Protect iPod with pretty wrappers

LOGAN — That iPod you're going to get as a Christmas gift has been in a box under the tree for days, if not weeks. And once you open it, a Logan company hopes you quickly put a different type of wrapper on it.

A start-up subsidiary of Reminderband Inc. called ifrogz offers a variety of protective cases for iPods. While they have plastic and aluminum cases, their hallmark three-component product is made of silicone. The various mixes of colors for each component add up to 300,000 variations to personalize that iPod, and a new tool allows people to put custom images on a decal for the device's click-wheel.

"We've scratched our heads about that, because Apple puts out two colors of iPods," said Clay Broadbent, senior vice president. "So we thought, 'Hey, nobody's playlist is the same, so why should your player look the same?"'

A basic ifrogz set, costing $29, consists of a transparent plastic cover for the iPod face and a decal for the click-wheel (those are called "screenz"). The silicone case, called "wrapz," stretches to cover the majority of the iPod, with openings for the click-wheel and screen. A silicone strip called "bandz" is placed along the top, bottom and sides, with only a hole for the earphones, although it can be pulled back to plug stuff into the iPod ports.

"A lot of soldiers in Iraq like it because it keeps out the sand," Broadbent said. "If you're going to drop $300 or $350 on something like that, you want to protect it as much as you can. That was part of the whole idea."

Ifrogz offers about 40 colors of wrapz and bandz and more than 200 stock designs for the click-wheel decal.

"Nanos now come in a few colors, and there are a few other case companies that have different colors, but none even come close to 40," Broadbent said.

The whole ifrogz concept spun from the highly successful Reminderband product line. Broadbent and Scott Huskinson, president and CEO, got into the customized silicone wristband field in late 2004. While several other companies were doing the same thing — Lance Armstrong's "Livestrong" bands helped the market take off — Reminderband found a niche by offering small production runs and small start-up fees for customers. With customers able to order as few as 20 bands sporting custom phrases, the response "exploded" after the company's Web site went active in November 2004, Broadbent said.

In 2005, the company sold about 9 million of the wristbands.