The Doggie Diaper, Guarding Canine Dignity
Lawyer Dana Brewington's Do-Rite Disposable Dog Diaper, 18 months in the making, turned heads at a national contest for non-woven products.
(By Kevin Clark -- The Washington Post)
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She may have been the underdog going into the competition, but if she knew it she didn't let on.
When D.C. native Dana Brewington flew to Fort Worth last month, she brought along her Aunt Mae, Lucy the cockapoo (on loan from a friend) and a suitcase with an assortment of her homemade, newly patented Do-Rite Disposable Dog Diaper.
In the world of non-woven fabrics, the INDA Visionary Awards competition is the Super Bowl. Over the past seven years, competitors have included Procter & Gamble, Gillette, Johnson & Johnson and Clorox. The Swiffer electrostatic dust mop won here; so did Brillo's Scrub 'n' Toss cleaning pads.
Brewington wasn't deterred. Over 18 months of trial and error, she designed her Do-Rite diaper to hug the unique anatomy of a dog. How could it not be a winner?
"Mine is the only one with an adjustable strap that is comfortable and cute and moves with the dog," Brewington said last week.
Her quest, like many, began with a need. After her Pomeranian, Mr. Chips, became incontinent in 2002, she experimented with baby diapers, toddler pull-ups and plastic pool pants. None were quite right.
So she set out to make her own. On early prototypes, she attached diapers to Mr. Chips with shoulder harnesses, but the fasteners weren't quite right. Buttons were too easy to chew off. Pins? Too much stabbing potential. Suspender clasps didn't quite hold. Eventually, Velcro became the solution.
With her friend Blanche, she sewed hundreds of diapers and tested them on friends' dogs. Then she showed a few to local pet stores. PetSmart liked them, but she couldn't produce enough. Then Happy Paws, a pet store on Wisconsin Avenue, put a few on shelves, and they began to sell.
She called INDA, a trade group, in search of a fabric supplier and ended up being nominated for the competition. In Fort Worth, Brewington made a presentation in front of hundreds of diaper manufacturers and suppliers.
"I'm telling you those people were on me like rats on cheese," she said. Afterward, firms from Italy, China and Israel offered to manufacture the diapers for her.
"I wouldn't say it's the most highly technical product, but it certainly shows a lot of creativity and design ingenuity," said Michael Jacobsen, INDA's special project coordinator for the competition.
Kimberly-Clark's SpaSensials lotion-infused gloves won the competition. But Brewington, a government lawyer, wasn't discouraged.
"It's all good," she said.
-- Anita Huslin
