People are blogging!!!!

Swilt friends, 

People are blogging!!! If they didn't like the product, they wouldn't take the time to review it!!

So I am excited about things to come !!

I have more bloggers lined up and the following blog is only one of many to come !!!

Enjoy!!

http://mommasaiddayslikethese.blogspot.com/2011/01/swilt-sweater-reinvented-review-and.html

Busy Busy Busy !!

Swilt family,


I want to apologize for my prolonged absence. Team Swilt has been busy working hard on what was the Swilt's first holiday season !!! Through Facebook, Twitter, and the attendance of a bunch of outdoor markets like: The OC Market Place and Rosebowl Fleamarket, we were able to generate enough local buzz to move a decent amount of Swilts. We now focus on 2011 and what I am determined to make the Swilts' breakout year.

Please help me out by mentioning the Swilt on your Facebook or Twitter, and if you have not already, GET YOU OWN and rep Swilt Pride !!!!

A stranger speaks !!!

Hey gang,

Sorry for the delay in between posts. I have been super busy with the Swilt and this Sunday Team Swilt, attended the monthly Rose Bowl event, in Pasadena.  Everything went off without a hitch, of course we sold Swilts and more importantly, we continue to get tons and tons of positive reviews from the public. One encounter stood out to me and I decided to blog about it !!

From day one, I knew that an infomercial was where I wanted to take the Swilt. I think the infomercial route is important in getting the Swilt to hit that critical mass of people who will take notice of the Swilt, talk about it, and ultimately buy the Swilt. When the Swilt launched about one month ago, I have since stayed busy with a lot of guerrilla style social media marketing, attending various street fairs and market places. This hectic schedule has taken its toll on my ability to keep a narrow focus on the uncharted territory that is ... the Swilt's marketing plan. Thankfully this Sunday at the Rose Bowl, a stranger spoke !!!

I was sitting in our booth at the Rose Bowl Flea Market, when I locked eyes with a middle aged women.  It was not the normal eye contact that we all experience, this was a full on staring contest between the two of us. It was weird to say the least and after about 10 seconds, which is a long time to lock eyes with a stranger, I chickened out and looked somewhere else. Before I knew it, she was standing in my booth and abruptly asked, " Are you going to do an infomercial", I said yes and gave a brief history on the origins of the Swilt and it's current marketing path. She responded with "Well, if you get an infomercial your going to kill it and make sure you send one to Oprah".  What I said after this, in retrospect, was defeatist and I honestly feel shamed, but this stranger had more words of wisdom for me: "Wouldn't it be great if I got on Oprah's Favorite Things" I said, " but can you imagine how many products she receives, so..... ( BTW, the "so" was the long, low toned soooooo, the one everyone uses when the first 15 solutions to a proposed problem have failed... in other words, a defeatist "so") .
She picked up on my "so " and said, "but do you know how many people think the same thing and never sends their product" she started to gather her things and make her way back to the main walkway, but after about 5-6 feet of walking she turned back around and yelled " So you know what you have to do ... SEND IT ".

This exchange stood out for me. There was something "non-coincidental" about our encounter. I am a firm believer in things happening for a reason, and trust me, I have theorized dozen upon dozens of reasons as to why or what this encounter could symbolize. The most obvious could be a reminder to strive, asap, for an infomercial and send a Swilt to Oprah. The more symbolic could be a reminder to do away with the defeatist attitude and to never write off myself or my product. In a very erie way I think this encounter brings me full circle back to my very first blog post, with the commonality between the two being an understanding that, for the Swilt to live .. I am going to have to try things. I know that sounds overly simple, but I am taking this encounter as a message to be both traditional and radical in my approach to giving the Swilt life.

Didn't someone say: It better to have tried and failed, than to have not tried at all !
I am excited to see where this new found attitude of mine will take the Swilt !!!


p.s. I never got the name or phone number or email address of the lady who inspired this post. She is portrayed as accurately as she is titled... a stranger. She is nonetheless, a stranger I would like to thank !!!!!

The Swilt in pictures !!!

Good day reader !!

For this post I want to draw your attention to some of my favorite pictures of The Swilt. If you have not made your way to www.theswilt.com to:         #1 buy a Swilt and #2 check out the photo gallery, please do so. There are some great images of the Swilt in action!! At the very end of the post, I threw in some bonus photos of the Swilt with a very special model.

Enjoy !!!

This picture has comfort written all over it !!!

The GQ pose in a Swilt ... it works !!!

As members of S.A.G, the ducks were paid too !!!

Bonus: 

While shooting some photos in the studio for the Swilts' website, the photographer told me to throw Hayden in the mix. So grabbed a Swilt and put Hayden inside ... what a star !!!!

Readers !!! Please remember to follow this blog, and your comments are welcome !!

Swilt: OC Market Place Report

Good evening reader !!!

I wish I could reach out and excitingly shake each and every one of the readers of this blog!! This past Saturday and Sunday Team Swilt took to the streets of the Orange County fair grounds and presented the Swilt, for the very first time, to anyone who dared to be amazed !!! Here is the scoop:

Saturday: 

On both days we needed to arrive at the OC Market Place by 5:45 am, which meant a wake up time of 3:30 am .... yeah, that thought that just popped into your head is what I was feeling both mornings !!! That feeling,however, lasted only seconds as I was waking up to such a huge event in the history of The Swilt. 

All week I was hoping for cooler weather, I definitely didn’t want the type of weather that warranted massive amounts of frozen lemonade and margarita sales. I wanted cool temps, hot cocoa weather, Earls Gray type conditions.... thank you mother nature for giving me Hurricane Bartholomew !! Team Swilt arrived at the OC Market Place amidst a pretty decent downpour, but I was not going to let some water get in the middle of ...  HIISSTTOORRYY!!!!!

Yes, ladies and gents, history was made on Saturday, as the first Swilt ever was sold !! On October 23rd, at 1:39pm, a middle aged couple walked up to the booth, asked for the price, wanted a brief explanation of the product and purchased it. This transaction took all of 2-3 minutes, but was an achievement with hundreds if not thousands of man-hours behind it. The feeling behind the first sale was quite unique, because I am not selling an old computer because I upgraded, or used clothes because I lost weight... I am selling something that was an original image in my mind, which I made into a reality. It was a product that, up until I saw the publics reaction on Saturday and Sunday, was always just .00000000009% unsure how the general public would really react. Well, they reacted and I was not disappointed !!!

Sunday:

3:30am on Sunday ( ohhh there goes that thought again), started off much better. First it was dry and second it was sunny, but cool temps. Foot traffic was 2-fold and Team Swilt made the best of this and rearranged the booth making it more inviting; we also decided to present the enlarged pictures of the Swilt right next to each other, in an attempt to  

resolve the issue of people thinking that the Swilt was a “ blanket with sleeves”. Our plan worked perfectly, as the pictures below will show you, our second setup allowed people to walk into the booth, feel the product, investigate on their own and get them within reach of the Swilts' awesome features !! 

This move of ours paid big dividends, as we sold more Swilts than the first day, were approached by more people than on Saturday and heard less about “ a blanket with sleeves” look-alike and more about the Swilt as its’ own new, unique, and awesome product. Words cannot explain how ridiculously confident and excited I am about the direction of the Swilt. When random people says things like “ this is an awesome product” , “ the Snuggie has nothing on this”, “ this is a sharp product” , and “ how cool is this” .. it makes me feel great and makes the ride, that is the launch of the Swilt, easy and exciting !!

p.s. This past Monday, the day after the Swilts’ OC Market Place IPO, my father was wearing the Swilt at my nephews football practice. Sitting down with the Swilt in head-to-toe mode ( as a full body cover), he decided to get his digital camera from his car and stood up to work a lil’ swilt magic ... by that I mean convert it back into a sweater ( aka. on-the-go mode) so he could walk back to his car. As he finished snapping the Swilt into place, a lady stopped and asked him, what was the name of the product she just saw get converted from a full body cover into a sweater. He started talking to her about the Swilt and called me right after the incident. Awesome !!!!

Hurricane Bartholomew !!

rain, rain, go away !!

New setup .. great idea!!

more inviting, more people, more sales !!

There's a Swilt for that !!!

Good day readers !!!

I am super excited about this post, because I want to lay out in clear terms why the Swilt is an excellent product and most importantly why the Swilt is not ...... a blanket with sleeves !!!

Why must I post about this, you ask????       

Well, I will be the first to admit that when worn in “ Head -to- Toe mode”  the Swilt does resemble a blanket with Sleeves .... but what an optical illusion this is !!!

Let me start with a metaphorical comparison:

The Snuggie, Slanket, Blankoat,  ... any blanket with sleeves,  is in my opinion, equivalent to a portable cassette player. 

The Swilt, however (as sounds of trumpets play), is the equivalent to the latest iPod Touch by Apple. 

Allow me to clarify! As much as the makers of the Snuggie, Slanket, and similar products would love for consumers to believe that there are many ways in which their products can be enjoyed .. there is really only one, and this is in a lying down or recumbent position. Unfortunately, commercials have been made showing wearers of the above mentioned products walking up stairs, walking with HOT coffee, even dancing !! Anyone who has owned one of these products, and trust I have done my product research, knows that you cannot dance in a Snuggie or walk up stairs in a Slanket or walk around with HOT coffee, without putting your personal safety up for grabs !! This brings me full circle with the fact that blankets with sleeves are good for one thing, just as portable cassette players were once good for one thing; insert cassette and push play!

The Swilt on the other hand, just like the iPod Touch, is multi-functional, dynamic, and revolutionary. Most of us are aware of the truly amazing things we can do with an iPod touch; anything from listening to music to using an APP to reserve a dinner table at your favorite eatery.  The Swilt, like Apples’ iPod, can be applied to work in a robust variety of situations. 

Let us look at the the sweater version of an iPod Touch; The Swilt (more trumpets play):

#1 want to walk your dog to the dog park ... done, there's a app Swilt for that

#2 want to cover your whole body at the next Dodger game without taking a separate sweater and full sized blanket ... done, there's a app Swilt for that

#3 want to give your college freshman a product she can wear as a sweater on the way to lecture, and as a full blanket during lecture ... done there's a app Swilt for that 

#4 want a product you can dance in, walk up stairs in, and carry a cup coffee in with a relatively amount of safety... done, there's a app Swilt for that

Thanks for reading my blog..... I hope I have converted some diehard blanket with sleeve fans (shouldn't be hard)

BTW, I will be at the OC Market Place this Saturday and Sunday selling Swilts!!! 

Come down and get yourself your very own Swilt !!!!

The Swilt Warehouse !!!

Good day to all !!!!

Today marks the first full day that the Swilt is available for order and I am super excited.

So far the response on Facebook, Twitter, and the Swilts' blog has been awesome. I hope to keep the same momentum going into the holiday shopping season. Please find the time to mention the Swilt on your Twitter or Facebook!!

For my second blog post, I want to keep it light hearted and show everyone what the warehouse of a small start-up looks like.

We will be recycling all recyclable material  :)

Some of the Swilts profits have been promised to my fathers' broken fence  :(

I think my niece got stuck somewhere between the wall and boxes# 1 - 58

The Leaning Tower of Pisa .. Swilts!!

Enjoy everyone!! Support small businesses and stop wearing primitive sweaters.

Remember, with the Swilt... the sweater has been reinvented !!!