What else was new at Clean ’09?
At this year’s Clean Show there were quite a few new products introduced for those of us in
the business of washing and pressing shirts and I am excited to share them with
you!
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First up, Covers Etc, Inc. They have re-branded themselves, changed their logo and put out some slick new
marketing materials and special promos for their customers. But that’s not a new product. Ask your local distributor about the new drycleaning press
pad that they introduced.
As for their new shirt product, take a look at Photos 1 and 2. If you have a
body press that has a flap as in Photo 2, you really need to check out their
new innovation that replaces the flap with an elastic band. This prevents the
loss of vacuum, I am told, and in the field reports are very positive.
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We all know Unipress, but I can’t recall any time in the past where they introduced a new product that wasn’t a press of some sort.
As shown in Photo 3, they designed and built a shirt holder to use in
conjunction with their quad collar machine that I told you about in August. As
a presser presses an ample quantity of collars and cuffs, he or she simply
unloads the machine onto this shirt holder where the garments await final
pressing. Not a new idea, but new for Unipress.
Y.A.C. introduced the automatic bagging machine shown in Photo 4, to compete with the
similar models from other Japanese manufacturers. But you didn’t have to spend a lot of money to come home from New Orleans with something new
and different. How about an innovative marketing idea?
The patent-pending Collar Card (Photo 5) is the world's first and only credit card sized collar stay holder,
which fits conveniently into the wallet.
Innovative and practical, the Collar Card eliminates the all-too-common
experience of forgetting collar stays — something every man has experienced and no other product on the market solves.
This is the perfect product for men's clothiers, drycleaners or hotels to offer
their contemporary and sophisticated customers. Collar Cards can be handed out
in stores, attached to shirts on deliveries, and used in new customer “welcome kits” and in promotional mailings to clients and prospects.
With a company's logo in the wallet (and in the shirts) of clients and
prospective clients, the logo will be seen every time the customer opens his
wallet — an unbeatable branding opportunity.
Furthermore, unlike loose collar stays (and other promotional products), people
actually hold onto their Collar Cards because they are unique, functional, and
solve an everyday hassle. The collar stays even “snap” back into the card to store for future use. Visit www.collarcard.com.
Sankosha introduced a pair of products for folded shirts. Well, sort of. These two
products — an automatic bagger (yes, for folded shirts) and (finally) an innovative shirt
folder aren’t officially available in the United States. They told me that they are simply
testing the waters here and measuring the response and the level of interest.
There are movies of both on my website at www.tailwindsystems.com.
Compass Max finally released its newest POS software. I get to tell you about that because
this new version has the Tailwind System module built-in. And I gotta say, it
is the best and slickest so far! It was present when it was being demonstrated
to a client that uses Compass Max. We were both very impressed!
Cleaner’s Supply came up with an inexpensive, handheld blacklight that allows so-called “invisible” stains to show up. At barely more than $14, I can see every counter person
having one of these to check for those nasty invisible stains, not only shirts,
but also on drycleaning pieces too.
A company called Wellbeing Land, LLC, introduced a new product called Slim-PAK.
It’s an innovative way to package shirts. It’s sort of a cross between folding a shirt and hanging one. Check out the video
(you know where) and the demonstration.
This isn’t a new idea, but it always seems like one, probably because it has yet to take
off in this country. A few companies have tried to introduce this product over
the last several years.
When I first saw something like this in Japan in 2001, I was intrigued. I used
the hotel valet service with the expectation that my shirts would come back on
these types of hangers. They didn’t. I really wanted to see how the garment held up through it all.
It will cost you a bit of packaging money to hang your shirts like this, but you
will go to the head of the class for innovation — and surely set yourself apart from your competitors.
There was a lot of that going around this year at the Clean Show
"If you do what you always did, you'll get what you always got!"
