Family's eraselets rub out kids' problem at school

Eight-year-old Audrey Frazee began second grade with a large supply of pencils and eraser caps, but two months into the school year, she was already asking for more erasers.

"'Maybe I should just tape one around my wrist or something,'" said Kimberly McCain, quoting her daughter, who at the time wore rubber bracelets like many other kids her age. "We kind of joked that that would be a really great idea."

Audrey coined the term "Eraselet" for a bracelet that erases, and the Goodlettsville, Tenn., family bought the domain name just for fun. When McCain's then-husband, Bryan Ricci, announced one day that he'd filed for a trademark, they decided to fully commit to the concept. McCain left her job in 2010 to build the product, found a manufacturer in Arkansas and the brand was born.

Three years later, McCain and her family have sold more than 2.5 million colorful, soft rubber Eraselets and are competing in Walmart's second "Get On The Shelf" contest that allows winners to sell their products on Walmart.com and potentially benefit from the power of Wal-Mart's marketing team.

"You know, you have one of those ideas that gets stuck in your head and it will not go away," McCain said.

Her family members are not the only people who see the appeal of the Eraselet. They have sold 1 million bracelets to Junior Achievement, a Colorado Springs, Colo.-based nonprofit that supports youth entrepreneurship, and have partnered with Samco, a promotional product company in Nashville. Frazee attests to their popularity among students, and McCain said the biggest response has been from the schools and parent-teacher organizations.

"Talk to any teacher and they will tell you the frustration of kids not having an eraser," McCain said. "Erasers run out all the time and you have lots of pencil left. This way, they can keep it handy, and if their eraser runs out they've got something they can use to get them out of a bind — and it's fun and fashionable."

McCain and Frazee, now 11, submitted a video application for Wal-Mart's contest last year, but it didn't make the cut. When Wal-Mart reached out this year, they decided to try again, filming and editing with Photo Booth and the help of 14-year-old Madelyn Frazee. They were told last month they were chosen from among thousands of applicants to compete with 19 other companies in the challenge.

Through the challenge, five groups of four companies compete in different categories, including "Great Gadgets" "Kids' Stuff," "Around the House" and "Live Better." In the "Made in America" group, Eraselets will compete against three others including Chattanooga-based Variable Inc., which sells a wireless sensory platform called Node that can track motion and monitor weather, among other services. The companies have 72 hours to garner the most votes and the winner will be sold on Walmart.com. The grand champion will receive Wal-Mart's marketing benefits, such as being featured on the site's homepage, which receives millions of viewers each day.

"It would be huge for us," McCain said. "Just being in the contest has been huge for us. We've seen inquiries from all over the country just about our product and people wanting to buy it wholesale to sell it in their stores."

McCain, who previously worked for Environmental Network in Goodlettsville, Tenn., and owned Commercial Hydroseeding & Sod, said she also is hopeful the company's rising profile might attract further investment that will help her grow the business further.

Besides Eraselet's revenue potential, building a company has been an enriching experience for McCain's four kids, as her daughters, Audrey, Madelyn and Elizabeth Frazee, 15, have each contributed to the company's growth.

"What I love about it is they are not limited in their imagination as to what they can do as they grow," she said. "When I grew up the thought was, 'what good company am I going to get a job at and work for for 25 years?' I love the ability for my kids to look outside that box and say, 'what can I create to not only provide a living for myself but for others?'"