A Style Change for Your Pocket Change

When fashions collide, Wallots keep you color coordinated

By Edie Tolchin

Listen up, fashionistas. It’s easy to coordinate your shoe color with your purse. Say you have a fuchsia sandal and a matching fuchsia handbag. But you have a very non-matching lime-green wallet. What to do, what to do.…

Ask Las Vegas native Shannon Greenfield, an employee in the accounting division of the City of Las Vegas for nearly 20 years. Shannon, 37, came up with the idea of a removable wallet insert with interchangeable wallet skins in 2005.

“It was a combination of my own frustration of not having time to change my wallet each time I changed my handbag,” says Greenfield, “and my observation of other women who obviously took time to match their handbag with their outfit yet often revealed worn or clashing wallets.”

She thought a wallet should allow you to easily change the outer appearance of a wallet without removing the contents. So she invented the patent-pending Wallots.

“Wallots provide women with the flexibility and ease of changing our wallet as often as we change our handbag,” Greenfield says.

The product works by using a series of snap fasteners strategically positioned on the exterior section of the insert and interior section of the wallet skin. It allows the removable insert to be detached from one wallet skin and inserted into another wallet skin of a different color without removing any of the contents.

The first step was to create a prototype. Greenfield searched the Thomas Register to locate small leather goods manufacturers in the United States.

She contacted several companies and sent drawings along with product specifications, to no avail. She tried to secure prototyping and production domestically. But either it was too costly, they didn’t have the resources, couldn’t meet time lines or did not work with small projects.

Ultimately, Greenfield made her first prototypes by taking a traditional wallet and removing the interior compartments. She then hand-stitched liners and positioned the snaps. It took two weeks and lots of trial and error to produce 10 working prototypes.

Shannon contacted me through an inventor’s resource Web site she frequently visited. She provided several prototypes and product specifications, which I arranged to have sent to manufacturers in China for quotes and product samples.

After selecting a company to work with, we began receiving samples. We went back and forth with changes and adjustments until we were sure that we had a viable and quality product. Her first order was delivered in October 2007.

Greenfield believes the main pitfall in dealing with a factory in China is the language barrier, which can be frustrating when communicating product specifications and enhancements. However, she believes the biggest advantage is pricing, which in her case was about one-third of what it would cost to manufacture in the United States.

Initial market research included several informal focus groups consisting of active and fashion-conscious women, her target market.

The results were overwhelmingly favorable.

However, in December 2007, Greenfield’s first attempt at selling Wallots proved to be disappointing. She and her best friend, Darcell Hutchinson, prepared for a highly anticipated Christmas season sales extravaganza at their church. Multiple vendors signed up for the event with various items for sale, such as custom-made jewelry, artwork and self-decorated apparel.

The event was projected to attract church members and community shoppers. They stayed up late into the night preparing an ornate display and stocking, literally, hundreds of Wallots. The day had arrived as they frantically tied up loose ends –table decorations, brochures, product arrangement, office supplies, and logs to keep in touch with customers.

But Mother Nature had other plans.

“An unpredictable downpour eclipsed the sales event,” Hutchinson says. “The tiring preparations and optimism were to no avail. The evening, along with our high hopes, deteriorated with very low consumer attendance and dismal weather conditions. We packed up and returned home with a truckload of product.”

Fast forward to INPEX, June 2008, in Pittsburgh. INPEX is billed as the nation’s largest inventor trade show. Enter Wendi Cooper, CEO and creative director of C Spot Run Productions. She creates marketing positioning for her clients.

“At the end of the day (inventors and marketing companies) need each other – for this neither one should take advantage of the other – but understand the value that each brings to the table,” Cooper says. While a 2 percent royalty may seem meager to an inventor, “2 percent of a million is much more than 10 percent of nothing,” Cooper says.

Cooper saw Wallots at INPEX (www.inpex.com) during a Direct Response TV panel review. Although nixed by her peers, after some trial and error, Cooper pitched the idea herself to AllStar Marketing, who took the pitch directly to Buxton – the accessories giant – that sells via Homeshopping Network (HSN) and Direct Response Television (DRTV).

Bingo!

AllStar Marketing is the exclusive partner with Buxton for the highly successful Buxton Organizer.

“I’m thrilled to work with AllStar,” says Greenfield, “because they have had tremendous success, most recently with Snuggies, Patch Perfect, and TopsyTurvy.”

The plan is to test Wallots on HSN late this year, then create a short-form direct response commercial similar to that of the Buxton Organizer. Because Greenfield’s licensing agreement is non-exclusive, she can sell under the Wallots brand as well. Projected sales, as with anything, are difficult to determine, especially in this economic climate.

However, according to MarketResearch.com, “the total domestic demand for the women’s handbag and purse manufacturing industry in 2008 was $3.1 billion. So Greenfield is confident with a successful test on HSN, her invention could sell several million units.

She learned that a successful inventor can’t be a people pleaser.

“When hiring professionals, make sure they can suit your needs, and tell them exactly what you want,” Greenfield says. “Don’t be afraid of offending someone by asking for references and always obtain an estimated completion date.”

She also feels you should avoid naysayers, and surround yourself with positive people or other entrepreneurs who can relate to your triumphs as well as your struggles.

“For me,” Greenfield says, “this has been a journey of 1,000 miles and I reached each mile marker with prayer, meditation, hard work and determination.”

Visit www.wallots.com