TOLEDO, Ohio — It's not every day The New York Times calls you for a feature. When Toledo-based company ScentWick's Candles got that call, they were beyond happy to answer.
June is National Pride Month and the national publication wanted to feature owner, Radek Dockal's Pride collection which burns bright all year round and not just during June.
"To see my small business here from Toledo, Ohio next to big national brands like Yankee Candle and Williams Sonoma, it was really exciting," Dockal said.
Dockal was born and raised in the Czech Republic and moved to the U.S. in 2014. He started making candles as a hobby in 2020 and has now grown to make it his full-time job.
He said he never would've thought his business would catch the eye of a journalist from a major news publication wanting to feature his Pride line.
"At first I thought it was a scam, so I actually googled her, and her New York Times profile came up and I was like no this is legit," said Dockal.
Dockal is a gay man and part of the LGBTQ+ community who said he wanted to reflect his lifestyle into his Pride line consisting of nine candles.
The collection includes general ones for the LGBTQ+ community, along with bisexual and transgender-themed candles. Dockal said he also noticed there wasn't much representation for pronouns.
"There was like one company making pronoun candles, so I wanted to include those as well and the scents in each pronouns candle represents them as well," Dockal said.
He said he couldn't do it all without his business partner and partner for life, Justin Reynolds who helps attend community Pride events with Dockal to promote their business.
"Just being a part of that and representing what we are and that kind of a life we live, and being inclusive to everyone that we can, so it's been kind of nice to be able to embrace that and showcase it in our brand," Reynolds said.
However, Dockal said there is no price they can put on the joy they see that comes from others like them.
"They are excited to see, 'oh I wonder what they smell like,'" Dockal said. "Seeing the pronouns and being excited because they've never seen their own pronouns on a candle before."
Both Dockal and Reynolds will be heading to Columbus Pride next week where they will set up shop. For now, their main shop is online with Dockal's goal to open a storefront in the coming years.
MORE FROM WTOL