Loopit – Earbuds with Fashion and Function

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If you’ve ever found yourself without earbuds, or with earbuds that were a tangled mess, you’ll want to know about a brand new invention called Loopit. The brainchild of designer Vanessa Chan, Loopit is a necklace that hides earbuds woven through it.

I met Chan at The Pennsylvania Conference for Women in November when she was presenting to the QVC Sprouts team. (Stay tuned to The Wonder of Tech for an upcoming article about QVC Sprouts.) She demonstrated Loopit to me and gave me a prototype model to test.

Chan and I spoke earlier this week about her Kickstarter campaign to bring Loopit to market.

How Loopit Works

Loopit’s earbuds and audio plug connect to each other with magnets. When you need to transform the necklace into earbuds you simply pull them apart, plug in the cord and put the buds in your ears. When you’re done, reattach the magnets and wear it as a necklace.

Loopit also has a microphone so you can use to talk on the phone and record sound.

Chan designed Loopit to look like a classic chain necklace that disguises a set of earbuds woven into the links. In fact, when I met Chan at The Pennsylvania Conference for Women in November, I knew about her invention but I still didn’t recognize her necklace as Loopit.

“One of the fun things for me is doing the reveal,” said Chan. “People don’t know what it is then I show them and then their eyes just light up and they say, ‘No way, show that to me again!'”

The chain is made of aluminum, in gold or silver colors, and the headphone cord comes in white or black.

Loopit is also available without the chain for those who prefer a different style.

Chan decided to use a classic chain style at first, but may expand to other styles and colors if sales go well. “If there’s enough demand and I know ahead of time that a certain style will sell then I can add choices.”

This video shows Loopit in action:

Kickstarter

Loopit was launched in a Kickstarter campaign on January 26 that runs until February 25, 2016. The campaign was funded in under a week, exceeding its goal of $15,000.

The campaign has different levels of support, with the Overt Scrunchers level still available, offering a Loopit for $30, a discount off of the planned retail price of $50.

Chan saw the value of crowdfunding, such as Kickstarter, in making her idea into a reality. “The model for Kickstarter is that you get pre-orders so you get the money before you have to make your inventory order, which is great.” She hopes to get many more orders before the campaign ends later this month.

The prototype model Chan gave me didn’t have a microphone so I’ve ordered a Loopit from Kickstarter.

How Loopit Came to Be

Loopit had a fast track development from idea to Kickstarter in under a year. Chan quit her job as a parter at the consulting firm McKinsey & Company last January so she could become a designer. Her background in advising businesses, as well as her PhD from MIT in Materials Science & Engineering, prepared her well for the challenges of bringing a new product to market.

Chan went back to her roots as a child in deciding to become a designer. “I’ve always liked making stuff. Even as a McKinsey partner, I knit, I made jewelry, I baked creative cakes.” She asked herself if she could be creative as a full time job, trying to make things.

Turning her hobby into a job turned out to be a great fit for Chan. She got more inspiration from helping her daughter’s third grade class at Springside Chestnut Hill Academy. The school has an incubator program to help children turn their ideas into marketable products. Chan thought, “If kids can do it, why can’t I?”

Her experience at McKinsey also prepared her to launch a product. “I spent all my time at McKinsey finding problems to solve. What are the problems of the world and how can the products in my clients’ portfolios begin to tackle them?”

She applied that thinking to her new career as a designer. “I started writing down all of the problems I saw, things that frustrated me.” She came up with dozens of ideas and turned them into five prototypes of different products.

Of the five products, she decided to start with Loopit because it solved a universal problem: tangled earbuds. “That was my biggest frustration at McKinsey.” Chan would have to get on phone calls quickly but spent too much time trying to untangle her earbuds. She needed earbuds that would be easily accessible.

Chan began playing around with Apple earbuds and decorating them. Because she had made jewelry in the past she got the idea of transforming earbuds into a necklace. She went to a beading store to design the earbuds and got the idea of using magnets as the clasp. She decided to use a lightweight chain that would disguise the earbuds without being heavy.

The next step was finding a supplier, which she was able to do at a cost-effective price. Chan found a business in China who will be manufacturing Loopit.

She then launched her Kickstarter campaign in January and reached her goal for Loopit in less than a week.

Now that her campaign has been successfully funded on Kickstarter, Chan plans to fulfill those orders then expand to retail stores. She has had online retailers reach out to her wanting to sell Loopit at their sites and may be bringing Loopit to QVC in the future.

[tip] Check out the movie Joy about Joy Mangano, a woman who brought her idea for a new mop to QVC and became a successful designer. [/tip]

Your Thoughts

Have you ever been frustrated by tangled earbuds? Do you like the idea of earbuds being embedded in a necklace you’ll have handy at any time? Have you ever had an idea for a design you’d like to turn into a product?

Share your thoughts in the Comments section below!

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