'Head to Hand': Innovation Village takes inventors' ideas and turns them into tangible, marketable products

Innovation Village is all about introducing new products.

"We're an inventor's advocate," said Michael Reece, the company's founder, chief executive and majority shareholder.

The company enters into partnerships with inventors to create patented products such as air pumps, drills and sandals.

"We will only take on a product if we think that we can become the category leader in the United States in that market sector," Reece said.

Reece started Innovation Village in 2007, working solo. Now, the company has six employees, three primary product lines and does business with major retailers including Sears, QVC, Cabela's, Hammacher Schlemmer and Sport Chalet.

The company has more than 100 independent sales agents throughout the country who cover its sporting goods, outdoor, automotive, hardware and footwear accounts.

Employees are always looking for inventors, but not all ideas fit the company.

"We can't take everybody's product to market," Reece said.

If he can't help an inventor, he said, he will try to point them in the right direction and warn them of predators in the invention business. He said that inventors should beware of scams from some invention-service companies that tend to charge a lot of money for marketing and other services.

"We're the opposite," he said. "We do not ask inventors for any money. We fund everything. But what we do ask them to do is to let us adopt their baby, so to speak."

Innovation Village licenses patents from inventors, then pays the inventor royalties for the right to use their inventions.

Reece said that his company does all the designs and packaging for products, creates Web sites, works with companies in Asia to manufacture products and showcases items at trade shows.

Reece has been working with brothers Tony and Ricky Wyatt of Winston-Salem and Paul Mansfield of Clemmons for about two years to make their patented foot-support system an integral part of a shoe.

They moved a step closer to their goal in February when Innovation Village bought Tidewater Sandals Co. in Richmond, Va., and moved it to Winston-Salem. Tidewater sandals are in about 600 stores in the United States, primarily on the East Coast, including Hip Chics, a gift boutique in Clemmons.

The Wyatts and Mansfield recently worked with Tidewater to create a flip-flop that has an orthotic foot bed using Intra-Sole technology. Innovation Village, which licensed the patent from the inventors, plans to start selling the footwear in 10 styles in the spring of 2010.

"We believe we can become the category leader in orthotic sandals over time because of our patented technology," Reece said.

Innovation Village also offers several patented and proprietary products developed by companies in Denmark and made overseas. They are Airman air pumps and the Robatti Multi-Drill. The drill recently aired on QVC, and the air pump will be on QVC this month.

In addition to a downtown Winston-Salem office, Innovation Village operates its warehouse, customer service and shipping and receiving operations at Carswell Distributing Co. Inc. on Liberty Street, across from Smith Reynolds Airport.

Reece grew up in an entrepreneurial family in Winston-Salem. His father, Mike Reece, and his brother Randy own Reece Builders. His grandfather, Ben Reece, started Winston Shower Door Co., which is now owned by his uncle Gary Reece. Also, Michael Reece's wife, Maggie, is the owner of Snob Consignment Shop.

Reece got into the invention business in the late 1980s as a student at Western Carolina University when Jeff Scott, a classmate, asked him to join his startup company, Liquid Assets Enterprises in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

The men created a product line called Cycool, which were little coolers for bicycles, Reece said, and landed their first major account with Sports Authority in 1991.

"I've pretty much been in the business ever since," Reece said.

He came up with the idea for Innovation Village while working on his MBA at Wake Forest University. Along the way, he had some help from well-known people in the community, including Tom Ogburn, a retired professor, and Kim Westmoreland, a faculty member at Wake Forest.

"I had this idea that I wanted to take inventions from, I call it, the head to hand, which simply means the head of the inventor to the hands of the consumer," he said. "I wanted to find better ways to do that."

The Wyatt brothers said that they tried to get their technology on the market through other companies, but most of them wanted thousands of dollars up front just to sit down and talk to them.

Reece, they said, was different.

"He has accomplished everything he's promised," Tony Wyatt said.

Reece, who wouldn't give sales numbers, said that the economy has slowed business but that Innovation Village has still experienced significant growth this year.

Patrick Raymond, the executive director of the United Inventors Association, has noticed a trend in the invention industry because of the downturn in the economy.

"Some people are turning to inventing or they are taking whatever invention project they may have had on the side far more seriously now because it's an opportunity to turn your idea into cash," Raymond said.

The association encourages inventors but it also cautions them that creating an invention is not a get-rich-quick scheme.

"They should do their homework, join the UIA, take a look at the educational materials, only work with certified professionals, don't fall prey to the scams, and most of all have fun," he said. "If you get rich, it will not be quick. It could be a long process but it can be fun."

■ Fran Daniel can be reached at 727-7366 or at fdaniel@wsjournal.com