If you celebrate Christmas, you certainly remember the excitement that came when it was time to put up the Christmas tree. Boxes upon boxes of ornaments scatter the living room as if a decorative bomb went off, leaving behind a colorful mess in its wake while you eagerly ran back and forth putting up as many ornaments as your tree could hold.
For Ryan Kenny, Christmas was always a special holiday that he held near and dear to his heart. Growing up, Kenny would meticulously comb over the Christmas tree, repositioning the ornaments until he felt it looked just right.
That same energy stuck with Kenny all the way through to adulthood. One day while decorating the tree with his family, Kenny couldn’t help but notice the unsightly pole that supported the artificial Douglass Fur. “Never should a tree that represents such a special holiday have such a hideous green fuzzy pole holding it upright,” Kenny thought to himself.
After realizing the glaring problem, Kenny took to the internet in search of a solution that would hide this imperfection. To his surprise, there was nothing on the market that currently addressed the problem at hand. Kenny decided to take action.
With a background in graphic design, he began developing a few prototypes that might do the trick. Keeping in mind that his product would have to fit more than one model of tree, Kenny finally decided on a design that worked – thus, the Christmas Tree Hugger was born.
After scouring the market for the right materials, Kenny decided on neoprene, a particularly elastic material that could stretch and hold shape. This material, coupled with a few Velcro closures did the trick. Taking a traditional tree bark design, Kenny printed a nearly perfect tree trunk right on to the material.
With a reversible wrap, one side being bark and the other side being a candy cane pattern, the Christmas Tree Hugger proved to be the perfect holiday accessory.
*Davison had no involvement with the design of the featured product