American Mother-Son Duo Bring Wine Condoms to New Zealand
Wine condoms! Yes, you heard right - a rubber slip that you slide over the neck of the wine bottle to keep the wine delicious and fresh is coming to New Zealand this year!
After it's huge success in the US and UK, mother and son duo - Mitch Strahan and Laura Bartlett wanted to bring their concept across the globe to our little wine loving country.
And although the concept might be a little hard to grasp, it is perfect for all those times you have drunken half a bottle of corkage wine and wanted to save the rest for later.
This whole thing started when Strahan's mum arrived home one night from her friend's house with a half empty wine bottle. As she had lost the cork, her friend has temporarily sealed the bottle with glad wrap and rubber bands.
When she placed the bottle on the kitchen counter we both laughed and said 'it looks like a condom, a wine condom' Strahan said. "The name sort of stuck.. it made us laugh".
Strahan sat on the idea for about a year as it took a while for him to summon the courage to do anything more than laugh at the idea. He finally launched a crowdfunding campaign in January 2014.
They marketed the concept as "protection for wine lovers".
Since then "a lot of cool things have happened", including a lot of media interest, he said.
"I think people really connected with our unique story: Mum and son create a wine condom, it was such a disruptive idea".
"Naturally we had fun with the taglines too, "Safe sipping" and "Remember, drink responsibly and use proper protection".
The great news is, is that Kiwi's will be able to buy them online from February 1st, but would have to wait a bit longer before they were available in stores as they are still working with retailers.
Over in the UK and US, wind condoms became the must-have Christmas gift for 2016.
"During this past Christmas, we had a hard time keeping in stock - 2016 Wine Condom sales were brisk, despite having quadruple the holiday inventory, we found ourselves frequently going out of stock", Strahan said.
Luckily for us they are fully re-stocked and ready to tackle business over here in New Zealand.
"We can't wait to bring Wine Condoms to New Zealand".
