So, I think I should go on Dragon's Den.
My pitch I hear you ask; well its been gradually brewing over the last few months. Over the past few months the idea of decorating hearing aids has gone from a pet project belonging to a few Mums to something wide spread and massive, crossing the Atlantic and bringing together parents and teenagers on Facebook as they search for the latest cool nail foil/sticker design.
But as time has gone on and the market for hearing aid decoration has increased I've realised that the whole process would be a lot easier (and make someone ALOT of money) if there were specificly shaped hearing aid stickers made from the same material as nail foils. These could easily be available in a range of colours, patterns etc and with a bit of work i'm sure the stickers could soon be made available in a range of sizes/fits.
I'm not saying it wouldn't be difficult... To start with I reckon that on the Facebook group alone I've probably seen close to 15 different makes of hearing aid - Phonak and Oticon are of course the most popular companies but there are also a lot of Siemans aids around and even something called Danalogic... And all these companies make more than one type of aid... So of course a lot of market research would need to be done. However in some cases two hearing aids are (we have discovered) the same size and shape (Phonak Naida and Nathos being the obvious example...).
There are other difficulties of course... With my own hearing aids the battery door has to unclip from the rest of the hearing aid and therefore you need two stickers in order to allow it to open and close...
However I reckon all these difficulties could be overcome to create an amazing and special project or even business for somebody with the ability to take it on! There is definetely a huge market out there and lots of opportuntites to sell products through facebook, webpage and even connevans (like Ear Gear do) and possibly the hearing aid companies themselves.
I also think there are lots of opportunities to branch out as well - lots of people in the group complain that their cochlear implants are boring so maybe cochlear implant decoration would be something to explore. I've seen loads of amazing designs with flowers on the coil or sparkly diamantes so they look more like hair clips!
I also decorated my radio aid the other week which has made it look tons better!
So - for any bored people out there who have the skills, or would be willing to learn the skills needed to make nail foils into the right shapes for hearing aids we need your help!!!
No seriously... Get in contact :)
I'd love to try!
ReplyDeleteyoure very very welcome to try :) have you joined the facebook page? maybe you could discuss any ideas there?
ReplyDeleteI think it's a fantastic idea. Had major issues with phone and lost all details, give me a shout if you fancy.
ReplyDeleteI also have a few suggestions to do with this that may be of interest to you.
Impressed with all your work by the way.
Olly
That's a fantastic idea! I bought a pair of insoles a few years ago that had the template to cut for each foot size on the reverse of the sole - I wonder whether something like that, with different templates for different HA models printed on the paper, to cut before the sticky is peeled, might work?
ReplyDelete(I've never used nail foils so I don't know if that's how they work, but I was using sticky-backed holographic plastic at work today so that's the sort of thing I had in mind.)
Very interesting blog, by the way :)
hi there musical lottie :) thats exactly what we're after! its very hard to make a template for all the different types of aids altough from what we've seen there a few like phonak nathos and oticon spirits which are very very common.. sticky backed holographic plastic could be pretty much perfect :)
Deleteif you have more info or you want to have a go at making them yourself please do let me know!! thanks.