JULY 1997
Pugsly, the Beanie Baby, makes an appearance on my shoulder, and the weighted blanket idea is born. At the time, there was no such thing as a commercial weighted blanket. We called our new idea a “Beanie Blanket.”
Here is one of the first prototypes that my wife made.
DECEMBER 1998
We file a trademark application on our name, The Original Beanie Blanket. We sell our first “Beanie Blanket” to a customer in Boise, Idaho.
March, 2000 – TY Corporation maker of the Beanie Baby, sends us a “Cease & Desist Letter,” threatening legal action if we refer to our invention as a Beanie Blanket. We cease & desist. We start referring to our invention as the Original Bean Blanket.
April, 2000 – These signs start popping up on freeway off ramps around Los Angeles.
SEPTEMBER, 2004
Our patent application is denied. We would later learn that approximately 90% of patent applications are denied on the first go around. We later learn from our patent attorney for the Zero Gravity Bean Bag that if the patent applicant argues for the unique merits of their idea, the application approval rate goes up to nearly 50%. We should have argued.
August, 2005 – I build our first web site and we enter the brave new world of e-commerce.
February, 2010 – We change our name to the Magic Weighted Blanket after a customer tells us that her daughter loves her blanket so much, she calls it her "magic blanket".
2010 to 2016 - Weighted blankets are slowly growing in popularity and about to hit the mainstream. Articles about us in Forbes, Cosmopolitan, Wall Street Journal, Women’s Health, Dr. Oz and many others, help gain recognition for the Magic Weighted Blanket.
Magic Weighted Blanket mentioned & photographed in Dr. Oz's Magazine
2017 - NOW
2017 – Weighted blankets go mainstream, as new competitors come into the market, getting their blankets from China at tremendously low prices.
2018 – A competitor, that will go unmentioned, is named one of Time Magazine’s 2018 Inventions Of The Year, despite the fact that we were contacted to apply, completed interviews, and shipped over blankets for product photography. We received an email informing us that weighted blankets would not be featured. The magazine was published; Time Magazine had provided us false information. Weighted Blankets were featured - just not from the inventor. Yeah, that hurt. A lot.
2019 - Over 21 years of success and loyal customers have kept our family business growing, despite facing new challenges. The future looks promising as our wonderful customers continue to trust our many years of experience and high quality American-made weighted blankets. Together, we will continue to bring calm and comfort to a stressed out, sleep deprived world, one hug at a time.
