Create A Prototype

So now you have your idea, you've googled it until you can't google it anymore, it's not in a store near you, and it doesn't seem to exist. What now?Figure out what you need to make it yourself. Yes, I said make it yourself! I know, there are some things that maybe you have no idea how to make. You know you need it, but you don't have the expertise to create it on your own. Here's where I think most people fall out of the game. They think they can't make a prototype, and are sure they can't afford to pay someone to make one for them, and even if they could afford to, if they tell anyone about it, it'll be stolen. You all know by now what I'm going to say, "Whatever you think, you're right!"

In my experience, I was able to make a prototype at my kitchen table using a pair of scissors, duct tape, a zipper, a needle and some thread, and a used snow glove from a thrift store. As far as textiles and wood products, you can go on line and search "rapid prototyping," or "rapid manufacturing." There are companies that knock off designers sometimes even before the designers themselves get their product out! You can also visit colleges to find students and professors who can help you. Post an ad for some help on http://www.craigslist.org/. There are many options if you're just willing to seek them out. It takes time, it may take some money, but if you don't do the work, you'll never experience the reward.

My best advice about this is to do whatever you can to make something on your own. You know what your idea is, what problem it's solving, and how you want it to work. Nobody will make your product like you will.

On the subject of someone stealing your idea. Yes, it can happen, but so can a serious car accident on your way to work. Are you not going to drive to work today? In reality, you can protect your idea with a very simple Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA), and your inventor's log. You can also apply for a Provisional Patent that is a super simple process, only $110, and gives you a year of patent pending protection to really get out there and test drive your idea. The same way you drive safely and wear a seat belt to help ensure a safe trip in to work.

I'll talk more about what I know about patents and should or shouldn't you apply for a patent for your idea on Monday!

I Bought A Book

So, I have this great idea, I know it will work, it seems at this point there's nothing else like it, but what do I do with it? I need a book. There has to be a book written by a mom, for a mom.

There is, it's called The Mom Inventor's Handbook written by mom Tamara Monosoff.The Mom Inventors Handbook: How to Turn Your Great Idea into the Next Big Thing

Frankly, I couldn't find any other books like this one and even as I searched again today, there are very few. If you have an idea, BUY THIS BOOK!

In any case, I needed a book and this was a good one. I read it from cover to cover and one of the great pieces of advice I got was to start and inventors log. This is basically a notebook, with pages that are bound, not loose leaf (very important), that is a journal of how you thought of your idea, when, where, why, how, and every step you took afterward. The reason this is so important is that this book could potentially be a legal document. If someone were to try to steal your idea and get it to market before you, you would likely take them to court. In a court of law, an inventors notebook could prove to be the one piece of evidence that wins your case. Some people advise to have your book notarized, but that's one of those things you have to decide to do or not to do. I didn't. My book starts going back to 2006 when Dave and I first realized Mason wanted gloves, not mittens. Gloves were extremely hard to come by in small sizes, and when we did find them, they didn't fit. I told the whole story, in long hand. Here is why I didn't have my book notarized; as I enter new information, I'm using different pens, my penmanship varies based on where I am (in the car, at a restaurant, in my bed, etc), and it's very clear that I did not sit down and create this log in haste to prove something. I also document who I speak with about it and why I was speaking with them. This is also proof that they took this idea from me.

The other thing I got from the book was to search the Internet extensively. Search it for an hour a day to make sure what you think you've created doesn't exist. Go online and search the USPTO website to see if you can find any patents or applications for what you want to do. If you can't find it, it may not exist. I searched and searched, and my friend Alice found a glove that seemed to be similar. I immediately bought it and found that though it was created to address my problem, it wasn't doing it. I poked all the holes in it I could and moved on with creating a better prototype. I enlisted my Aunt Jeannette to sew zippers in several pair of kids gloves I bought at thrift stores.

My next question was, do I need a patent?

Here's Why Gloves Don't Fit Little Hands

For children (ages 1-6, possibly up to age 12) the placement of the thumb on existing kid's gloves is in the wrong place. It's apparent that manufacturers are making children’s gloves using the same pattern as adult gloves, only smaller. In fact, children’s hands are not simply smaller. They are different in that the space between the thumb and forefinger is not as long therefore, the thumb of the glove needs to be moved up toward the finger holes. You can easily see this when you put a glove on a child’s hand, they get their thumb in first and then their little fingers do not reach the proper placement through the finger holes. They usually go about half way, and the little finger does not get that far. This is of course, comes after the struggle to get their fingers in each hole at all, and we know because we struggled getting our little ones fingers in gloves because his fingers simply do not reach the holes!

The next big piece of this puzzle is that as parents, we can't see that our little one's fingers aren't reaching, so we keep trying to funnel them into those four little holes. Being able to completely open the back of the glove will do so many things!

It will give our young children a visual, they can now see right where to put their fingers.

With the thumb properly placed on the glove, their fingers will reach the holes they can see.

Being able to open the back will alleviate the frustration of pulling the lining out of the glove when they take it off.

We'll be able to properly clean the inside of the glove and also allow for sufficient air-flow for thorough drying.

Finally, we will eliminate the emotional heartache that both parent and child feel when we have to struggle every single time we have to wear gloves (that one for me is worth the whole price of admission!).

Finally, we have opted to move the little finger on the glove down to properly fit a human hand. Most all snow gloves have all of our fingers entering the holes at the same time. Look at the the inside of your hand and tell me that your pinky finger is in a perfect line with your other three fingers. Likely not.

This idea was certainly born out of a need for toddlers, but the truth is everyone needs a cold weather glove that properly fits them. Men's hands and not all "big," and women's hands are not men's hands simply smaller. We plan to create real sizes in gloves for real human hands. The zipper in the back of the glove will provide for a more snug fit, thus being safer, more functional, and certainly more comfortable.

So, I now know why, and know from making my kitchen table prototype that the zipper will work, here's what I did next.

One Year Ago Today...

I sat at my kitchen table and handmade the first ZipperBack Glove.

Back in 2006, Dave and I were in Truckee, CA with Mason and wanted to share with him our love of the snow. We love to ski, sled, make snowmen, and just play. All I could find for Mason were mittens, but that seemed okay. It seemed okay until we got outside and within 5 minutes, he took them off. Thirty seconds later he was crying with cold hands.

What we found that day, little known to us at the time, is that little kids need functional gloves, not mittens. We also learned in the coming two years that there are no gloves that fit little kids hands. We thought Mason might be behind the curve since we couldn't get his fingers in the holes, and I certainly thought in 2006 and 2007, there had to be an innovative product in snow gear, specifically gloves, for little kids.

In 2008, planning our annual trip to Truckee, the mom of one of Mason's friends informed me that her daughter hated the snow because they couldn't find gloves to fit her hands. She was 6 years old at the time! Certainly old enough to put on a youth sized glove. It was then that I recalled Dave struggling to get gloves on Mason's hands and at the time he said, "They should put a zipper in the back of these things." That recollection led to the invention of the Zipperback Glove for kids (http://www.zipperbackgloves.com/).

January 24, 2008 I embarked on the mission to first see if a zipper would make the hard turn on the back of a glove, and then to see if something like it existed. Using a thrift store glove, with some duct tape, a zipper, a needle and thread, sitting and sewing at my kitchen table, I learned the zipper worked. Hours of Internet searches turned up nothing that a child could easily put on, certainly nothing with a zipper. This is how I invented the Zipperback Glove. Could it be that in 2008 a snow glove for kids doesn't exist? No. They do exist, but they don't fit. I discovered why they don't fit and I will explain that on Monday!