Luxuries, novelties steal products show
By Walter Wright
Advertiser Staff Writer
The spirit of the entrepreneur is alive and well in Paradise, and it was on display yesterday at the New Products Show at Blaisdell Center, where hard-working business people peddled everything from an invisible boat to a rice cake shot from a cannon.
There were merchants trying to make money importing soft-sided swimming pools from the Mainland and rice paper from Thailand.
Perhaps the happiest were Brian Woolford, Andres Segrera and Jim Beaumont of Honolulu, whose "Clear Blue Hawaii" transparent plastic kayak, made from the same stuff used in F-16 fighter jet cockpit canopies, has just hit the high-toned Hammacher-Schlemmer catalog and will make its debut next month in Sharper Image.
"Hammacher Schlemmer told us the response for the kayak is so good they are giving us the cover on the next catalog," said Woolford, 47, a Honolulu business furniture dealer who teamed up his employee Segrera and commercial printer Beaumont to create the iconic crystal-clear kayak.
"We want to make Hawai'i proud of us," beamed Woolford. "We want to show the world that we in Hawai'i can do this — that we are as good as those guys on the West Coast and as smart as those guys in Asia."
The bare, 11-foot boat sells for $1,189, seats cost $59, paddles $49, and a cooler $25, Woolford said. "That's not quite twice what kayaks in older materials cost," Woolford said, "but as our slogan says, 'the difference is clear.'"
More extravagant is Louis Leal's $2,700-and-up "Sofpools," beginning with the 17-foot diameter, 6,500-gallon model. Leal, whose job is building concert sets, used two pools to pump waterfalls for the Japanese group Tube during their Aloha Stadium performance.
Importers Tito and Jane Haggardt of Ocean View on the Big Island got the buying bug 10 years ago with silver beads in Southeast Asia. "Then we applied the silver to coconut husk jewelry, began making coco palm wood objects, and found our way to Thailand for exotic handmade rice papers impressed with native blossoms and leaves," Tito Haggard said.
The biggest crowds yesterday were around Stephanie Sok's Tweegees stand, where a little machine from Korea that looks like a stamping mill was noisily shooting out 8-inch diameter rice cakes.
"We've been selling them fresh at Pearl City and Waipahu Daiei stores," said Sok, "and we plan to open new locations soon."
Tito Haggardt said he was impressed by Sok's operation.
"I got a little tired of the cakes," Haggardt said, "but I can't get over that machine."
Reach Walter Wright at wwright@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8054.
