Something to cheer about: how a local woman developed Spirit Fingerz line

Author: Lakeshia Artis, Inside Business

One frigid night in November 2005, Teresa Denham was on her way to Blacksburg to attend a Virginia Tech/Miami football game. In an effort to stay warm and show some team spirit, she came up with the idea of attaching pompoms to the fingertips of her gloves.

"I made them out of generic gardening gloves," Denham said. "I went tailgating before the game and someone kept asking what they were and I said spirit fingers."

It wasn't until a year later, after speaking with someone about patenting, that Denham came to the realization that she wanted to develop "spirit fingers."

"I was referred to a lawyer who specialized in patents," she said. "I called and did a phone interview. From there, I decided to move forward with the patenting process."

In the meantime, Denham needed to be sure the product would sell. Constructing a sample pair, she phoned Leslie Simmer, the bookstore buyer at Virginia Tech, and requested a meeting.

"She loved the concept and ordered 144 pair," Denham said. "That's when the business really started. After I got that order that day, life as I had known it forever changed."

In 2007, Denham launched Spirit Fingerz, a lightweight knit glove with miniature pompoms attached to each fingertip featuring team colors or logos. The company is based in Virginia Beach. The patent for Spirit Fingerz was approved in February of this year.

After applying for a Virginia Tech license to display its logos, Denham began to research various glove manufacturers for the product.

"I wanted them to have a professional look," she said. "They couldn't be sold in a Zip-loc baggie. I ended up using an international manufacturer and ordered 5,000 pair."

While selling the gloves out of the back of her trunk at Virginia Tech events, Denham received some news in December 2008 that would expand the line nationally.

"I received a call from Merge Left Inc., a collegiate distributor based in Los Angeles," Denham said. "They heard about the product and wanted to mass-produce it and add 36 new colors and offer it to three major bookstores, which were Barnes and Noble, Follett and The Nebraska Bookstore."

Today Spirit Fingerz has 44 color combinations. They can be found in almost every college and university and locally at William and Mary and in the fall at Old Dominion University plus major retail outlets including Dick's Sporting Goods, Hallmark and Stein Mart. The company implemented a fundraiser program that allows organizations to buy Spirit Fingerz and sell them to raise money for their needs.

"We just landed the Cracker Barrel account two weeks ago for 869 stores," Denham said. "The stores in Virginia will carry only Virginia Tech."

Spirit Fingerz will also feature NFL logos.

"We are being sublicensed through a company called WinCraft," she said. "They will buy the product from us and add it to their product line."

The company has continued to grow financially from $15,000 in 2008 to $395,000 in 2009 when it partnered with Merge Left Inc. More than 115 sales reps in 21 states sell Spirit Fingerz.

"I started this business with a $2 Michael's craft," Denham said. "And I will be looking at a projected $2 million in sales for 2010.

"I'm just a woman out of Virginia Beach with a military spouse and kids who is truly living the American dream," she said. nib

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