FEATURE
Dallas Market Center Crowns Two Mothers of Invention
It’s the next BIG Thing
by John Saxtan
Looking for the next big thing? Well, you can find it at the Dallas Market Center’s biannual gift and home shows.
Inaugurated this past Janu-
ary, The Next Big Thing contest
searches for the newest product
ideas and then, through a judging
process, narrows the field to three
semi-finalists and then a final winner.
Summer 2010 Winners
This summer the winners
were two ladies who are not
only childhood friends, but
also ended up being sisters-in-law.
Julie Tobolowsky and
Myra Prescott were, needless to say, thrilled to be
chosen at the winners
of The Next Big
Thing at the Dallas market in
June.
What is the Next
Big Thing?
In simplest terms, “the next best
thing”, as determined at the contest at the summer market at the
Dallas Market Center, is a garment
carrier that is unique enough to be
patented, and has features such as
handles and a way to carry clothes
on regular hangers that you won’t
find in other garment carriers.
The old saying is that Necessity
is the mother of invention; well in
this case it was Frustration as much
as Necessity that led these mothers
to be inventors.
Meet the Inventors
Talking to these ladies is like talking to one enthusiastic person with
two voices at the same time.
As Myra explained: “We’re sis-
ters-in-law, and we also grew up
together, and we have the same
birthday, but not the same year
[editor: one is two years older, but
we won’t reveal who], so we are
sort of one person. And to top it all
off, one of our sons was also born
on our birthday date.”
Their business, Clothes and Go,
is brand new: “We are in our third
year,” says Myra, “which includes
research and development, getting
a prototype made and giving one
to every college kid we know as a
test market, and then getting feed-
back, and also working with our
patent attorney. We were patented
as of October 2009.
“As far as selling the product,
we had a soft launch in March of
True mothers of invention, Myra Prescott (left) and Julie
Tobolowsky, came up with the idea for a better clothes carrier
after having struggled with household moves and carting six
children to and from college.
