The morning after the segment aired, Uncommon Goods, an e-marketplace for makers, had sold out of all its Record Remix inventory. The team in Philly, meanwhile, was contending with 200 retail orders; they normally fulfill just four a month (promo is their biggest revenue-driver).

“It’s been crazy, but because of our experience in promo, we’re fine,” says Davis. “I learned over time how frantic the promo industry can be and how quick the lead-times are.”

Employees sort records in Record Remix’s facility in Philadelphia.

For about 20 years, Davis has been experimenting with making household items out of reclaimed records. It was while earning a graduate degree in industrial design from Rhode Island School of Design in the early aughts, just as discussion about sustainability, recycling and reclaimed materials was becoming part of the academic world, that he started using a plastic molding machine to make bowls out of thrifted vinyl records after spotting a unique table with vessels in the top instead of a flat surface.

By the end of his time in Rhode Island, after creating a consistent design system with records and a plastic molding machine, he had started a business that could support his growing family in Brooklyn. The product line began with the bowls, and Davis grew his team as they expanded into coasters, clocks, pocket journals, mirrors, bookends, bottle openers and more.

This framed record has personalization to celebrate a milestone employee anniversary.

Fifteen years ago, Davis relocated his family and business to Philadelphia, and established a network of woodcutters, bookbinders, metal-stampers, laser-cutters and others, all within 15 to 20 miles from the facility, that contribute to finished products.

“We’re constantly looking for opportunities to work with them,” says Davis. “We’ll use metal-stampers for our bottle openers, for example, and bookbinders for the journals. Then we assemble the finished product here. Sometimes I reverse-engineer products knowing what local people can do. Because of these relationships, we were able to largely sidestep supply chain issues.”

About six years ago, Vinylux officially joined the promo industry as Record Remix – while fulfilling retail orders, they would occasionally have customers asking them to put a logo or name on an item. Meanwhile, they were making good money on the orders. So, they decided to actively pursue the business and started hitting trade shows – now, 65% of their revenue comes from promo.

Davis (center) and 10 of his 13 employees.

“It changed the way we operate,” says Davis. “Now we have product on the shelf ready to decorate, so if someone calls for 500 journals, we can get it out in three days. We can’t start from scratch each time. If we tell a client it’ll take four weeks, that’s like four years to them, and we’ll lose the order. But we do tell customers that we’re not cheap or quick; we offer concierge service.”

At the moment, Davis says they’re seeing huge demand for framed records for the holidays. Recently, major media companies have incorporated them into their milestone anniversary programs for employees.

“The record is the muse – it’s where the ideas start,” says Davis. “I’m so busy running the business, I’m glad we work with just records. It would be hard to keep up with it all otherwise.”

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