The Sports Emmy Awards has gone to the dogs, and Jillian Downing of Taunton, Massachusetts, is part of the reason.
The Taunton Gazette reported that Downing’s Rustic Hound rubber charm collars will be a featured item in the swag bags given out to the nearly 800 guests attending this year’s 33rd Annual Sports Emmy Awards on April 30 in New York City.
Downing is a part-time cop and full-time security officer on the overnight shifts, so she is hoping the Rustic Hound collar business helps to become her main source of income, the Gazette reported.
The charm collars are fade resistant, waterproof, eco-friendly, clean easily, do not retain an odor after dogs dive into water, and are patent pending, according to the company’s website. Inspired by their dogs and other dog lovers, Downing and her boyfriend, Jerry Wilkins, have been involved in the collar business for less than a year. Downing told the Gazette the more than $10,000 she and Wilkins invested in the company has begun to pay off. Rustic Hound has customers across the nation, in Canada, and Australia.
The collar is rugged, pliable, and has holes throughout its length so that owners may pop in rubber adornments called Jibbitz (like the shoe charms). Wilkins and Downing also entered into a deal with the Crocs, Inc., company who also use the same rubber shoe charms on their Crocs shoe line.
Downing admits the business has been from her home and product shipment is done via local post office trips. She told the Gazette she hopes to have the patent by the summer of 2012 and has dreams of the product landing on chain and independent store shelves as well as tourist-type gift shops.
For more information about Rustic Hound, visit www.rustichound.com.
No comments posted...