An interview with Urban Monster - Urban Dog Apparel

Say hello to our newest brand to Aurora Pets - Urban Monster. Founded by best friends Nicholas and Yannie, Urban Monster is a dog brand which offers dogs stylish, fun dog jumpers and cool dog walking accessories for you and your dog to enjoy.

In this interview we discuss the wonderful ways that Urban Monster came together and get an idea of the process behind making products that your dog is sure to enjoy.

Who are the team behind Urban Monster (including the all-important furry employees)?

Nic and I founded Urban Monster two years ago, but we have been good friends since junior high. We share a passion for dogs and design and thought we could live our beliefs through the brand. Nic comes from a design background and has always had a keen eye for well-designed products. He is the brainchild of the design behind our products. I am the trouble-shooter and take care of the operational side of the brand.

I would like to think Nic and I am the core team and do most of the work, whereas our furry employees reap the benefits.

Where did the concept for Urban Monster come from?

After studying abroad for many years, we moved back to Hong Kong and decided it’s the perfect time to get a dog (separately)! As new pet parents, we always tried to look for products in local pet stores, but all we found were generic pet supplies that just did the job. We wanted to create something that combined both style and functionality, and decided to create our own dog products.

What was your first product in the Urban Monster collection?

We came up with the dog collar and leash collection first because finding a nice set of C&L that matched our pups and looks well on all occasions was the biggest struggle at the time. For that reason, classic collars and leashes are the first ever products we came up with.

What was your biggest Eureka! Moment with a product?

When designing the tag for our dog apparel collection, we tried to create something that’s slightly different from other brands.
We encountered the problem of not knowing what size to get for our pups when purchasing apparel online – unlike human clothing size, pet clothing sizes aren’t universal. So we thought it’s a nice idea to create tags that look nice as well as informative. If you look closely, you will notice the sizes on the tag are the silhouettes of different dog breeds. They are rough size guides for pet parents out there that share the same struggle.

What’s the most fun part of owning Urban Monster?

Going on “field trips” with our pups to take photos for our Instagram account,
visiting dog parks to scout for dog models and going to pet stores in different countries to get inspirations for our next collection.

We get to do all these things while working on Urban Monster.

Pictured: Urban Monster “Croissant S’il Vous Plaît” Dog Jumper

Your love of Avocado and Croissants inspired the awesome “Let’s Avocuddle” dog jumpers and “Croissant S’il Vous Plaît” dog jumpers; can we expect any other cool food inspired designs in the future?

Interestingly Nic is also a restaurateur, and being massive foodies ourselves, we are certainly going to come up with a lot more food-inspired products – maybe a pizza/sushi related design next time? I mean who doesn’t like pizzas/sushi?!

What is your favorite activity to do with your furry employees?

Our core furry employees are as follows:

Angus – a 4 year old Frenchie. My favourite activity with Angus has to be the (relatively) long walks with him in fall – any hotter temperature doesn’t make Angus a nice walking companion as he might demand a “pick-up” service, especially when walking up-hill.

Benji – a 7 year old Beagle who loves hoomans way more than his own kind. Benji loves undivided attention and always demands one on one time with Nic.

My favourite (and also his) activity is cuddling up and watching Netflix.

If you had to describe Urban Monster in three words what would they be?

Playful – Bold – Stylish

We hope that you have enjoyed getting to know one of our brands at Aurora Pets! To check out their collection please click here.

Love from the Aurora Pets family x