A $100,000 Education for Newbie Inventors

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At the same time, we were distracted. My husband, Rick, had been experiencing severe reactions to a medication he had been taking for young-onset Parkinson's and was finally doing better. (He had been diagnosed with the disease before he had the light-bulb moment for the invention.) Looking back, I realize we had focused mainly on our family while devoting only limited time and resources to building a prototype, much less a company. We had let months pass while moving from one designer to the next, sometimes four to five months at a time.

We had not yet fully committed to the process, and it showed. That was lesson No. 3: Commit fully or not at all.

Fish or Cut Bait

It was now the summer of 2007. During the course of the previous two and a half years, we had spent approximately $100,000 trying to develop Cleatskins, with little to show for it. Our real estate development projects had carried us through the previous 10 years, but our most ambitious project was completed but not yet sold. The real estate market was now in a tailspin, along with all other markets.

We were at a crossroads. If we wanted to pursue our dream of making Cleatskins a reality, we needed to make the commitment, at a time in our lives when we'd be using our reserve to do it.

We put our house on the market and cut the sales price on our latest construction project. We decided to take the risk and concentrate our finances and time on Cleatskins.

I called anyone I thought might be able to recommend an athletic footwear expert. One friend suggested Chris Walsh, one of the premier production, sourcing, and operations executives within the industry. Walsh looked at our prototype in August 2007 and was enthusiastic about it. He brought in Tom Carmody, former general manager of Reebok North America and former head of marketing at Nike (NKE). Erik Purdom, former director for design at LA Gear, also came onboard and brought along Bob Byrne and Jimmy Tsen, stellar design/development and production executives.

We liquidated all of our available assets and maximized the loan against our construction project in order to afford the efforts.

Eureka! Finally

Cleatskins kicked into high gear. Purdom developed drawings and had a prototype in hand within several months. As he immediately set about educating us on the intricacies of athletic footwear, I saw the folly of having previously wasted so much time with professionals outside the industry. From the start, we had wanted a skin that would quickly and easily slip on and off cleats and have a thick and durable outsole, yet be pliable and light. In addition, we wanted it to be attractive, affordable, and capable of sporting team colors. Finally, we had it.

Next, we focused on branding and public relations, since we were set to make our debut at the World Shoe Assn. Show, one of the largest gatherings of footwear buyers and sellers worldwide, in February 2008. We wanted the look, feel, and packaging to convey the essence of the product and the company behind it. Having learned the hard way about people who didn't have the experience we needed, we hired top-notch branding and public relations teams. Cleatskins Sole, our initial product line, was picked up by a dozen international distributors and a number of domestic retailers, including Dick's Sporting Goods (DKS) and Olympian Sports. In addition, several large e-commerce vendors added Cleatskins Sole to their stables, such as Shoebuy.com—all before our product was actually available.

In the summer of 2008, we received the first delivery of Cleatskins Sole from China, which we immediately took to the athletic fields in order to test the response of young athletes. This not only enabled us to gauge which colors would sell best; it also allowed what has proven to be invaluable dialogue with our athletes. We're using tournaments, leagues, and sporting news Web sites to continue that conversation, and we have already used athlete input to design product lines in the pipeline. In January, we launched Cleatskins Golf at the PGA Merchandise Show, to an amazing response.

Sometimes opportunity presents itself and you have no choice but to jump. If not, you'll forever regret having missed the boat. Then, once you're on the boat, the right crew makes all the difference in the world. That brings me to lesson No. 4: The right team is everything.

—edited by Stacy Perman

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