‘BILLION DOLLAR IDEA’
INFLATABLE RASHIE TAKES ON WORLD
GOLD Coast inventor Bill Edgar has just stitched up a multimillion-dollar deal and signed on one of the world’s biggest licensing agents to market his inflatable rashie around the globe.
Mr Edgar’s ‘‘Evie’’ Sun Smart Inflatable Rashie and swim shirt range of aquatic products will now be sold through the BCF and Clark Rubber chains and at Wet’n’Wild theme park on the Gold Coast.
He is in negotiations to sell the rashie in Australia through K-Mart, Big W and Target from early next year.
In an even bigger coup, he is close to signing a major deal to see his products sold in warehousing and retailing giants Costco and Walmart in the US.
The big money deals have been negotiated by global licensing agent Fred Gaffney, head of Gaffney Global Licensing, Australia’s best-known character merchandising company, which brought Sesame Street products to Australia and turned children’s television favourites Bananas in Pyjamas and the Wiggles into multimillion-dollar branding empires.
Known internationally as ‘‘Mr Licensing’, Mr Gaffney also has the Australian and New Zealand rights to UK boy band sensation One Direction, and the Australian rights to the merchandising for the smash-hit movie Ted.
The multimillion-dollar department store deals were locked in with the help of management consulting specialists Meta Management, and worldwide distribution and management company, Hunter Products.
Mr Edgar’s idea for the rashie, which inflates when a swimmer has been under water too long, was conceived after a friend put a rash shirt over a lifejacket on their child.
He then discovered there was a patent for such a product, which he bought.
It took him three years of hard work to get his product to the stage of a global launch but he knew he had a winner when he showed it to Fred Gaffney.
‘‘His first words to me were, ‘Bill, that is a billion-dollar product’,’’ he said.
‘‘This is the man who brought the Muppets to Australia, who put the Wiggles on the map. He is behind so many people’s success, so to hear that was amazing.
‘‘He saw my product and he saw something in it. This is a massive breakthrough for me.
‘‘I hope to revolutionise water safety – my biggest aim has always been to eliminate deaths by drowning and knowing my product is now out there is fantastic.’’
Mr Gaffney said he believed Mr Edgar’s rashie had a worldwide market.
‘‘It is a unique, incredible product,’’ he said. ‘‘ My first impression was that it was a billion-dollar product.’’