Students
DATE: August 24, 2006
SunSak Convertible Beach Towel Has it’s Day in the Sun
PHILADELPHIA, PA: Just in time for the forth of July weekend, twenty-two year old Allison Floam will achieve an inventor’s dream come true, with the debut of her product, SunSakTM, on the QVC network, just one year after presenting the concept to a panel of expert judges at the first annual PennVention competition at the Weiss Tech House on the University of Pennsylvania campus. SunSakTM is a round beach towel, innovatively structured to make your stay in the sun more enjoyable and designed to convert into an over-the-shoulder bag.
At the PennVention competition, ten student inventors, including Ms. Floam, presented their inventions to a panel of expert judges. One judge, Marilyn Montross, Vice President of Vendor Relations at QVC, selected the SunSakTM to win the QVC Consumer Innovation Prize of $2,500 and a meeting with a QVC buyer.
"QVC is proud to support PennVention because we believe in its mission to encourage students with an innovative and entrepreneurial spirit," said Ms. Montross. "Allison’s concept showed a lot of potential for commercialization, and we are pleased to now be able to introduce her finished product to our national audience."
When Allison presented her first prototype it cinched closed like a laundry bag. With access to business mentors and funding opportunities, she was able to make several revisions and turn her concept into a viable, marketable product.
“This experience put me in contact with successful entrepreneurs that helped guide me through the process of filing for a trademark, developing my product, and securing a manufacturer,” said Ms. Floam. “It truly amazes me how any products make it onto the market with all of the steps involved, but its well worth it. I have never been more passionate about anything in my life.”
Since it’s inception in 2003, the Weiss Tech House has helped to launch more than a dozen businesses and products including the HRI MineSweeper, a machine designed to detonate landmines; Intellistem, a novel design of femoral implants used in Orthopaedics for total hip replacement, and FirstFlavor, an edible paper design that provides the food, beverage and consumer packaged goods industry with an effective medium for product- taste sampling. For more information, visit www.tech-house.upenn.edu.
SunSakTM is currently available in royal blue with powder blue trim, and retails for around $25.