We confess: We like cute – when it’s done well. And we like kitchen-table start-ups when their success is a surprise to everyone, including the founder. The MouseRug has a bit of each.
A MouseRug is a mouse pad that looks like an Oriental carpet or an Indian blanket right down to the fringe on either end. It’s slighter larger than the typical mouse pad, however, and it’s made of Lextra, a proprietary fiber coating developed by FiberLok Inc. of Fort Collins, CO.
To demonstrate the comfort and durability of Lextra, FiberLok president Brown Abrams manufactured a set of mouse pads for client Levi Strauss Inc. The company ordered more, eventually distributing them to Levi Strauss offices around the world. Abrams had worked in the rug industry and still loved carpets, so in 1998 he redesigned the pads to resemble rugs, with such classic Oriental patterns as Fars and Bokhara scanned onto the surface.
As the mouse pads’ popularity grew among FiberLok clients, Abrams turned the idea into a retail product sold in nearly 100 museum catalogs and gift shops (through the Museum Store Association), through retailers and catalogers such as Pendleton and the Store of Knowledge chain, and via his own Web site (www.mouserug.com).
In the 18 months following the MouseRug launch, more than 100,000 units were sold.
The Web site is the only place where all seven styles are available. Abrams charges more on the site so he won’t compete with his customers, which is also why he has no plans to use his database to develop a catalog of his own.
Nevertheless, the URL is a prominent part of the MouseRug packaging. The site receives about 10,000 hits a month.
Given the success of his product, are MouseRugs going to become his business?
Earlier this year Abrams would’ve said yes. Then he signed a contract for Lextra to be used in the door panel interiors of 2003 model automobiles for an unnamed manufacturer. The economics of scale will keep MouseRugs a sideline for FiberLok, he notes – not without a certain glee.
Network
