Moms Create Solution to Socks vs. Hardwood Floor

The socks meet hardwood floor wipeout.

We've all been there.  And it's not pretty.

Enter GRiPPiES, a no-slip solution for tights, socks and gloves created by two local moms.

Managing partners Corrie Wilder, of Bellmore, and Merokean Yelena Mogelefsky created GRiPPiES in 2006 after Wilder's daughter Kayla had a fit over having to wear gripper socks instead of tights in gymboree class. Realizing there was no satisfying product on the market, the moms decided to make one themselves.

"They always say follow your children and ideas come because there are needs out there that are not filled and a lot of them are surrounded by children's products," Mogelefsky said.

The "mom-preneurs" met on the Long Island Railroad and Wilder's knack for marketing and graphic design and Mogelefsky's flair for manufacturing and product development made the two a "perfect business marriage," as Mogelefsky recently said of their partnership.

Wilder, a graphic designer, and Mogelefsky, a product developer for the fashion industry, were able to design the eco-friendly and environmentally safe packaging themselves and create a completely parent-invented product.

"Mom needs something to make her life a little bit more convenient and it doesn't exist in the marketplace, so you create it," Mogelefsky said.  

Both having full-time jobs and children, they needed to create GRiPPiES on a local mom's budget.

"We're on a shoe-string budget here—anything we can do ourselves, we do," Wilder said.

Mogelefsky explained: "I think that's the best thing about us.  We did not have this budget to start a business and we knew we had limited resources, so we literally tapped into every single favor, every single contact that we both had, to start this business."

Wilder and Mogelefsky first introduced their product to local parents and stores. GRiPPiES can be bought in small Merrick pharmacies around town and now in big chain stores such as Buy Buy Baby and online at Bed Bath and Beyond.

"Now we're trying to get into the knitting market…it's a perfect product for the Michael's and AC Moore's of the world," Mogelefsky said. "If you had to ask where we wanted our business growth to be, it's that market."

GRiPPiES sock shapes include stars, bears and ovals and are either iron-on or peel-and stick. GRiPPiES are already applied on tights and are available in sizes 2-14. The suggested retail price for socks is $5.99 per package and $6.99 per pair for tights.

"Now we're finding it goes beyond our six-year-olds and seven-year-olds, it goes to bar and bat mitzvahs and Sweet 16's," Wilder said. "[Teenagers] all take off their shoes and put on socks."

GRiPPiES can also help protect seniors from dangerous falls, Mogelefsky said.

"It is a wonderful product for the elder market," she said. "That need actually came from phone calls…so we created an oval shape."

The mom-preneurs plan to create more trendy shapes, such as peace signs and guitars and more specific boy and girl shapes.

"For right now, the feedback that we're been getting is quite equal," Wilder said. "And surprisingly people were saying, 'Oh the stick-ons are going to go so much faster than the iron-ons—we are almost even in our sales…people like them both."

GRiPPiES won The National Parenting Center Seal of Approval for 2009 and The New Parent's Guide Seal of Approval.

"Yelena's [Mogelefsky] the kind of person and I think I'm the kind of person too—if a good idea comes your way and it fits what makes sense to you, we won't be able to help but run with it," Wilder said. "It's just the way we are."

To learn more about GRiPPiES or to buy them online visit www.grippiesonline.com. This girl on YouTube surely could have used a pair.