A mom in Washington state is making summer vacations a bit easier with swim goggles she designed to keep kids from yanking their hair out.
A few years ago, Ashley Carson was getting her family ready for a vacation when she realized her son’s goggles for swimming had broken.
“I had just bought them a month prior for swim lessons,” she told HuffPost.
Carson used to own an at-home selling business featuring kids’ products like headbands, so she grabbed some leftover fabric and replaced the broken strap. To her surprise, the makeshift invention held up pretty well. In May 2017, she officially launched Splash Swim Goggles, designed to be comfortable and not pull on the swimmer’s hair.
Carson, who runs the business with her mom Karen, pointed out that the strap material is “like a swimsuit fabric” and wider than a traditional strap so it can conform to swimmers’ heads. She said that the goggles are best for kids who are at least 3 and also can be adjusted to fit adults. The patent-pending straps come in solid colors and patterns, including flamingos and stars. The goggles sell for $19.95 on the company’s website and also are sold through retailers across the country.
After Carson created the first prototype for Splash Swim Goggles for her son, it took about a year to get the business officially moving. She found a company to supply the goggle lenses. Her team sources a lot of the fabric locally, and a group of women she knows helps assemble the goggles.
The product is similar to Frogglez Swimming Goggles, which feature a neoprene strap and came about after a dad wanted to help his daughter taking swim lessons.
A couple of reviews complain that the Splash Swim Goggles don’t fit right, but the majority of feedback online is positive. Some parents have mentioned that the goggles are especially helpful for kids who have autism or sensory processing disorder, since the material doesn’t pull.
“These parents want their kids to be able to enjoy the water more because with the rubber straps, their kids wouldn’t wear the goggles too much,” Carson said.
Carson said her own daughter is especially happy to be able to put the goggles on by herself.
“It’s really nice for her to be able to have that independence and not have me help her every time she wants to put them on,” she said.
