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Jeremy Wyatt jwyatt@harrisonlawgroup.com HarrisonLawGroup.com (410) 832-0000
40 West Chesapeake Avenue, Ste. 600 Towson, MD 21204
Inside This Edition
1.
Drawing the Line on Late Pay
2.
The Real Reason 81% of Buyers Trust Some Brands Over Others
3. The Birth of Suburban Life 4.
Meet the Mom Who Made Crocs Even Cuter (and Cashed In)
JIBBITZ: PROOF THAT PLAYTIME CAN PAY OFF BIG
How a Rainy Afternoon Sparked a $10 Million Idea
Every great brand has a light bulb moment, but few shine as brightly as the one that sparked Jibbitz. Last month, we dove into the fascinating ups and downs of Crocs’ creation. Now here’s the almost too-good-to-be-true tale of how Crocs’ most valuable accessory came to be. Junk Stored in a Sewing Kit It all began on a rainy afternoon, with three restless kids and a stay-at-home mom trying to keep them occupied. Sheri Schmelzer wasn’t setting out to build a business empire. She was simply searching through her sewing kit for a little arts-and-crafts fun. Her children, Lexie, Julian, and Riley, were obsessed with their Crocs, colorful rubber clogs that had suddenly become everyone’s favorite footwear. So, when Sheri stuck a silk flower through one of the holes, her kids went wild. Soon, they jammed buttons, beads, and baubles into every Croc in sight. Sheri said on “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” “I was
just trying to keep everybody entertained. My girls flipped out when they saw these. They were like, ‘I want the pink one! I want the red one!’” When her husband, Rich, came home that night, he didn’t just see a cute family project; he saw potential. “You could see this little light bulb go on in his head,” Sheri said. From Craft Table to Trademark By the next morning, Rich had filed for patents, trademarks, and copyrights. A seasoned entrepreneur, he knew the value of protecting a great idea before it left the house. Then came the question of naming their new venture. Rich had long called Sheri his “flibbertigibbet,” a nickname for someone who talks a lot and brims with energy. Sheri cut it in half, added a “z,” and Jibbitz was born.
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