Posted August 31, 2009

As a parent it is a relief to have kids back at school and back on schedule, with someone else providing expectations and structure, other than just me. My kids sure get tired of hearing Dad and Mom telling them what to do, when to do it, and why. 

            

I have a question for you: Why is it there is so little innovation and so few interesting new products for this buying season - just more spiral bounds and #2s? Gee whiz, whose watch is it, who is driving the ship? What kind of industry has no innovation? 

            

Surely this is an opportunity for a Wham-O-type company, a wildly innovative maker of school supplies, to appear and make fabulous new products that sell as, with, and alongside school supplies. 

            

As I recently surveyed the stripped-bare school supply shelves the most interesting thing I saw was glitter decorated pencils. As an inventor I wonder where are the motors, the gears, mechanisms, things that spin, shake, lights, actions, sounds, something, anything?

            

Parents magazine has a lot to say about back-to-school preparations that is far more useful to parents than my lament. And, I wish I could find ratings and recommendations to guide my back to school shopping. Does someone make a better pen or pencil, or a better notebook? Or are they all the same? 

            

To all you school supply companies, I invite you to talk with us about innovation, magic, and novelty that might be added to your products to give them a little stand-out on the shelf, something to talk about. How bout a tinkertoys-like construction system that uses #2 pencils, or decorate-my-own pencils that you color yourself, or games played bouncing pink pearl erasers into a bucket like ski ball? (Note: if you use any of these ideas, we would certainly appreciate a royalty on them!)

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