A lifelong user of baby wipes, Goodwipes co-founder and CEO Sam Nebel, who also refers to himself as The King of All Wipes, got into the wipes industry during college when he and fraternity brother (co-founder Charlie Siciak), became the go-to guys for wet wipes, which they carried with them in ziploc bags. In the decade since, the pair has created an innovative and unique wipes brand that is now available on the shelves of Target, Walmart and several major grocery chains.

Based on high quality ingredients and a formula free of toxins, parabens, alcohol and dyes, Goodwipes has found success by developing wipes for its customers’ most sensitive areas. Nebel says his experience working at Complete Nutrition, a health supplement company, gave him insight into the right ingredients to use. Meanwhile, it was the assistance of the wipes industry supply chain that has helped Goodwipes develop a soft, absorbent and flushable product that is helping consumers change the way they think of bathroom hygiene.

Goodwipes makes flushable wipes in a variety of scents—rosewater, shea coco, cedar and lavender—as well as feminine care wipes and larger format body wipes, which are not flushable. The company created its niche with a super soft and absorbent wipe with eye-catching packaging that attracts younger consumers to the flushable category which is significantly outpacing growth of dry toilet paper products.

Nebel, fresh off a dynamic presentation at INDA’s World of Wipes (WOW) conference in Atlanta, GA, spoke to Household & Personal Care Wipes (HPCW) on how he came to be the King of All Wipes and his mission to improve bathroom hygiene for customers of all ages.

HPCW: Can you give us a little background on Goodwipes? How did the Goodwipes company get started? 
Nebel: I’ve always been a lifelong user of baby wipes, I came from a baby wipes family. We never paid attention to brand, it was just form and function. I met Charlie (co-founder Siciak) in college and we bonded over butt wipes. Slowly and surely, over the next 45 days, we got all our new friends asking for our baby wipes. We would carry them in ziploc bags because they were that desperate.

People would use our wipes because they were afraid to go to the store to buy flushable wipes and bring them to check out. They were embarrassed of that. Whatever was on the shelf wasn’t resonating with certain consumers back around 2007. There were options out there but whatever it was, was too small on the shelf. It hadn’t gotten its footing. So, we felt, let’s come up with something of our own. We made the next generation of butt wipes to get them the right product.

HPCW: Why did you name the company/brand Goodwipes?
Nebel: The name Goodwipes came up as a concept because we were trying to reframe the negative connotation or original push back we were seeing around flushable wipes. A lot of people were asking why use flushable wipes, especially when you consider all the bad press surrounding them.

Flushable wipes are actually a good thing. We wanted a brand name with “good” to create a good association with the product. It felt like a good name that could embed itself in the American vernacular as a verb, a noun, an adjective, etc.

HPCW: Was it difficult for you to penetrate the global wipes market as a startup? Was there a huge learning curve when it came to wipes?
Nebel: It was a steep learning curve. The ingredients evolution has taken a few years. We were pretty well-versed in the ingredient language from running a nutrition program called Complete Nutrition—we got a lot of our information from that.

We really began the process of creating Goodwipes by looking at the product as a skincare product that you also use to wipe your butt. For the substrate technology, the innovation has been amazing. Everyone in the supply chain from the nonwovens producers to the raw materials supplier should be proud of themselves. They really invested in this and developed the technology that can make this market grow. It’s no longer a battle with wastewater agencies and lawmakers. Now, it’s about how can we collaborate. The Responsible Flushing Alliance (RFA) and INDA have done a 10 out of 10 fantastic job working on this issue.

HPCW: The share of flushable wipes keeps growing. What is driving this growth? How high do you think this share can get?
Nebel: What is driving growth are a number of things. One is brands are pushing hard on building equity in the space and telling the same high-level story that flushable wipes are better hygiene for you than toilet paper. It’s driving awareness in the category. Companies have done a great job of telling this story in a not cheap way and they are just getting started.

Another thing is that consumers have caught on. They are telling us that the in-store merchandizing from brands and retailers, dedicating more space and visibility, is working. This is becoming more of an arena or a theater publicizing flushable wipes.

We predict the market will reach $1 billion in sales, including Amazon, in the next 18 months and this is just the beginning. I like to say we are in the second inning. A lot of development work is being done to grow this market.

HPCW: Do you see retailers dedicating more space to flushable wipes? 
Nebel: We are seeing a lot of space to sales data indicating that flushable wipes sales are outpacing the shelf space they have, while toilet paper is being given too much space. We think we can work with the retailers to continue to expand space availability for flushable wipes.

Consumers are also doing the work. A lot of them will say that they heard from a friend, saw an ad, saw social media or influencers post about flushable wipes. Others are actively searching on line for our products because they are curious after hearing about flushable wipes and then they are doing the research themselves and then demanding that they have access to these products.

HPCW: Has it been difficult for Goodwipes to compete against national toilet paper brands that have a flushable wipe option like Cottonelle? 
Nebel: It took us a while to get into more retailers and it kind of feels like it has all happened at once even though it was sequential. Our positioning is very unique as a product line and there is very little overlap with any brands or even private labels with what our products are offering. We know we are bringing new users, especially younger users to the category. We have the fastest growing repeat rate in the category. We don’t even look at other companies as competition. We look at it as a category where rising tides raise all ships.

HPCW: It’s been about 10 years since Goodwipes launched. You’ve achieved so much already. What is next for the brand?
Nebel: We have a pretty robust multiyear innovation pipeline that I cannot discuss, but you can expect that this is just the beginning for Goodwipes. It is a multi-year scope for how we approach things. We like to get as close to the ground as possible to realize consumer insights. We believe it is extremely important to understand holistically our consumer. It is more than just a job, it is a craft, understanding how to meet the needs of our consumers.