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“Look, Mom, No Hands”

Denny Kays heard the concerns of a grandma who watched her grandson repeatedly throw his “sippy cup” while her daughter was driving—and then watched with dismay as her daughter repeatedly turned around to pick it up! A crash just waiting to happen … but not with our hero Denny around.

He thought about the problem and came up with Drink Deputy, a harness to hold a bottle or sippy cup. If baby tossed the bottle, it would stay tethered to the car seat, stroller, high chair, grocery cart, or whatever. The bottle wouldn’t hit the floor and wouldn’t get lost.

This 59-year-old had worked in sales all his life, first selling doors and more recently baby photographs. It might have been that baby connection, but whatever it was, he took the idea and ran with it.

It took at least fifty prototypes to find the right design and the right elastic that would fit most bottles and sippy cups. The memory elastic he found has a ten-year guarantee and won’t let even the largest sippy cup slip out. That’s a good memory.

After having Drink Deputy evaluated by the Juvenile Products Manufacturers Association (JPMA) and Consumer Product Safety Commission, Denny was ready to put this Deputy on duty.

He initially showed it at a baby fair in Chicago. JPMA and ABC Kids Expo and other baby-kid shows are how he got his business rolling. Buyers liked it, and sales started to crawl in. Today, an exclusive distributor sells it in twenty-six states and Canada. Specifically, it’s sold in baby boutiques, gift stores, hospital gift shops, by Web businesses, and in mom-and-pop stores.

While the Drink Deputy has benefited from free publicity in newspapers, ads in magazines, and TV time, sales have been just so-so. “I would love to say we’re kicking butt, but we’re not. We need to have a much bigger advertising budget than we have. That’s the struggle. The second is the difficulty of getting it into regional stores—so many stores don’t want to deal with a one-item vendor.”

The idea of developing a Drink Deputy for adults hit him after giving samples of the Drink Deputy away at a trade show. Later, at the airport, Denny saw at least fifteen people from the trade show with a water bottle attached to their suitcase—using his Drink Deputy!

As soon as Denny got home, he redesigned his Drink Deputy so that it would attach to a belt, suitcase, or purse. The adult Drink Deputy would handle the popular 20-ounce water bottles and accommodate other sizes, too, with a top that fit over the cap, keeping the bottle upright. Denny decided to call this Drink Deputy for adults Travel Mate.

The idea to put various company names and logos on these drink holders came from a cheerleading coach chaperoning girls at a competition. Seeing his Travel Mate, she decided that every girl on the team had to have one “because the publicity would be great for school spirit and it would be a good fundraiser.”

Denny began selling the Travel Mate for major fundraisers. He uses a pink ribbon design for breast cancer walks and runs (his wife Penny is a ten-year breast cancer survivor). Because people carry a water bottle more than they wear a certain T-shirt, the cause’s name and logo get more publicity than standard giveaways provide.

Denny’s Travel Mate now has the U.S. government’s attention. The Department of Agriculture Forest Service is interested in it for firefighters—it’s hard to keep them hydrated. VA Health Care sees how great it could be for people in wheelchairs. And the Army and Marine Corps recruiters think Travel Mates would be a better giveaway than their traditional coffee mug and T-shirt.

Denny sent a sample of Travel Mate to 300 random readers of North American Fisherman magazine and received an 81 percent approval rating from fishermen. So Denny responded by designing Drink Mate with the outdoorsman in mind. It securely attaches to a chair, tree stand, belt, or backpack. No outdoorsman should ever go thirsty again.

Denny knows the secret to his success is more publicity and he wishes he had the money to buy more ad time. He wanted to go on QVC television, but was told they don’t sell baby products.

Denny is still working it and, if he has his way, the Drink Deputy and Travel Mate will find their way into every American home.

Drink Deputy, we copy that, 10-4.