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> > archived articles      > write for core! be famous!


by Core-e-spondent Debra Strober
See also:

Martha..Martha: The Key to the House
IHA student design awards
and, a greeting from Mr. Clean

Every year since 1939 the International Housewares Association has held its annual trade show in Chicago. Located in the expansive McCormick Place Exposition Center from January 14-17, almost 1900 exhibitors from all over the world displayed their latest and greatest housewares, well representing the $249.8 billion global industry. According to conference handouts, sales are expected to rise this year because consumers are spending more time indoors. Interestingly enough, the same literature suggests that these consumers are also spending more time outdoors. Huh? For more industry facts (or fictions) you can visit the online show at www.housewares.org.


Among exhibition highlights were Martha (self-proclaimed "consumer lifestyle expert,") Stewart's keynote speech and President George (not W, the other one) Bush's sold-out address to the annual Industry Breakfast/NHMA Meeting (even a Core-e-spondent couldn't get a ticket). Yet, from a design perspective, the most exciting feature of the show was probably The 2001 National Student Design Competition with the six cash prize winners on hand to play show and tell with their innovations.


Oxo secured a coveted spot on the exhibition floor-front and center

The slogan for this year's show was "Make it Home," and quite frankly, with over a million square feet of housewares, I wondered if I ever would. How could anyone make sense of the thousands of plates, cups, teakettles, pots, pans, cooking utensils, thermoses, travel mugs, bathroom accessories and miscellaneous gadgets? As the objects began to look alike and color palettes bled together, only the new, the original, the odd and the downright bizarre stood out.

First, there was the well-publicized and brand new Expo Nouveau: A New World of Opportunities to Make it Home which included many of the first-time exhibits, pet supplies, and international wares. Though billed as an exciting and noteworthy feature of the show, it quickly became obvious why it opened for viewing one full hour before the other show floors-without that extra time, they just couldn't compete. Relegated to the half-empty, dungeon-like bowels of McCormick Center, these smaller companies lacked the flash and the cash to compete with the big boys for coveted upstairs space.


This year's slogan and logo (slogo?)

Marketing schemes ranged from the bland to the clever to the downright shameless. There were scantily clad men bathing in home spas from the likes of Dr. Scholl's. There were scantily clad women to attract those not lured by their male counterparts. There were free haircuts, a catwalk with bathroom scale-toting fashion models, a knife-juggling chef, a bounty of complementary food, and live mascots like the household icon Mr. Clean.

Most brazen, and probably most effective of all, was Dirt Devil and its litter of cuddly golden retriever puppies, whom you can also find animated on their website at www.dirtdevil.com.


Good work if you can get it

There were new products that didn't take themselves too seriously, like The Tingler-a head massager that gives you the chills and looks like a cheap version of the claw from one of those stuffed- animal-grabbing boardwalk games. It's billed in the literature as "better than sex", and from the look on Core-e-spondent Bruce's face, it might just be. For more information about the Tingler, visit www.everythingforlove.com.

The Better Mousetrap and their stunt rodent also made an appearance at the show. Environmentally safe because it's reusable, it kills by suffocation (sans blood, guts and gore) and allows you to dispose of the carcass without ever touching it. Warehouse owners with infestations have gone so far as to conserve valuable bait by gluing a sunflower seed to the inside of the trap, fooling rodents over and over again. While the trap has a hair-trigger, the force is barely enough to harm a human finger-which leads to visions of the bigger, stronger mice running around with Better Mousetrap hats, the laughingstock of the mouse community. They also make The Better Rodentrap and The Better Flytrap. For more information about these products, contact Intruder, Inc. at 1-800-553-5129.


Don't try this at home

My personal favorites were the air massage body products manufactured by Nitring Enterprise Inc. (a curiosity hidden deep within the Expo Nouveau). Including their Boot, Hat and Bottom-Lift Air Massagers, the mannequin in the picture is wearing the entire new Air Relax Series. Alas, they wouldn't let me test drive the air pulse bustier. For more information about these and other massage products, visit www.nitring.com.

And no showcase of housewares would be complete without the Ab Force, or some other permutation of an ab-roller-like product. At least four different versions appeared at this year's exhibition. The Ab Force folks were kind enough to let us snap this picture of their in-line skate technology, though one vendor would not allow us to capture on film their rendition of this product. Apparently they were worried that someone might steal their oh-so-original idea.

Finally, the walls of McCormick Center were adorned with fun facts to keep attendees entertained as they moved between exhibition floors.
Here, I leave you with a few:

  • Pink appliances in the 1950s were inspired by Mamie Eisenhower's pink inaugural ballgown.

  • In 1939, retailers persuaded President Roosevelt to move Thanksgiving to extend the Christmas shopping season.

  • In 1900, a Bissell carpet sweeper cost $2.50.

  • In 1915, Corning Glass Works debuts Pyrex® cookware, invented when an employee's wife uses the glass bottom of a storage battery for baking.

  • In 1908, inventive German housewife Melitta Benz lines tin cans with absorbent paper filters to strain coffee. The rest is history.

  • In 1947, the first commercial microwave oven was 5 feet tall, 750 pounds and cost about $5,000.

  • The basic shape of the electric hair dryer hasn't changed since the early 1920's.

  • From 1908 to 1940, Sears Roebuck could provide anything from live chickens to cars to assemble-yourself homes.

  • The first electric blankets were made in 1912 for tuberculosis patients sleeping in open porches during cold weather in upper New York State.


>> 2001 International Housewares Student Awards

>> Martha Stewart Keynote Article





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