Dalton's patented Pillow for Snuggling lets couples snuggle comfortably and keeps an arm free and limber for the wrangler of the TV remote. The contoured foam pillow looks a bit like the synthesis of a small ottoman, a cloche and a mushroom -- something a frat boy might wear on his head. It promises a host of applications aside from the facilitation of snuggling, ranging from a prop for elevating legs to providing neck support for solo reading on the couch.
But Dalton's eureka moment sprang from that bane of couch snuggling -- an arm that falls asleep. During their first year of marriage, before their two kids were born, Steve and Tarin Dalton cuddled frequently on the couch to watch TV. But Steve Dalton grew weary of the numbness and tingling that beset his arm from prolonged pressure on its blood supply. Today, Dalton's Pillow for Snuggling seemingly boasts real potential to snag a cuddle-hungry consumer -- let's say she's female - - while solving a problem for a TV remote wielding mate -- let's say he's male. "You're solving a problem for a man and creating intimacy for a woman," said Dalton, 42, a Danville native who lives now with his family in Botetourt County.
Since Friday, Dalton's pillow has been for sale locally at the Grand Home Furnishings store near Tanglewood Mall. Retail price: $44.80. "I think it's a real nice concept that he has," said Jill Truitt, store manager. "The sales people here seem very receptive. And it's that time for Christmas gifts." For inventors, like many lovers, the moment of conception is the fun and easy step, Dalton has learned. The grueling labor and delivery begin soon after. A grind that includes patent searches and patent lawyers, prototype development, finding a compatible manufacturer, crunching numbers, finding a seller. Lots of legwork, phone work, Internet hours and highway miles. "I wouldn't recommend it, having a full-time job," said Dalton, who works as a sales representative for Diamond Paper Co. of Danville.
But Dalton had been scorched before as a rookie inventor and did not plan to be burned again. Years ago, as a naive young college student, he shared a product idea with one of those late night TV outfits that pledge to help inventors transform fledgling ideas into soaring successes. When the invention outfit told him he had to invest several thousand dollars toward product development, Dalton, being a cash- strapped student at Averett University in Danville, declined. Eight years passed. One day, Dalton was browsing bath and shower accessories at a Roanoke department store when he spotted dangling from a merchandising peg the very product idea he'd pitched -- plastic splash guards designed to prevent shower spray from reaching bathroom floors. "Did it make me mad? A little bit," he said. Mad and determined. "I bought a pair of the splash guards but I didn't install them in my shower. I imagined that every time I took a shower I'd see them and think, 'That could have been mine.' " With determination and inchoate optimism, Dalton has pursued development of the Pillow for Snuggling.
"I could teach a course right now in product development," he said. "Coming up with ideas is the easy part. My dream job would be lying in a hammock overlooking the water and coming up with new ideas every day." After experimenting with different types of foam and different manufacturers, Dalton found a factory in North Carolina willing to hand-craft enough pillows to take to a test market in Roanoke at the Grand Home Furnishings store. If demand plumps up for the pillow, a factory mold could be made that would ease the manufacturing process, he said. Dalton said he is grateful to Grand and Truitt for giving his pillows a trial run. "They're giving me the opportunity to see whether they will sell," he said. In a dream scenario, Dalton said, the pillow would make a big splash on QVC. He's thinking about a pillow cover with a NASCAR theme. "My goal with the pillow is to be in the 1 percent of inventors who make a profit off their products," he said.
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