Back to school morning hacks for parents of young children created by local entrepreneurs

Alicia Vitarelli Image
Monday, August 26, 2019
Back to school hacks for parents of young children
Back to school hacks for parents of young childrenBack to school hacks for parents of young children: Alicia Vitarelli reports on Action News Mornings, August 26, 2019

Back to School means back to the morning routine.

Parents know that when you're trying to get the kids out of the house, every moment counts.

Two sets of local entrepreneurs are coming to the rescue with creations aimed at saving time, money and stress.

"When she was little, in pre-school, she put her shoes on the wrong feet and we were rushing out the door," explains Alyssa Soto.

For any parent of an independent and insistent little one, you can guess what happens next.

"I asked her to fix her shoes and she had a huge meltdown in the parking lot," Soto recalls, saying the morning was simply falling apart.

That moment inspired Soto and her sister, Lindsey Legg, to become inventors and mompreneurs.

"We actually found through social media that there was a hashtag - #shoesonthewrong feet - and thousands of people were posting pictures," Legg explains. "So we knew this was definitely something other moms struggled with."

They spent years perfecting the technology and getting a patent, and just last month, they launched Pair Me. It's a product created in their hometown of Lambertville.

The tagline is: "When you see the light, you know it's right."

One LED sticker goes on the left shoe and the other on the right. When they are put on correctly, the dolphins light up.

They say it's a first-of-its-kind learning tool for kids, and a game changer for parents.

"There's nothing like saving time especially when the kids are going to school," they laugh, leaving time for mom and dad to grab a second cup of coffee.

Speaking of kids shoes, if you do a lot of online buying and returning, there's an app for you.

Philadelphia entrepreneurs Eve Ackerley and Carolyn Horner created a free app to save you time, money, and the headache of taking the tots shoe shopping.

"We knew that there had to be a better solution, so we set out to create an app that would size and shop for their kids shoes without leaving their living room," Horner explains.

It's called Jenzy. All you need is a phone, the free app and a library or credit card.

"Knowing the size of the card, we are able to know the size of the child's foot," Ackerly says.

They work with 30 different brands to get the right fit - the first time.

"Our return rate is half the industry average and that's because we know the shoes we sell and the way they fit as well as the child we are fitting," Horner says.

Right now, Jenzy is offering our viewers $20 off a pair of shoes with the code 6abc.

Pair Me is also offering 25% off with the code 6abc.

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