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Chic! (Our trip to Chicago)

Published March 21, 2019 by Rose Meechan Morton

Students from the junior and senior Home Products program recently traveled together to Chicago to attend the International Home + Housewares Show.

The trip included group activities pertaining to “best in booth” judging, fact/inspiration finding for our individual upcoming projects, and a great dinner out together.

After our NY Now field trip, we were told the Chicago show was about 3-4 times larger. This was intimidating at first, except that we had about ten times as much time to explore. Starting with an early flight on Saturday morning, straight to McCormick Place to hit our assigned areas (Wired & Well, Clean & Contain, or Dine & Décor). The range of booth styles and sizes were so much larger than those at NY Now-we could actually walk around in most of them. We set out listing our faves and describing what we liked about them.

That night, dinner at Lou Malnati’s Pizzeria (YUM-regardless of your NYC vs. Chicago pizza preference) where on the walk over, our group inadvertently traipsed through someone’s proposal, (she said yes!) and then on Sunday, back to it for Experience Day. The juniors were given an early morning additional intro to the show, and then were encouraged to split up to meet students at other tables, and while initially we all sort of cringed at the forced mingling, (joining a table full of strangers, not usually anyone’s favorite!), each table had a mentor/leader, which made the networking much easier.

Ours was Elliot Benitez, exhibiting at the show to introduce his patented 6-at-a-time tortilla toaster. Something I had never thought of, but he explained how many hours his own mother missed of family meal time, toasting one tortilla at a time for everyone having a taco, so he invented this product. He gave a lot of great insight into what brought him to now being an inventor and business owner. His product is now available for purchase at Sur la Table. We had the opportunity to ask questions and learn about the world of home products from someone with relevant, recent expertise.

We were encouraged to attend the sessions that interested us; included in these were cooking demos by Emeril, Robert Irvine and a range of other talks by industry experts.

Among the most interesting new products I saw was a juicer that determined the juice you should make after measuring your body mass index, by pressing your thumbs onto two small pads on the juicer. It made me wonder if someday we will be able to just get a meal plan for the day based on our body composition and goals, right in our homes. I also liked that a variety of new devices incorporated a hollow bottom for storing USB/charging cables. What a world, to not have to look through my entire apartment to find the cord for whatever I need to charge! (currently turning it upside down looking for my Clarisonic charger, so I can wash my face again).

Overall, the show was a great learning and class bonding adventure. We had some time to explore on our own (The Bean, The Skydeck), hang out together outside of class, and see where this degree could lead us.

Large enough to stand in, but no I didn’t.

This cute pink cup is actually a humidifier, and…

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NY Now Field Trip!

Published February 22, 2019 by Rose Meechan Morton

Our HP 314/Manufacturing & Marketing of Home Product Hard Lines’ (“Hard Home”) second class of the second semester has already included an interesting field trip, to NY Now.

Instead of meeting in room 307 as we usually do, we met in the enormous Javits Center, and were advised in advance to wear comfortable shoes and take any shopping bags that were offered to us. Both very helpful pieces of advice, because there is a lot of walking, and a lot of samples and freebies to carry around!

We split up in groups, with assignments to examine products, trends and booths. Fortuantely we were given smaller categories to choose from, since there was a lot to see. I was in the Tabletop & Gourmet Housewares group, and the entire section was carpeted in a light blue rug. Once we knew what color rug to look for, it was easy!

When we got back to school, we did presentations on our favorite brands and booths. Among the faves were Swig Life, Provence Platters, Corkcicle, The Napkins, Deborah Rhodes, Bungalow 5 and a long list of others. Trends we saw included a lot of wood (trays, tabletop), varieties of sustainable products (straws, cups), and I noticed what I called “sassy sayings” (see towel), bright colors/color blocking, and faux marble.

It was hard to see everything in one three-hour visit, but it was very easy to find a lot to like! Overall, great practice for what to do and look for at trade shows!\

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Comp Shopping Field Trip

Published December 2, 2018 by Rose Meechan Morton

Our recent “Textile Applications: Home Products” assignment was to present comparisons on prices, fiber content, fabric construction and printing method on two soft furnishings. To demonstrate, Professor Cora took class on the road.

We met at the brand new (less than a week old at the time!) One Kings Lane store, at 143 Spring Street, (incidentally, 1/10th mile from where cronuts were invented/are sold). On the corner of Wooster, we admired the multi-floor glass side of the store. Not surprisingly, everything, including the building, is beautiful. Inside are cozy seating groups, a wide curved staircase, and an exposed brick wall. If these walls could talk, they would say “Can you believe this used to be a Crocs store?”

Initially I planned to do my comp shopping presentation on some of their pillows, but the woven vs. print options were all at a similar price point ($185ish), which didn’t really give enough to compare, but, it was really fun to be inside One Kings Lane and see their products in person, off the computer screen.

Next we headed to Crate&Barrel (.5 miles from the nearest cronut), always a treat in NYC to go into a place that huge. It was here that I decided to compare dish towels for my presentation.

All of our field trips this semester were really interesting, and were during great weather, which made them even more of a treat.