August 28, 2021
Managing cleanliness during a pandemic, backyard barbecue, or an alien organ swap-meet is tricky. This simple, quick to market idea helps people navigate dirty environments while discouraging cross-contamination.
Invention idea #03042.1 pulled from my notebooks to share.
Build it for fun & profit.
Explore the interactive blueprint.
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Overview of the concept:
Additional Thoughts:
Though I focused on the the pandemic/virus use, really this is good for most any situation you want to manage contact with things. For example: keeping one hand clean to work the phone while the other is used to muck around in stuff, eat Cheetos, thumb through fuzzy leg warmer options on the clothes rack…so on. So, with simple style changes you can focus in on lots of different markets.
One idea I had to jump-start this product would be to start with styles and packaging to fit the "present situation":
First thought is to put the virus icon on the dirty band and leave the clean band blank. If you want to go bananas you could make it a "limited edition" and only produce so many to drive interest. After those move nicely, you can branch into other color, logo, word styles.
One thought that was in the notebook that I didn’t elaborate on was the possibility of using the “Magic The Gathering” card idea with the clean-dirty bands. That is, make a series of protective spells, characters, creatures that are on the bands to help ward off the viruses (with proper hand management of course). Then you can create rare versions of the bands with special creatures/icons and put them in multipacks with others to drive interest.
"Oh look, Billy has a Dark Wind Binklebober and VirusEater +4 bands on his hand! Ooooooooo!"
It’s a trojan horse concept where it motivates kids to have and wear the bands all the while encouraging hand management...so I hope anyway.
Manufacturing / Packaging / Selling:
Clean-Dirty Band has a low barrier to entry and would be reasonable to sell both on Amazon via FBA and point-of-sale racks at grocery/convenience stores. The startup process, cost, and time is minimal:
- Get custom printed wristbands.
- Get custom printed packaging.
- Get wholesale and shipping packing.
- Package and sell/ship.
Notes:
- Reasonable to create a small run to test the market and then scale up with better margins.
- Use custom printed silicone or tyvek wristband supplier that fits your quantity-price. [Ref1, Ref2]
- My preference for packaging is a metalized, heat-sealed mylar bag. High-tech, clean look. Downside is the label will need to be color to accurately represent contents since bag is opaque. A cheaper alternative is a clear, 2mil poly bag with hang tag or B&W label. Bag sources I like: [Ref3, Ref4]
- Sell in 2-packs (one paired-opposite). If selling on Amazon, margins are tight so multi-packs only.
- Great for point of purchase racks in grocery/convenience stores.
- Speciality markets: Elementary schools, daycare centers, amusement parks.
