Herald Community:
Corrie Wilder, 37, of Bellmore, and Yelena Mogelefsky, 31, of Merrick, became fast friends when they shared a commute on the Long Island Rail Road. Now, six years after they met, the pair no longer ride the train together, but more than ever, their lives are headed in the same direction.
A simple invention set these local moms and established businesswomen’s lives on a track both said they never predicted. Their brainchild, a product called Grippies, was not inspired by anything in their professional lives. Instead, it came from one of their children.
“She’s a hippie,” Wilder, a former Time Inc. graphic designer, said with a smile, recalling the day her daughter Kayla, now 5, refused to wear anything other than a flowing skirt and stockings to a gymnastics class. She was allowed to wear the stockings, but unless she had some sort of tread to protect her from slipping, she was told she couldn’t participate.
Wilder enlisted Mogelefsky’s help in her search for a product that would stick to the soles of socks or stockings to prevent slipping. When they realized that no such product existed, the idea for Grippies – adhesive or iron-on patches that act as treads on socks, stockings or gloves – was born.
Image from Grippies