SkyMall Monday: Create a SkyMall product, earn a $1 million investment

How often do you flip through the SkyMall catalog and think to yourself, “I could have created that”? If you’re like me, you do that every single time you read it. For all of the jokes we make at SkyMall’s expense, it is a lucrative business and many of those zany inventions have done quite well financially. It’s easy to think that you can create something just as good, if not better, than what’s currently in SkyMall, but what if you really had the chance to prove it? All I have to do is sit here in SkyMall Monday headquarters and pass judgment on all of these inane gadget. It’s much harder to be an entrepreneur and launch a successful product. Well, now’s your chance to get your idea off the ground and into the pages of SkyMall. Edison Nation, a company that helps retailers, As Seen on TV companies and manufacturers find new products and concepts has partnered with SkyMall to find the next great products for our favorite catalog. They’ll present the best ideas to SkyMall and invest up to $1 million in the concepts that are selected to launch their development. Do you have the perfect idea for the $1 Million Challenge?Of course, there will be some investment on your part. There is a $25 fee to submit an idea. That seems like a small price to pay to potentially see a seven figure investment in your invention.

The submission form is pretty straight forward but also quite thorough. After entering a detailed description of your idea, you are asked to explain why your product is innovative, what problem it addresses (remember, this is for SkyMall, so you can create the problem and then be the one to solve it), what the target audience is and who the current competitors are. Big ideas are great, but Edison Nation and SkyMall are looking for someone who understands the market and is truly filling a void.

I’ve got plenty of ideas that I’d like to see in SkyMall. For example, wouldn’t it be amazing if…wait, how do I know that you won’t steal my ideas? If anyone is going to have their name on combination toilet and deli slicer, it’s me! The Slusher (slice + flush) is going to be HUGE!

The submission deadline for the $1 Million Challenge is January 9, 2012. That’s plenty of time to come up with your own brilliant idea. Perhaps a bidet that is also a fondue pot? Or a remote controlled cat massager.

You can read all of the details and submit your ideas at the Edison Nation/SkyMall page. If your product makes it into SkyMall, I guarantee to review it in a future SkyMall Monday.

Good luck!

Check out all of the previous SkyMall Monday posts HERE.