Hill ‘mompreneur’ on Today Show for invention, ‘loopit’

Posted 9/16/16

Chan’s new product made it to the finals of The Today Show’s recent “Next Big Thing” contest. Here she is seen with Today Show co-host Matt Lauer.[/caption] by Len Lear Chestnut Hill resident …

This item is available in full to subscribers.

Please log in to continue

Log in

Hill ‘mompreneur’ on Today Show for invention, ‘loopit’

Posted
Chan’s new product made it to the finals of The Today Show’s recent “Next Big Thing” contest. Here she is seen with Today Show co-host Matt Lauer. Chan’s new product made it to the finals of The Today Show’s recent “Next Big Thing” contest. Here she is seen with Today Show co-host Matt Lauer.[/caption]

by Len Lear

Chestnut Hill resident Vanessa Z. Chan, 42, who calls herself a “mompreneur,” has a Ph.D in engineering from MIT and was a highly successful, high-profile corporate executive for 14 years at McKinsey & Company, a worldwide management consulting firm. She co-led their innovation practice in Philadelphia.

According to Chan, however, she encountered lots of problems for consumers but no great solutions. So last year she decided to take a walk on the high wire, leave the corporate world and help to solve some of these problems with her own company, re.design.

Her first product is called “loopit.”

“When I was in the corporate world,” she explained last week, “I was on the phone 12-15 hours a day, and the tangled knots that my headphones made were driving me crazy.

“As a tinkerer and engineer, I started researching about knots and read about the mathematics behind knot formations. I found a paper that concluded if you clip the audio jack and earbuds together, then the likelihood of a knot forming is much lower.”

Chan designed magnetic clasps that eliminate the knotty problem. There's also a built-in microphone so users can answer calls while on the go.

“I also wanted something that I could wear as a necklace,” she explained, “so that I didn’t have to dig around in my handbag for my earbuds, and as someone who makes jewelry I designed loopit so that it could be worn as a stylish necklace or used by men as a black leather-like cord that can be stuffed in a pocket.”

In less than one year, Chan developed the stylish, tangle-free headphones, launched a successful Kickstarter campaign (“We doubled our goal, raised $35,000 and delivered on time!”), was selected to be a finalist on The Today Show’s “Next Big Thing” (“I got a chance to meet Matt Lauer and the crew”) and on Aug. 31 was launched on Grommet, a website that reviews new products and only selects about three percent of them to go on the website.

“It’s been an amazing journey for myself and my two daughters,” said Vanessa. (Her daughters, Karina and Ariana Chan-van der Helm, ages 7 and 10, both attend Springside/Chestnut Hill Academy).

Chan’s new product did make it to the finals of The Today Show’s “Next Big Thing” contest in April, but in the finals the judges chose a product called Glovestix, which supposedly eliminates the smell from sports equipment, as the ultimate winner.

However, loopit is definitely making a splash. It is now on qvc.com but has not yet made it to a live taping of the popular shopping show. It has sold on Touch of Modern and through Vanessa’s retail website, www.redesign.studio/store, for about $50. It is also in a few boutiques across the country

Chan was born in St. Louis but moved with her family at age 10 to Hong Kong She came back to the U.S. at age 17 in 1991 to go to the University of Pennsylvania. She graduated from Penn in 1994 with a degree in materials science and engineering and then got her doctorate from MIT in 2000.

Loopit is just the first of many products Chan plans to launch with her new company. “The goal for loopit,” she said, “was to learn about branding, marketing, manufacturing and retail to see if I could be successful in bringing something to retail and if so, then use what I’ve learned to launch my other ‘everyday products with a twist.’”

Chan said the ethos for her brand is that she is trying to fix everyday gripes that we have by taking simple products and putting a small twist to them so that they are more useful.

“For loopit, I ultimately would like to get it in as many people’s hands as possible so that they can join the tangle-free universe, but what I learned along the way was really the intention.”

Chan recently moved from Queen Village to Chestnut Hill with her husband, Mark van der Helm, who is the VP of Energy & Waste for Walmart and works in Arkansas during the week.

“I love SCH,” she said, “and am on the board of the school. I believe in their mission and wanted to be closer to the school since my being closer logistically to the school was important.”

In her spare time Chan loves to travel, ski, camp, hike, bake, knit, make jewelry, woodwork and sew. “Basically I enjoy anything that is creative or to do with the outdoors.”

If Chan could meet and spend time with anyone on earth, who would it be? “Oprah Winfrey. I really respect how she has built an amazing empire while still being true to herself.”

You can order loopit at www.redesign.studio/store. Use discount KnotsSuck for 20% off.

featured, locallife