Everyone is talking about STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) these days, but did you know that art is an important part of a child’s development as well? Read on to learn just some of the benefits of kids playing and creating art with Walkie Chalk, a new sidewalk chalk holder that allows users to stand up while they draw.

Creativity  

What’s more creative than making something out of nothing? Every time a child starts with a blank driveway or sidewalk they have to use their imagination. When they use Walkie Chalk and make up a game with their drawings, create a character, or a landscape for their toys - they are practicing being creative. That creativity will bloom and translate into innovation and creative thinking later in life.

Problem-solving  

Art requires children to figure out how to resolve issues. They are presented with challenges and they have to work to come to a solution. The skills that are developed through this process are beneficial throughout their personal and professional lives.

Focus 

Don’t we all wish our kids could focus on something other than video games or apps? Art is a great way to get kids engaged in a different type of activity. Kids think, imagine, and concentrate when they are making art. The ability to focus is a skill that is developed and can be transferred to other tasks, like studying or homework.

Making Connections 

Making art outside is a great way for children to connect with other kids. Art brings people from different backgrounds together, even if they don’t speak the same language!

Self-expression 

When children are able to create art, they are sharing a bit of their inner world. This is a great way to connect with a child. It also helps them build confidence in their abilities when they can get positive feedback on their creations.

Walkie Chalk is an awesome new summer toy to get kids outside and creating. The kids don’t know that they are reaping all of the benefits of making art, they just know they are having fun. So what are you waiting for? Go Stand Up and Draw!

It’s hard to believe that spring has sprung and the summer months are just around the corner. Here in our Michigan HQ, that means it’s prime time for all things chalk art. As such, we thought what better way to celebrate budding trees and warmer temps than by offering our list of can’t-miss chalk art festivals taking place around the US, now through the end of the year.

Have a look and get out there to chalk one up for fun with friends and family … and don’t forget to take your Walkie Chalk with you!

Denver Chalk Art Festival

June 3-4, 2017

MORE INFO

Chalk About It Festival (Ohio)

June 10, 2017

MORE INFO

Chalkfest at Arbor Lakes (Minnesota)

June 10-11, 2017

MORE INFO

The West Michigan Chalk Art Festival

June 16-17, 2017

MORE INFO

Fort Wayne Museum of Art Chalk Walk 2017 (Indiana)

July 8 - 9, 2017

MORE INFO

Reno Chalk Art Festival (Nevada)

July 8 - 9, 2017

MORE INFO

ChalkFest Wausau (Wisconsin)

July 15-16, 2017

MORE INFO

Chalk Art Event (Chelsea, MI)

July 29, 2017

MORE INFO

Luna Park Chalk Art Festival (California)

September 16, 2017

MORE INFO

2017 Chalk Festival (Florida)

November 10-13, 2017

MORE INFO

That’s ten great chalk art festivals to enjoy with family and friends, and plenty of opportunity to show off your Walkie Chalk skills. Whether they are your creations or not, we’d love to see photos of any kind of chalk art that inspired you in any way, so please share via our social media pages.

Happy chalking!

Whew, that's a lot of walking.... but, we're just getting started!

We were fortunate enough to get orders nationally from: Toys R Us, Bed Bath & Beyond, MIchaels, Hobby Lobby, Ace Hardware and more....

It's here! 

Shauna's ingenuity lead to me inventing her a solution a little over a year ago - called Walkie Chalk - because after having our 3rd child, she couldn't get on the ground to draw with sidewalk chalk. 

Now - her picture is hanging on our packages in over 5,000 stores, in less than year - and, kids, parents and grandparents have a new fun way to play and create outside. 

Toys R Us....Not bad company...

We basically invented Walkie Chalk in an Ace Hardware - special place to us....and they love Walkie Chalk too!

Our first purchase order and maybe the nicest people around, Hobby Lobby....

Bed Bath & Beyond - Temporary spot, Summer display is still in the works... look for us near the check out of your local store!

They make great Easter gifts or Spring birthday presents. Grab a Walkie Chalk and go!

Stand Up & Draw,

Matt

#WalkieChalk

#SpringIsHere

Today isn't just Frank Zappa's birthday (although that would be justification for a blog post, certainly), it also marks the one year anniversary of Shauna and I flipping on the website for Walkie Chalk and released our little idea from the safe confines of our family room out into the wild. Not exactly curing cancer, saving the planet or starting Facebook, but an attempt at our own small chip in the universe's windshield.

It was nerve wracking.

We had an awful homemade website, our "product" was spray painted plumbing pipe parts, we didn't have packing designed and had no clue on kids toy testing, freight forwarding or...how we could afford to actually make this thing. But, we had support. We've learned that much can change in a year when you're lucky enough to be surrounded by amazing people.

Now, in a few days, what started as an idea will be showing up in stockings and under Christmas trees from Honolulu to Hoboken. That's still crazy to us. And still nerve wracking:)

We have shipped a Walkie Chalk to every state in the country, and tomorrow our first shipment will be delivered to Toys''R''Us for Spring (yes, Spring stuff will be out before you know it!) along with Bed Bath & Beyond, Ace Hardware, Zulily.com and Hobby Lobby.

We are thankful.

#NowBackToEatingCookies

Walkie Chalks... a big Christmas gift? 

I didn't, that's for sure. Who buys sidewalk chalk stuff for Xmas?Don't they know it's 22 degrees and snowing out?

When we created it, I was focused mostly on the idea of a very seasonal summer toy - but people kept saying no, it could be year-round... well, given our Amazon stock, or lack thereof, I guess I was wrong. And glad to be wrong. As the chilly white stuff falls here in Michigan I keep forgetting that kids in nice warm places like Florida and Texas can draw sidewalk chalk all year. Lucky ducks!
 

We keep sending boxes to Amazon and they keep disappearing, and orders coming from all over - Biloxi AL, Darien, CT, Nashua, NH, Honolulu, HI, Las Vegas, NV or my favorite Conshohocken, PA! - . It's sort of the same feeling to have your product shipping to all these strangers - as it is a parent when you child goes off to school is playing with new kids - I just want to know, who are these people? Who is playing with our toy? But THANK YOU, from Ocean City to Century City, we appreciate it!

So as we head towards the end of 2016, we're thinking back on what a year it was. At this time a year ago, we had a single plastic 3D printed prototype of what we thought Walkie Chalk could be, no packaging, no web site and were stressed about the investment to take a giant leap of faith in production. 

But, with a great investor, awesome manufacturing partners, the best graphic design guy on the planet (how we got so lucky, I'll never know) sleepless nights and support from our friends, we did it.We have shipments on their way to Toys R Us, Bed Bath & Beyond and Hobby Lobby right now, and we'll be on Zulily next week.

We also met amazing people, like Choon Ng who invented the RainbowLoom (the biggest toy of the last 20 years!) and have gotten calls and emails from buyers, parents and grandparents all around the world. The same guy in Australia keeps emailing asking when he can get a Walkie Chalk!

Now, we're getting ready for Toy Fair in February with our distributor, Talicor out of Kalamazoo, MI and from there it's onto 2018 planning already. Shauna is lining up some awesome PR for the summer too, so watch out! Who knows where Walkie Chalk will go or what happens to our little idea - but now we can say we did something and it was with your help and support that it happened.

We truly thank all of you guys for the encouragement, contacts and advice - it's been one heck of a 2016. 

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Stand Up & Draw!

Why now? Why so long?

Well, last summer we (Shauna and I) had the idea for the Walkie Chalk. It sort of hit us one afternoon on the patio when she couldn't bend over to draw sidewalk chalk with the kids due to just having had our 3rd child. Shauna zip tied a piece of chalk a rake handle and the seed for Walkie Chalk was planted. 

From that afternoon on, it's been a near frenzy of work to bring Walkie Chalk to life - all the while, working a more than full time job myself actually running a small company, and Shauna staying at home with our 3 children. It was constant encouragement from friends and some family that kept us going, but it became more than that too. Once you have an idea for something tangible like a toy (or, I guess any new idea that will require feedback, reviews, opinions), and you decide to move forward, you put yourself out there. It's an odd feeling. You spend weeks or months creating this thing, your "baby" and then you release it out into the wild. I think most of the time, that's when things die, if they even get that far. If I had a $1 for every person who has said to me "Oh, I had an idea for...." I wouldn't be writing this, I'd be on a jet to St Barts. So you put yourself out there and you get feedback, or worse, you don't get any. I've had that happen. But, with Walkie Chalk is was different - People LOVED it! Everyone who saw it simply loved it - well, everyone except for a couple random knuckheads on Facebook. But the moms, dads, teachers, whoever all said they wanted one... or two. 

So then... it shifted. It went from friends saying "oh, cool idea" to "you'll make millions on this" - well, I can tell you there is a vast canyon between the start of an idea and making money, let alone thousands or ever millions. Going through development, concepts that worked and didn't work, creating prototypes, testing them, finding manufacturing, quotes that were insane.. and on and on, to the point of having retail ready production inventory - well, big difference from that to making money, any money. The legal costs alone on a new product are a punch in the gut. But, what I was getting at is, if flipped from a fun thing to work on - to then, having expectations and a fear of letting a million dollar idea die, or worse, not get executed right - like, what if we do all this, spend all this money, push my comfort zone with contacts, asking for things, put ourselves out there asking friends to buy the product - and it sucks? Then what? Do we move to Montana and raise cows? I can't milk a cow. We had to make it work. 

Twice I wanted to throw the whole thing in the garbage. A stupid tube with chalk in it tested me more than any job, project or really almost anything in my professional life. Going 0-9 in high school football as quarterback was worse, and always will be, than any job mess I could get myself into - but, two times I wanted to literally take Walkie Chalk and put in the trash - the stress, pressure and my own expectations were a bear, plus feeling like I was on an island with it, the weight of this "million dollar idea" on me. But, Shauna just listened, said we'd be okay and I did what I always do with tough decisions or situations. I  thought it through and went to bed. The sun came up the next day. Always does. And we moved forward each time. 

We had to, forward was the only way. And when you try and launch something new, on your own, you learn really quickly - its you or nothing. There is no company around you making it go. You call in sick, nothing happens, like, nothing. I respect big companies and people who work for them, I worked for 3 huge ones. But when you do, regardless of the stress or pressure you think you have, losing a job as the worst case scenario - when you are your own start-up, it's worse because it's all on you. Lose a job? Hell, you don't HAVE a job, you're trying to create a job, for yourself! Anyway, it's a hell of a feeling and ride to go on, something I encourage anyone to try. 

So, I'm rambling and you're probably wondering (that is, if you are a human and somehow even found this post)... why, now, can I relax? Well, in one years time, we took this idea - this idea people all say "why didn't I think of that" to... or "it's so simple" to (and yes, making something simple is a lot harder than you think) - we took this idea from July 29, 2015 to now... tonight I sit here on Sept 25 with purchase orders from Toys R Us, Bed Bath & Beyond, Hobby Lobby and Ace Hardware, all nationally in-store orders. Walkie Chalk will be in thousands of stores in a few months in several national retailers (we are still waiting on several more). And, we did this all ourselves, right down the pantone color of the logo - not a single detail that relates to Walkie Chalk, from the size of the sticker, to the font on the back of the package, went by without me touching it - and many times, re-working it. It's our baby.  

But, we did it. We took a new idea and actually did something. I guess for all the stress, money spent, hours logged, fun stuff we passed on doing, we can say that. Someday I think it will feel more satisfying.

Now... this isn't where all of it ends of course. Not even close - the funny thing is, the work is just starting! Manufacturing for the retailers, logistics, shipping and marketing... how to do you get people to see and buy Walkie Chalk. If you know, call me!

For now though, a night off...

Okay... enough time off... what's next?

Get ready to Stand Up and Draw with sidewalk chalk!