Who Owns Parker Thatch?

The business began in 2001 as iomoi, an online stationery and home goods company founded by Chen and Grenby after the first dot-com collapse. Iomoi specialized in personalization, applying custom designs to coasters, trays, ice buckets, and paper goods. When demand for paid digital stationery proved limited, the couple pivoted to printed products, which at one point sold through roughly 2,000 retail stores.

The shift toward bags started in 2009. Working from their garage, the founders produced the first Mimi tote using canvas bought at a local fabric store and hand-cut leather strips. A tailor at their neighborhood dry cleaner, who had a fashion degree, made the first sample and pattern. The Mimi, a structured tote with two leather handles, became the foundation of what would become Parker Thatch.

The brand name, drawn from the couple's children, replaced iomoi as the bag business overtook the stationery line. Personalization remained central: hand-applied monograms and custom straps became signatures. In 2016 the company was hand-cutting and pressing bags for the shops at the Four Seasons, and Chen and Grenby were driving to events where Grenby customized pieces in person.

The Mimi family expanded over time with XL, mini, East West, Belted, and Framed versions, and the line broadened into slouchier silhouettes including the Charlie, Jane, and the Sling. The Belted Mimi launched in 2025 and sold out in five days. By 2026 the brand operated as a small team in Orinda, selling primarily direct to consumer online, with Forbes profiling its unconventional path from paper goods to a coveted handbag label.

The personalization process deserves particular attention because it is the thread connecting 2001 to today. In the iomoi era the couple printed custom monograms on paper and Lucite trays; on bags, monogramming is still done by hand in Orinda, with customers choosing initials, stripes, and strap combinations at checkout. That workshop step, cheap for a giant to automate and expensive for a giant to do by hand, is a structural moat for a small brand.

The founders have also resisted the standard playbook. There is no wholesale network of consequence, no department store presence, no seasonal discounting cycle. Bags drop in limited runs announced by newsletter, sell out or do not, and either way another run follows months later. It is a pacing strategy only a founder-owned company can sustain.