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IS SHARPER IMAGE MAKING A COMEBACK?: Name's the same, but owners -- and prices -- change
Jan 08, 2009 (The Orlando Sentinel - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) --
LAS VEGAS
Fans of The Sharper Image can stop crying in their massage chairs and kicking their Ionic Breeze air purifiers.
The store that featured often-expensive techno-gadgets went out of business last year, but now it's making a comeback.
Well, sort of.
The private-equity firms that control the company are allowing other companies to release new products under The Sharper Image brand name.
A Michigan company called HoMedics will be the first to do it, with plans to release 24 new Sharper Image home-audio products in the fall.
The news was announced at the annual Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, where 2,700 companies are displaying the latest computers, cell phones, TVs and other gadgets at the world's largest consumer-technology exhibition.
HoMedics, which makes massage chairs and other health gadgets, created a company called SI Products to release new, less-costly Sharper Image gizmos.
They will not be sold in Sharper Image stores. Instead they'll likely go on the market at chains such as Bed Bath & Beyond, Macy's and Costco, said Dan Curzon, director of sales for SI Products.
"Everybody knows this brand," Curzon said. "We are trying to bring it to the masses by introducing products that everyone can afford instead of being high end only."
Last year, Sharper Image filed for bankruptcy protection and shut its stores, citing the economy and increased competition for technology dollars. Besides HoMedics, about seven other companies have been approved to release Sharper Image-branded products, said Federico de Bellegarde, vice president of licensing for Sharper Image.
"The mission is to create price points that are compelling, particularly in this environment," said de Bellegarde, who has been with Sharper Image for 18 years. "But the product isn't less than what you would expect from the brand.
Some of the HoMedics products on display this week in Las Vegas include speaker systems and alarm clocks for iPods and iPhones, portable travel speakers that will charge an iPod, wireless speakers for the home and a boombox that can play an iPod as well as Internet radio stations.
In addition to the 24 products from HoMedics, de Bellegarde said that by the end of the year, there will be Sharper Image products made by other companies that include noise-canceling headphones, digital cameras, telephones and video cameras.
And because SI Products has the license for "home environment" products, the Ionic Breeze air purifiers could reappear.
Follow the action at the electronics show in Las Vegas at OrlandoSentinel.com/techblog
Etan Horowitz can be reached at ehorowitz@orlandosentinel.com or 407-420-5447.
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http://www.OrlandoSentinel.com. Copyright (c) 2009, The Orlando Sentinel, Fla.
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