Newport Beach college student has business in the bag with company
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Brooks Orradre is a senior at Southern Methodist University, studying both psychology and business.
In a way, the Newport Beach native has melded both into a business enterprise he recently began — even if it involves an industry he wasn’t previously very familiar with.
The 21-year-old founded Velantra, a handbag company, last year. The idea is to provide affordable luxury handbags at a price point of less than $200, a fraction of the cost that many famous brands charge.
Orradre said he initially sold a version of a Walmart bag, the “Wirkin,” a popular duplicate of a much more expensive Birkin bag. The psychology behind the low-cost sensation was that people wanted bags that were less expensive but still felt premium.
“That was effectively my entry point into this affordable luxury handbag space,” Orradre said in a recent interview. “I was able to then create a bunch of affordable luxury handbags that complemented that bag well. There was another bag called the Boatkin, which was trending last summer. We were able to create this viral canvas tote bag that looked very similar to that, basically. We were able to launch a lot more products off that, and we’re continuing to launch products throughout the seasons.”
A Sage Hill School graduate, Orradre credits his mother, Amber, for providing him a kind of crash course into the handbag industry. She continues to help with the business.
“She loves handbags, and as a consumer she just felt like she was being burned by all of these big corporations,” Orradre said. “She was tired of all of these big brands charging outrageous prices for bags that didn’t necessarily meet the quality. She was able to help me identify this opportunity, and we were able to find a submarket of people.
“The gap between quality and price is only growing wider. It’s like the quality of handbags has remained the same, but the prices just keep getting higher. Velantra was born out of trying to find an equilibrium between the two, actually being able to have a handbag brand that builds products where the quality meets the price.”
The name of the company holds no special meaning — Orradre admits that he created it with help from ChatGPT — but its products do to customers.
Velantra reports selling more than 30,000 bags of the Camille Boat Tote, which went viral on social media and is designed to be a summer handbag. The Eleanor Weekender is packaged as a year-round summer bag, and the brand also recently launched the Sofia, a tote available in eight colors that features hand-woven seagrass. It was designed around the silhouette of the Kelly bag, created by Hermès and named after Grace Kelly.
Missy Held, a Corona del Mar resident who has watched Orradre grow up as a friend of her daughter, said she quite enjoys her navy blue Camille Boat Tote. She’s able to take it with her to get coffee, or to the pool.
Held has her own business, a healthcare data technology company that she founded, and her laptop also easily fits in the bag for work on the go.
She said the Velantra bags fit nicely into a recent trend of consumers who desire luxury without the logo.
“He found a niche, for sure, and I think that’s reflected in how well he does with it,” Held said. “It’s affordable, yet it looks expensive. And it’s timeless. My daughter is in film, and she never wants to include something like an iPhone that will date her film 20 years from now. I feel like that’s Brooks’ angle with all of this. He doesn’t want to put a lot of logos on it. He just wants something very classic, very timeless that people can use for years from now.”
Addie Coady is a Newport Beach native and a freshman at USC, where she plays volleyball. She bought a Camille Boat Tote bag over the summer as a back-to-school investment and said she appreciated that, at a cost of $80, it didn’t break the bank.
“It holds a lot of stuff,” Coady said. “So far, it has held up to the wear and tear of everyday life really well. For its price point, I think it looks like a high end, luxury bag.”
Orradre, who also runs a couple of direct-to-consumer health supplement brands, said he sees Velantra handbags continuing to expand in the years ahead.
“This whole ride has honestly been a blast,” he said. “I’m excited to keep working and keep growing this product. I can’t wait to keep this journey going.”
