Katie Spinning the Wheel of Fortune!
About Kix By Katie
Kix By Katie™, based in Seaside Oregon, is the creation of mompreneur Katie Johnson. This revolutionary new invention eliminates what Katie has affectionately dubbed the Heel Wedgie—this is when your pants get bunched up between your foot and shoe, a frequent wardrobe malfunction that occurs when women wear long pants with open back shoes. This handy little device acts much like a collar stay for men’s shirts by temporarily adhering to the inside back hemline of your pants, giving them just a little extra weight and rigidity to keep them hanging nicely.
According to PDX Shopgirl, Dani Juhala, a well-known Personal Shopper and Image Consultant regularly featured on AM Northwest “Kix By Katie are to open back shoes and long slacks, what Spanx is to form-fitting fabrics…just the perfect fashion fixer to give you a polished look and make you feel fabulous!”
Katie Johnson’s Story
Necessity really is the mother of all invention. Being vertically challenged (and okay maybe a few pounds over my desired weight) ~ I love to wear long pants with high heel shoes for a long slimming silhouette look – ahh don’t we all. But when I wore my favorite open-back heels with my long pants I experienced the dreaded Heel Wedgie! Don’t you just hate that?
Frustrated by this problem and a lack of a commercially available solution, I created a prototype by cutting a strip of plastic from discarded packaging and attached it with surgical tape to the inside of her pant leg and voila an idea took flight. It wasn’t pretty but it worked and I knew other women would want it too. As a mom of two wonderful boys, I understand that a woman’s time is valuable. We don’t have time to muss and fuss over all these little wardrobe malfunctions that stand in our way of getting the important things in our day done.
So I had this “fashion fixer” product concept that I thought other women would like but I didn’t really know what to do next. Have you ever seen an inspirational message at the exact time you needed it? I have. It was the Oprah show in February of 2007 when the “QVC/Oprah’s Search for the Next Big Idea” event was announced. This show triggered something in me, I was inspired and wanted to help other women feel more confident, so it gave me the kick in the pants I needed to start officially working on Kix by Katie.
I quickly filled out the registration form and sent it off before I had time to change my mind. The next thing I knew we were on our way to the show in Los Angeles! I’d love to say I was one of the eight winners chosen but I wasn’t and that’s okay because I learned so much! And as Walter Elliot once said “Perseverance is not a long race; it is many short races one after another.”
Cindy & Katie on a beach "work" trip
Since then my life has been a wonderful little whirlwind of patent attorneys, graphic designers, manufacturing companies, wholesale suppliers, web designers and one fabulous marketing consultant, Cindy Aggson, who I recruited to join me. Now we have a team of talented people that are implementing a strategic plan that represents our core values of Spirit, Support and Success.
