Shauna and Matt Damman were living a happy, busy life in Detroit, Michigan, enjoying their growing family, when they stumbled upon a genius idea that was the solution to a problem, but also a lot of fun. Rather than just keep it to themselves, they dove into the world of manufacturing, marketing and selling, so that the world could enjoy the benefits of their invention, Walkie Chalk®!

Like most involved parents, Matt and Shauna enjoy spending time with their children, and during warmer days this always included drawing with sidewalk chalk. Shauna was outside with her children shortly after having had a C-section with her third child, and her two older children wanted her to draw with them. Shauna wanted to play, but she couldn’t easily get down on the ground because she was still recovering. Rather than miss out on play time, she had an idea and quickly came up with a solution.

A little while later, from just a few feet away, Matt saw his wife drawing—but, she wasn’t crouching, kneeling or sitting on the ground…she was standing! Shauna had zip-tied the sidewalk chalk to a rake handle, so she could stand up and draw, and it was working! Matt recognized the brilliance of it and how others could benefit from such a product. Parents would love using it to play with their children without having to kneel down and get dirty, and kids would love the fun new way to draw outside!

Obviously, the Dammans couldn’t sell rake handles with zip-tied chalk, so Matt worked on figuring out a new design. “One struggle,” Matt said, “was how it could hold sidewalk chalk in a way that stayed tight, but also had ‘give’ and allowed children to draw without the chalk breaking. It also had to be super simple and easy for any child to use.” Matt had the idea to use foam to make it work, much like a pool noodle, and that lead to the current foam material used on Walkie Chalk, which is now patented. The material holds chalk well and allows for easy drawing, as well as simple switching of chalk. It can also hold just about any sidewalk chalk, round or square!

Walkie Chalk went through several revisions and prototypes— over 25 versions were toyed with and tried—before it became what you see today. Through the process, Matt made sure to always have others try and test his designs, keeping an open mind to change and improve. It took that much work to make it so simple, which was Matt’s main criteria for the product. It was an experience he and his family enjoyed, having fun with it and embracing the challenges of production and selling into retail. Their first purchase order came from Ace Hardware, with Hobby Lobby, Toys “R” Us and other retailers soon after.

What has surprised the Dammans the most is how many different ways people use and enjoy Walkie Chalk. People have used it to draw lines on sport courts (mainly pickleball) or outline booth space on trade show floors, art teachers have used it outside to teach drawing from a new perspective, college students have used it to market and communicate around campus sidewalks, crossing guard companies have raved about it, and so much more. Matt and his family love one use in particular: “The best has been the special needs community and all the folks, both kids and adults, who are wheelchair-bound and can now draw with their friends and family.”

As Walkie Chalk becomes more popular and is available in more stores, Matt continues to listen to consumers and enjoys hearing stories of how Walkie Chalk is used. He and Shauna stay involved in the marketing and development of it through PlayMonster, and can’t wait to see where it goes next!

Despite a high tech background as a software entrepreneur, Utter Nonsense creator, Tim Swindle, went decidedly low tech with his first foray into creating board games. Tim and his friend developed the basic concept for Utter Nonsense over several years while on weekend getaways and needing some entertainment for the group. It began as a simple hat trick: two piles of paper, one with accents and one with ridiculous phrases. Each pile went into a hat and players pulled out a combination of an accent or impression along with a phrase. Then, on one fateful New Year’s Day, they decided to take the basic concept of this game they had been playing with friends for years and turn it into Utter Nonsense. Utter Nonsense encourages players to step outside their comfort zone and engage with each other, without the distraction of technology.  Although he had no prior experience with writing or developing board games, Tim grew up playing games with his family, which cultivated his love for bringing people together to laugh and have fun, and led to the creation of and motivation behind Utter Nonsense.

The meticulousness and ambition that Tim fostered in his professional career beforehand served him well in the undertaking of Utter Nonsense. He says, “Since we had no background in creating games, every step required research. For instance, we had to Google ‘how to design a board game’ and ‘how to manufacture cards.’ It was all new to us, but we took our time, asked a lot of questions, and found great partners to help us throughout our journey.” Their Googling skills paid off. After launching on Kickstarter, they were fully funded a month later for their first production run.  Shortly after their successful Kickstarter campaign, their first version of Utter Nonsense hit the shelves in Target. Because this version originated amongst adult friends, the content was geared toward people 18+. This led to the name becoming Utter Nonsense: Naughty Edition. After two years of success, Tim, along with his sister, Shannon, decided to create a family-friendly edition of Utter Nonsense.

After PlayMonster acquired Utter Nonsense in January 2018, Tim has continued to work in the industry introduced to him by Utter Nonsense. He enjoys developing and creating new game concepts and hopes to make people laugh and have fun, for a living.

“Boys aren’t supposed to cry.”

That was it…the moment Laurel Wider decided to do something about gender stereotypes for boys. Her son came home from preschool and made this declaration, something he learned at school, and Laurel’s heart sank. She didn’t want her son growing up restricted by gender stereotypes. As a psychotherapist and a mother, Laurel wondered what might help him (and other boys) to feel comfortable with ALL of his feelings.

Generally, when people think and talk about gender stereotypes, it’s about girls. However, boys face restrictive gender stereotypes issues as well. Laurel Wider has been a psychotherapist in private practice for over 12 years, with specialties in gender, relationships and identity formation, and she has witnessed many boys and men struggle to achieve impossible ideas of masculinity.

“Culturally, boys are raised to be tough and self-reliant, and I have seen this lead to isolation, depression and sometimes aggression,” says Laurel. “Even though I was aware of these harsh social expectations, I was floored when my own son began experiencing them.”

Laurel’s expertise as a psychotherapist and mother led her to the realization that gender stereotypes impact children early on, and that perhaps a way to reach young children and their parents was through toys, because children learn through play. However, when she began looking around, she saw a huge gap in the toy market. She observed that the only toys to encourage friendship and empathy were marketed solely to girls. A message was clearly being sent to many boys, and their parents, that this type of play is not for them.

Laurel’s “light bulb” moment then came to her: “I wondered…could a toy help boys learn to embrace emotions? I sought a common denominator that already resonated with many boys, and came to the realization that blending the adventure of an action figure with the emotional connection of a favorite stuffed animal would resonate with boys and promote social and emotional learning!” Using her passion and determination, Laurel launched a start-up, and Wonder Crew—dolls (yes, dolls!) for boys—was born!

She had a brilliant idea, but how did she make it a reality? While working full time as a therapist and parent, she entered into a business program in efforts to launch Wonder Crew. Launching on Kickstarter, she powered through the many challenges of manufacturing, distribution, customer service and more…and she came through it with glowing feedback from family, friends, customers, media, and even the White House!

The whole process has been very gratifying for Laurel. She’s always been drawn to gender equality, even back as a child when her favorite toy was She-Ra, Princess of Power, because she was a strong woman who could fight right alongside her brother’s He-Man! And now, to see her creation Wonder Crew being children’s treasured toys, is a phenomenal feeling. She remembers, “Soon after the first big shipment of Wonder Crew, I received so many emails from parents thanking me for creating this new play experience for their sons. Parents have expressed how excited they are to see their sons connecting, taking care of, and bonding with their Wonder Crew buddies. It’s been awesome!”

During the Toy Industry Association’s 2018 TOTY Awards (like the “Oscars” of toys), Wonder Crew Superhero Will won Doll of the Year! It was the first time a doll for boys had ever won such an award! Superhero Will was selected as the winner based on votes from toy retailers, media, Toy Association members and consumers. Laurel was very excited to receive such recognition: “It’s been incredibly humbling to stand side-by-side other nominees, but to win is beyond our wildest dreams,” said Wider.

Laurel lives Northampton, MA with her family, and continues to help develop Wonder Crew buddies and Adventure Pack accessories, while still running her own private practice. She enjoys helping enrich the lives of children and families, and engages Wonder Crew fans and parents regularly through social media. Hopefully now more little boys will grow up knowing that it’s okay to have a range of feelings and be their full selves.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWbDM6K37t8]

Every little girl wants a doll, or several really, and so did 8-year-old Alice Brooks. She asked her dad for a doll, but he made the bold decision to not buy his daughter a doll. Instead, he gave little Alice a saw, and being her father’s daughter, Alice was bold and made her own doll out of wood and nails. It may have been her first project, but she had been playing in her dad’s robotics lab while growing up, so she was no stranger to engineering.

Today, Alice has many more accomplishments to her name: a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from MIT, a Masters in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford, and co-founder of the line of STEM-focused building toys Roominate®. She and her partner pitched Roominate on the well-known TV show Shark Tank, and landed a deal with Mark Cuban!

How and why did Alice develop Roominate? She and her co-founder, both engineers who were inspired by childhood toys, saw a strong division between girls’ and boys’ toys. And, they noticed a lack of creative building options for girls, which bothered them because they wanted more girls to be inspired by toys like they were years earlier. Again being bold, Alice decided to solve this problem, and she and her partner came together to design a toy with one simple mission: Open up possibilities for girls by showing them that creativity and engineering are fun.

Roominate is quickly becoming a popular toy line that builds confidence in technology and engineering, all while being intuitive and fun! Girls can design and build their own carnival, townhouse, pet vet and more, and then add circuits and motors to bring their creations to life! Alice enjoys watching children be inspired by Roominate, having fun and building self-confidence while becoming creative engineers! The line is winning several awards, including Forbes “Top 10 Toys to Watch in 2015,” TIME “Toy of the Year” and 2015 TOTY Finalist.

With the success of Roominate, Alice has become well-respected in the toy industry and business community. In 2015, Alice was named in the Forbes 30 Under 30 list, and in 2016 was included in the 30 under 30 all-star alumni list. She was also invited to attend the White House conference “Breaking Down Gender Stereotypes in Media and Toys,” and asked to be a member of a panel at the 2016 Forbes Women’s Summit, “The Lives You Impact: The Role of Culture in Educating and Empowering Tomorrow’s Leaders.”

At the end of 2015, Roominate was acquired by the toy company PlayMonster. Alice continues to work on the development of Roominate and is excited about working with PlayMonster. She’s confident about this next phase of Roominate’s life and says, “PlayMonster’s entrepreneurial spirit and innovative culture is exactly what we were looking for to help grow Roominate.” Her first PlayMonster projects were working with other engineers and artists to design all new pieces for Roominate sets, improving the motor function and redesigning the dolls. So, yes, Alice is still building dolls, but now it’s for the next generation of engineers.

To set up an interview with Alice Brooks, please contact us.