A round pillow!!! I can’t sleep on a round pillow!
Those were my thoughts when I first had to make a new pillow for my wife’s neck problem.
Using the standard bed pillow each night she would wake with serious neck pain. Doctors gave her medication to cover the pains so she could go to work. Luckily she worked for a Chiropractor who would relieve the neck problem each day. When she did not work the pains increased. I had to help her out of bed, massage her shoulders every morning until the pain meds kicked in. No sleeping in; we had to do something. We knew it was the bed pillows causing the problem but what could we do?
We tried all the pillows on the market through her job, but all caused more problems. Her Chiro suggested she make her own pillow. Through her experience with chiropractic, she knew a round roll helped some customers with their neck pains. How could she develop a round pillow to fit her and give support for sleeping?
Since she was taught how to sew, she needed a size to fit her. I looked at her neck area and suggested a 6 ½ inch diameter might fit her. Now the math started; finally, we got it right and then what to fill it with? We tried foam; too many problems. We tried many other products and finally settled on a fiberfill that gave support, was long lasting, machine wash and dry, but had to be rolled and put into the case. This worked, no more morning headaches.
She told her friends at the chiropractic office and they wanted one; so we started making more her size but other people needed a different size. Back to the drawing board to make Larger and Smaller pillows. Now she had 3 sizes so she went to a local market and sold some.
Sales were slow due to sleeping on a round pillow was a mindset by consumers; A round pillow!!! I can’t sleep on a round pillow!
Each week the people who tried the right size round pillow, came back telling her the results in very satisfied results. Some required more filling in their size pillow which we tracked until we got it right. They told others and sales increased. With this increase in sales we found there were many taller and shorter people demanding a pillow made for them. Now we made 5 sizes, Extra Small, Small, Medium, Large, and Extra Large.
Now a problem developed. How to sell? We needed creditably so we went to the Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College in Toronto where they setup a test on pain reduction. We supplied the pillows and the students did the testing with some training from us as how to size a person, and showing them how to use the pillows. A 6 week study with no help through chiropractic. Finally, after waiting several months we received the results. We were amazed at the results and how deep they went. They compared the results with other studies done worldwide; but were amazed that no other pillow studies were done on pain reduction.
We had the only pillow tested on pain reduction in the world. Now what?
Go to test results on site.
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