While working with the ingenious clients who entrust our product design firm with their ideas is a dream come true for MAKO, our overarching dream is that each product we design, prototype, and send our clients on their way with to be manufactured for the masses achieves resounding success. It is a primary motivator that drives our design, engineering, and project management teams to perform at a high level.
We see how passionate our clients are when sharing their invention ideas and ensure that we match their passion while bringing them to life. When they hit milestones in their startup or inventor journey, we celebrate with them.
In this client spotlight, we are introducing an entrepreneur we recently had the pleasure of working with who has reached a few huge milestones with her inventive product: Change Up Kids™. Meet Lauren McLaughlin, the Founder of Change Up Kids™, a forward-thinking businesswoman, and mother of three adventurous young boys.
About Change Up Kids™
Every parent understands how messy things can get when playing sports, visiting the park, and going on adventures with their kids in the outdoors. Whether you’re enjoying the sand and sun of the beach or finding rocks in a shallow stream at a national park, bringing a change of clothes for your little ones is a necessity.
But where can they comfortably and privately change into a fresh set of clean clothes? Well, with Change Up Kids™, just about anywhere.
Lauren realized there were limited options for children when it came time to change out of their bathing suits or dirty clothes and get in the car for a sleepy ride home. She wanted something that was “quick to pop up, quick to fold down, and small enough to fit in a bag.”
Change Up Kids™ accomplishes exactly that, offering parents a portable, private changing station that can be ready to use in seconds and put away just as quickly.
In addition to convenience, privacy and safety are the primary functions of Lauren’s product. “I am not only passionate about providing a product that gives parents convenience on their adventures with their kids but also protecting children’s dignity in public spaces,” Lauren says.
Public bathrooms at beaches, parks, and splash pads are often situated far away from the home base parents set up for their family for the day. Instead of worrying about your kid’s safety or when the last time the bathroom’s cramped stall got a deep clean, you can rest assured while your child changes into comfy clothes a few feet away.
Core Design Features of Change Up Kids™
Sitting 50″ tall when opened, Change Up Kids™ is designed for children from the ages of two to ten. Older children can change on their own and have enough room to sit down to remove or put on socks while younger children can be assisted by their parents through the product’s cleverly designed open top.
The pop-up changing station is made of water-resistant, rip-stop sustainable fabric specifically created for outdoor use to suit your adventure regardless of location, climate, and terrain.
One of the best features of the Change Up Kids™ is that it can also be used for outdoor showers! As the bottom is made of mesh, water can freely run through it, making it perfect for those beach days when your kids manage to completely cover themselves in sand.
Since it was designed to be easily portable, it also comes with its own lightweight bag adorned with a water-resistant front pocket and an adjustable strap.
Hitting Key Milestones
Lauren’s website officially launched just a few weeks ago, and she has already sold out of her first round of units and is now selling her product at two commercial stores. You can find the vibrantly colored Change Up Kids™ at Kidstop Toys in Scottsdale, Arizona, and CKS River Supply in Buena Vista, Colorado!
Here are the top 4 reasons parents who have already purchased Change Up Kids™ are loving this new product:
- Parents are able to spend more time doing the activities they love with their kids, anywhere their adventures take them.
- Parents feel safe knowing their kids are protected while changing in public spaces.
- Parents do not have to navigate dirty public bathrooms, or locate a bathroom to get their kids changed if a spontaneous adventure arises and their kiddos get wet or dirty.
- Parents don’t end up with sand or dirt in their cars!
Five percent of the proceeds from each purchase is donated to the Tim Tebow Foundation, a non-profit organization with a core mission to uplift vulnerable children around the world with limited access to resources and options.
In addition to providing orphan care and adoption aid, they are steadfast in their fight against child human trafficking and exploitation. This pressing issue is close to Lauren’s heart, and she hopes customers feel they are a part of TTF’s mission through their purchase.
“I want kids to know that whatever challenges they face – because everyone will face a challenge in life – these challenges can be overcome,” she says. “Anyone can bring good in the world despite the hard things that happen to us.”
Product Design Process with MAKO
When Lauren approached MAKO Design + Invent in 2022, we were immediately excited to help realize her invention idea. Given that many of our designers and engineers, as well as our President and Founder, have children at home, her goal, in particular, resonated with the MAKO team.
She had already drafted sketches based on how she envisioned her product would look and experimented with different types of material. Our Senior Industrial Designer, Magnus Sköld, helped bridge the gap by designing a few iterations of the portable changing station guided by Lauren’s vision, and then we moved on to prototyping.
After crafting the first prototype, conducting testing, making improvements accordingly, and repeating this process with a second, revised model, our team arrived at the third and final prototype: the golden sample. A golden sample is the final version of a new hardware product that the customer will receive.
Lauren had this to say about her experience working with our product design firm: “MAKO Design, in particular Lena and Magnus, were instrumental in the creation of this product. Their attention to detail, quick response times, and team effort made the process engaging and fun. I felt supported with every step.”
Let Us Bring Your Idea to Life
The MAKO team is incredibly happy for Lauren and ecstatic that she has accomplished such significant feats this early in her entrepreneurial journey. To purchase or learn more about Change Up Kids™, check out their brand new website at changeupkids.com.
If you have a great new invention idea and you’d like to learn more about our process, get in touch with MAKO today and visit our website to find out more. Or feel free to give us a call at 1-888-806-MAKO, and we can set you up on a call with our product strategist!
Who knows… our next MAKO Client Spotlight could feature your invention!
About: MAKO Design + Invent is the original firm providing world-class consumer product development services tailored to startups, small manufacturers, and inventors. Simply put, we are the leading one-stop-shop for developing your physical product from idea to store shelves, all in a high-quality, cost-effective, and timely manner. We operate as one powerhouse 30-person product design team spread across 4 offices to serve you (Austin, Miami, San Francisco, & Toronto). We have full-stack in-house industrial design, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, patent referral, prototyping, and manufacturing services. To assist our startup and inventor clients, in addition to above, we help with business strategy, product strategy, marketing, and sales/distribution for all consumer product categories. Also, our founder Kevin Mako hosts The Product Startup Podcast, the industry's leading hardware podcast. Check it out for tips, interviews, and best practices for hardware startups, inventors, and product developers. Click HERE to learn more about MAKO Design + Invent!
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