Like most entrepreneurs with a good idea, Sam Farber of OXO International needed the expertise of an experienced product development company to transform his concept into reality. Farber turned to New York based industrial design firm Smart Design to develop his Good Grips range of easy to use, high quality kitchen tools.
Choosing the right development partner was a vital part of Good Grip’s eventual success. Farber had worked with Smart Design before, and identified a good fit between his own inclusive design idea and Smart’s commitment to making people’s lives better through purposeful innovation.
To keep his overheads down and to incentivise the design team, Farber persuaded Smart Design to waive its usual fees in exchange for a three percent royalty and a small advance. In accepting these business terms, Smart Design demonstrated its confidence in Farber’s idea and commitment to the project as a whole, creating a firm partnership between the two companies.
Smart Design’s initial financial risk turned into a sound business decision when the Good Grips range made $3 million in the first year of trading and turnover has grown by 50 percent each year since. OXO and Smart Design are still developing products together, most recently the Good Grips i-series. Together, the companies have introduced the concept of universal design to mass retail and the idea that products should be developed for people of all ages and abilities shapes the market more than ever.
