Wade Armstrong

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American Inventor: Episode 10 Recap

Posted Saturday May 6, 2006 in Entrepreneurship

Episode 10 was very nearly a repeat of Episode 8’s designer-led disaster. From the beginning, all three designer groups went totally off-target. This was a bad, bad sign for our three inventors, Bobby and his Tonerbelt; Jodi and her Headliner!; and Ed Hall and the Word Ace.

This episode’s judge, Peter Jones, played very little role in the product development, spending time only with his comrade’s namesake, Ed. Ed’s Word Ace is an educational toy that grew from its inventor’s experience as a teacher. Ed once had hopes to be an NBA star, but that came to nothing; he’s hoping to teach children who are like him that learning, not sports, is the way up in life. Word Ace is a game that encourages kids to improve their vocabularies. Peter suggested that Ed add in Spanish-language play, and so Ed went off to his designers to upgrade the product. He got the bad news that, in order to build a new model, they needed to dismantle the prototype; the clear implication was that, if the redesign didn’t work, there’d be no working Word Ace at all.

But build a new version they did, and testing of the product revealed some potential, too. They had kids from the LA’s Best afterschool program, a program that brings in enrichment programs for kids from schools in disadvantaged neighborhoods. Now, I’ve volunteered for LA’s Best as part of Challenge for Charity, and let me tell you that those kids are a tough audience; but, after playing with Word Ace for a few days, they’d become excited about the product — quite an accomplishment! I suppose it’s reasonable to think that a successful teacher would understand what kids really want. The main concern was that it cost about $10 to produce the toy, which would retail for $49.99 — split the rest of the cost between packaging, shipping, marketing, slotting fees, and retailer margin and that doesn’t leave a lot for manufacturer margin.

Jodi Pliszka’s Headliners also got a solid makeover. Jodi has to wear a wig, so she invented the Headliner, a cloth or paper item that fits under the wig and soaks up sweat and oils, making the wig more comfortable to wear. Initially, the judges were concerned that wig-wearers were too small of a market to focus on, so Jodi took her $50,000 and designed stylish looks for her Headliners and even versions designed to fit under helmets. She then tested her new Headliners with both chemotherapy patients — who loved them — and firefighters, who spent some time running around a training center in full gear with their Headliners under their helmet. The firefighters also reported that they loved the Headliners, the new products saving them from sweat dripping into their eyes and fogging their goggles (although I do worry about them having a flammable item on top of their heads). The Headliners ended up priced at $1 each, which seemed high to some of the judges.

And, finally, smiling Bobby Amore worked to refresh his Tonerbelt, a belt with two attached ropes on flywheels that could be pulled on to provide cardio exercise, even while sitting down. For those of you who are following along at home, yes, this is yet another exercise product. The focus group was not positive at all on this product, they thought it looked like a kid’s toy and doubted that it provided exercise value. So Bobby sat down with his designer and worked to come up with some concepts… and struck out. Uncomfortable with this designer’s work, Bobby went to another company, giving them the same brief; but, from the beginning, this designer’s work seemed to match Bobby’s vision more closely. In the end, both designers brought out products that fit into the category of what Bobby expected — in fact, the final product was almost identical for both — and Bobby ended up taking a little from A, and a little from B. The judges ended up praising him for hedging his bets and going with a second design team, but it’s not clear to me if he did that as a good planning move or simply as a passive-aggressive way to punish the first design team.

Product testing at the mall was not tremendously positive, with a number of potential customers thinking that there was “no there there.” However, one rather obese woman, self-described as “lazy”, liked the product and felt it would help her to exercise — just the market that Bobby hoped to be in.

In the end, Peter had to eliminate two contestants, and Ed was the one who went on. He certainly has a product that can work, and Peter, who apparently has experience with similar products, clearly believes in Word Ace.

I wasn’t sad to see Bobby go, as I also believed there was no real value delivered by the product, but Jodi had really brought the Headliners to an impressive point, a point at which they really seemed to be solid products for the consumer market as a whole. I’d like to see her approach athletes directly with these products, and especially try to get a few on baseball players, who spend a lot of time standing out in the sun and who definitely get the sweat-dripping-in-eyes from which the firefighters said the Headliners saved them. These athletes play 162 games a year and have the budget to pay not $1 but $3-$4 for a product that really helps them. If Jodi could get a couple of hundred made and distributed to some of the players on her hometown Twins, that kind of publicity could really help. The natural second step would be to print sports team logos on the Headliners, because who wouldn’t spend $1 to reduce that head sweat when sitting out in the bleachers under a hot sun? $1 is nothing compared to the $5 you pay for a small bottle of water at some stadiums. This would be particularly compelling at college games, which generally take place in venues without the overhanging upper decks under which some spectators can gain shelter from the sun.