Stories
  • Neck Tie Holder with Lighting

PRODUCT STORIES AT Tarlow Design LLC IN SAN RAFAEL, CA

Over the past 30 years, Tarlow Design LLC has developed more than 1,000 products. We have built relationships with reliable product manufacturing companies domestically and overseas. It is essential to know that you are working with a manufacturer that will produce consistent, high-quality products at an agreed-upon price in an agreed-upon time frame. It is also essential to communicate with the manufacturer so that important design features are not lost in translation. Call our team today at (415) 726-1354!


Some of our overseas product manufacturing companies have offices in the U.S., so the ultimate responsibility for the product lies with a company based in the U.S. If there is a problem, it can be resolved here instead of 6,000 miles away. It is ideal to manufacture products in the U.S., but if there is a high labor content, there may be no choice but to manufacture outside the U.S.

A REVOLUTION IN TIE RACKS

Fast Track Tie Racks Was a Revolution in Tie Racks:


Barbara Arner was frustrated. As the office manager of her husband’s podiatry clinic, she was not finding an outlet for her natural creative, entrepreneurial abilities. At her birthday party, she declared, “I’m going to come up with a great new product idea and make lots of money from it.” Two weeks later, she had it!

  • Modern Tie Racks

Her revolutionary product idea was born out of a problem she had with her husband’s ties. They always seemed to end up on the floor of the closet. Also, he tended to wake her up in the morning while rummaging through a dark closet to find the exact tie he wanted. Her idea was to have a tie rack that automatically revolved like the mechanisms found at dry cleaners. She also wanted a light to go on when the ties revolved.


Barbara contacted Ken Tarlow and visited Tarlow Design LLC Studio. After Ken signed a confidentiality form, she told him her idea. At first, Ken was a bit skeptical. “Will people pay the additional money required to rotate the ties?” We decided to build a concept prototype to test the key features and get feedback from potential buyers. A focus group was created, and it turned out that almost everyone loved Barbara’s revolving tie rack.


Many of the women in the focus group said that it would make an excellent gift for their husband or boyfriend and that they had difficulty figuring out what to get them for birthdays or holidays. Since over 50% of retail sales occur during the holiday season, Barbara and Ken realized they might have a hit.


With that confirmation, Tarlow Design LLC fully developed the Fast Track Tie Rack. We produced engineering drawings and created a good-looking functioning prototype. Then, we contacted our Asian manufacturer to obtain tooling and unit costs. The tooling costs were more than Barbara was willing to risk, so she asked us to find a licensing partner. We found a licensing partner who took the prototype to a Chicago housewares show.


The Fast Track Tie Rack was a hit at the housewares show, and retail store buyers signed purchase orders for 200,000 right then and there. The Fast Track Tie Rack was born! Over the years, more than four million Fast Track Tie Racks have been sold worldwide, and Barbara Arner has received over 1 million dollars in royalty payments.


You can currently buy a Fast Track Tie Rack at your local Container Store.

  • Modern Donut Maker

THE DONUT FACTORY

The Donut Factory Lets You Have Donuts Any Time You Want!


A light bulb went off in Greg Bond’s mind while he was at Pier 39 in San Francisco. He saw a vendor selling dozens of fresh, hot mini donuts, which were being made on the spot in a donut-making machine. As the vice president in charge of new products at Nostalgia Electric Company, Greg realized that it might do very well if he could make a home version of this machine. He discovered that the commercial version of the donut-making machine costs $5,000. He wanted to make one that could sell to consumers for $149. Was it possible?

Greg called Ken Tarlow at Tarlow Design LLC for his opinion. Ken evaluated the basic concept, did some sketching and materials sourcing, and concluded that it could be done. Greg gave Tarlow Design LLC the green light to design and build a proof of concept prototype to show that a consumer model could be designed and retailed for the target price.


After several attempts, Tarlow Design LLC developed a working prototype that made great little donuts and hit the desired retail target. Next, we produced engineering drawings of all the product components and then flew with Greg to China to meet with the manufacturer. After we described the product to the Chinese manufacturing team, one of the members raised his hand and asked politely, “What is a donut?” After explaining the popularity of donuts in the United States and making a few sample donuts with the prototype we brought to the meeting, the manufacturer enthusiastically took on the project.


“The Donut Factory” is selling well and is now available at Kohl’s and other fine retailers.

THE STORK STAND

The Stork Stand Makes Your Office Chair a Mobile Standing Desk:


Michael Goldberg was in pain. After working for months at a high-tech Silicon Valley corporation, he developed back pain from sitting hunched over at his computer all day. He realized that a standing desk might solve his problem. He asked his employer if he would purchase one for him. The employer declined, saying that he would have to get one for all of his employees, a standing desk would take up too much space, and it would cost too much money.

  • Stylish Stork Stand

Michael did his own research and discovered that even an inexpensive standing desk costs around $300. He felt that this was too much money, and he also realized that many office workers like him probably had the same problem. He decided to develop his version of a mobile standing desk that would be portable and relatively inexpensive. He had the idea to attach a desktop to the top of an office chair so that a mobile standing desk could be created with the chairs people already owned. After doing his concept sketches, he contacted Ken Tarlow at Tarlow Design LLC to help refine the concept.


Tarlow Design LLC got to work in our fully equipped prototype shop and came up with several concept models to demonstrate how the mobile standing desk might look and work. After completing this process, CAD engineering drawings were created for all components, and a final “looks-like, works-like” prototype was built. Tarlow Design LLC sourced all components for manufacture in the United States and obtained tooling and piece-part costs. Mr. Goldberg used the prototype in a Kickstarter video to obtain $50,000 in crowd-sourced financing to get the Stork Stand into production. The Kickstarter campaign was successful, and the Stork Stand is now available online at http://www.storkstand.com.

Call us today at (415) 726-1354 to inquire about these products!

Share by: