If Foxyware/Vegas Golf has a booth on the trade-show floor, it won’t take long to spot it. Aside from the sparkly, rhinestone-adorned, fashion-forward apparel and accessories the company manufactures for its Foxyware division, the booth is manned by Tami and Wayne Cimperman, the husband-and-wife team behind the supplier. And chances are good that Wayne will be sporting one of his fabulous, sequin blazers, or his even more recognizable “money suit”—a green suit, an ode to the company’s Vegas Golf division, with an all-over money and poker chip print. “When I am promoting Foxyware, I have three very sparkly reverse-sequin jackets that can be seen from a mile away,” he says.

In an industry where leaving a lasting impression is everything, it seems the Foxyware/Vegas Golf team has it mastered.

Foxyware/Vegas Golf, a Port Saint Lucie, Florida-based supplier, is comprised of two separate businesses housed under the same leadership. Tami is the driving force behind Foxyware, a company that was entirely her vision and creation, and Wayne, together with his father, the late Wayne Cimperman Sr., developed the concept for Vegas Golf.

“Customers always wonder how these two separate businesses are connected,” says Tami. It so happened that 30 years ago, Tami and Wayne started a ski and gifting company together, where they manufactured more than 200 mountain décor and apparel products that were sold in resort and gift shops across North America. Constantly on the hunt for fashion-forward apparel that women would want to wear—and wear again and again—they developed rhinestone shirts. “We were one of the first to create rhinestone shirts,” says Tami. The shirts were adorned with comical sayings, like “Ski Tini” and “Very Difficult,” and within two years, the line grew to represent 75 percent of their business. Feeling the love from customers, the pair decided to test the waters in the promotional products industry—the ski business, Tami says, is “very seasonal and small compared to other industries”—and almost immediately, “the response was overwhelming.” This is when they decided to start Foxyware, a company dedicated to women’s sparkle products. Foxyware has since grown exponentially to include an entire product line of custom rhinestone and sequin transfers and apparel, along with rhinestone and sequin accessories.

Vegas Golf is not only a product, but an interactive “on-the-course” gambling game developed by Wayne Jr. and his dad during their annual father-son trips to Las Vegas some 20 years ago. Golfing, gambling and poker were three activities they enjoyed doing together, and after Wayne Sr. moved out West, they would meet once a year in Las Vegas to do just that. During one of those trips, Wayne Sr. and Wayne Jr. were playing golf and making wagers using casino chips collected from a poker game the night before, which involved betting on who would par or birdie next, or whose ball would fall into the water. That’s when Wayne Sr. said, “Let’s formalize this game and use real poker chips and put these positive and negative tasks on the chips, package and sell it as a complete game,” and that night, they created their first eight chips outlining the tasks. When Wayne Jr. asked his father what they should call it, Wayne Sr. instantly replied, “Vegas Golf, of course!” The company now adds custom logos to the back of each game chip. Vegas Golf’s most popular and new Beer Chip adds another action to the game, meaning the player who’s holding the Beer Chip when the beer cart comes around has to buy everyone a round.

Despite the distinctions between the two companies, they both share office and warehouse space, and on the trade-show floor, they exhibit right next to each other. Tami, Wayne says, is the creative forcefield behind all of Foxyware’s new and sought-after products. The latest and one of the most popular products is the Rhinestone Emblazoned Tumblers, available in 20- or 24-ounce sizes, which are dazzled with allover custom logo rhinestone designs—the rhinestones are all precisely placed and set—and can be customized to reflect any logo or brand message. And once the sun hits them, these products, like Wayne’s sequin blazers, can be seen from a mile away.

PPB spoke with Foxyware/Vegas Golf to learn more about the companies’ star-studded and dazzling products.

PPB  Tami, share more with us about what inspired you to experiment with rhinestone and sequin products, and enter the promotional products industry with Foxyware?

Tami  I realized almost all products offered in the promotional industry, at the time, were basic styles with no focus on any fashion-forward styling that women would want. Most importantly, I realized that if we could develop some “wow” items, as we call them, companies would spend more for an item that women will actually want to wear and use. Why spend money on boring products that may never be used or worn? Since that time, there have been many new apparel companies enter this market with a focus on fashion-forward apparel, which was much needed. Foxyware now uses and recommends the top fashion-forward styles to distributors. They simply dropship to us and we decorate with our “wow” designs for the clients. In addition, we can create the transfers and ship directly to the distributor or their local screen shop to press themselves. This is a very big market for us. Foxyware always has its finger on the fashion pulse and can steer our customers to the right apparel styles and companies while creating and manufacturing the decoration that goes on them.

PPB  Wayne, tell us more about the Vegas Golf game.

You can play with a twosome, threesome or foursome. At the beginning of the round, the group decides how much to wager per chip. The player who has the game gives out each chip as they are earned. For example, if someone hits their golf ball into the water, they are handed the Water Chip, and if someone gets a birdie, they are given the Birdie Chip. The person who received the Water Chip is on the hook for the wager to pay each player if he or she still has it at the end of the 18 holes. He or she gets rid of the Water Chip when someone else hits their ball into the water, and the same goes for the positive chips. If you have a positive chip, each player will owe you unless someone after you does the same thing and then you give them the chip. Make sure to give or ask for the chip before you walk off the green, or you’ll have to wait until someone else goes in. Everyone settles up at the 19th hole.  

  1. After the Foxyware team receives details about the image or concept from the distributor, the company selects the appropriate rhinestone color(s) and combines the mixed media—image and embellishments.

  2. One of the team’s “Sparkenistas”—there are four—meticulously assembles the stones on tumblers and turns a custom logo into a “wow” tumbler for customers.

  3. Each finished tumbler is meticulously inspected for pristine perfection before being carefully packed and shipped.

  4. Whether Foxyware’s tumblers are making their way to a trade-show floor, or being hand-carried throughout the day by end users, the fabulousness of the dazzling, finished 3D designs are ready to draw attention from any direction.

About Foxyware/Vegas Golf 

Year founded: 2000
Principals: Tami and Wayne Cimperman
Number of orders filled per month: 300
Most popular items: Rhinestone emblazoned tumblers and rhinestone/sequin transfers and accessories

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Danielle Renda is associate editor of PPB.