Editor’s note: This article was first published in February 2014. Product availability, prices (about $700 for the suits, $19.95 a month for the litter boxes) and the figure of around $70 billion in US pet spending are from that time.
Continuing our selection of ideas gathered from other places, let’s look at a few entrepreneurs whose products have managed to innovate, even though we often say that it’s hard to come up with anything new at this point.
1. A folding helmet
The number of people who cycle to work keeps growing in many cities, particularly in the United Kingdom, which is where the idea behind Morpher was born. It is a helmet that fulfils every safety function (it has already passed all the European safety standards) and can also be folded to fit in a briefcase, so you don’t have to carry it around everywhere. Its creator, Jeff Woolf, had a bicycle accident on a day when he wasn’t wearing his helmet because he didn’t know where he would store it. He spent years working on the idea, and the helmet is now on sale.
2. Special suits for executives who commute by bike
Sticking with the same trend (cyclists), Parker Dusseau, an American entrepreneur, has come up with a solution for executives who want to ride to work but don’t want their suit to crease or to sweat more than necessary. These suits have many of the features found in sportswear, combined with spandex for stretch and moisture resistance.
The executive cyclist can fully extend their arms thanks to pleats built into the suit, and there are zips under the armpits that can be opened for ventilation. The suits keep their elegance, which may be why they cost around 700 dollars.
3. Condoms with advice from Mom
They’re called Momdoms and they come in boxes of 6 and 12. Linking these intimate moments with our mothers may not sound very comforting at first. The idea started out with a message meant to warn young people and make sure they had safe sex, but it ended up succeeding simply because so many of the tips the younger user finds inside the box are funny, such as “be careful who you use it with” and the like.
4. A subscription service for cat litter boxes
In the United States alone, spending on pets is around 70 billion dollars. Subscription services have so far proved very profitable when aimed at humans, so Poopy Cat is testing a subscription service in which, for a monthly fee, you don’t just change your cat’s litter: you replace the whole box, and everything is made from eco-friendly material. For 19.95 dollars a month, this need is taken care of.
5. Waking up pleasantly with a vibrating alarm worn in your underwear
There are two ways to wake up: one is with that ear-splitting alarm beep that puts some people in a foul mood, and the other is waking up with pleasure. The makers of the Little Rooster say it achieves the latter. Designed for women, it is placed inside the knickers, and when the alarm goes off it starts to vibrate, producing a pleasant sensation. It has up to 30 different intensity levels, although I’m not sure how good it is to head off to work that happy every morning.
Further reading
- 5 business ideas offering personal services to the rich
- 14 business ideas to start in 2014
- The 33 profitable businesses of the future
Featured image: Paul Mison, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
