How To Make Money From Head Bands

Vincent E. Norment Story

http://www.dbands.com/

There's nothing like a headband soaked with sweat and falling into your eyes to get you off your game. At least that's what Vincent E. Norment thought as he watched a professional basketball game. He saw the players struggling with their athletic headbands and wondered if there was a better way.

Norment, 42, believed a thick strap across the top of the headband, made with the same superabsorbent material as the rest, would not only absorb more of an athlete's sweat, but also stay in place. With a background in sports-related products, he approached headband manufacturers to drum up interest. "They looked at the product and said it wouldn't work," he says. "I didn't let that stop me."

A patent search found nothing similar on the market, so Norment immediately patented his idea for DBands under his DApparel Inc. moniker. He'd been around the sports market long enough to know that the key to success with an athletic-themed product is to get it into the hands (or in this case, on the heads) of professional athletes, so Norment promoted DBands during the three-point shooting contest at the 2003 March Madness collegiate basketball playoffs. After asking athletes for their opinions, he persuaded one player to wear the headband on ESPN. Thanks to the exposure, Norment landed endorsements from professional players-Ron Artest of the Indiana Pacers and Brad Miller of the Sacramento Kings, to name a few.

With the $9.99 to $14.99 product coming to sporting goods stores like The Athlete's Foot and Foot Locker, Norment expects to sell between 50,000 and 100,000 DBands by the end of the year. His ultimate goal is to make the DApparel brand a household name-one head at a time.

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