And we have a winner!
Over the past week, this pretty Periodic Table of Elements necklace from our Indie Merchant Holiday Gift Guide received 22 percent of your votes – making it the winner of the Readers' Choice Award and one smart gift for someone special this holiday season.
Caitlin Mason of Malden, Mass., says she dreamt up the necklace when a friend asked her to create the perfect gift for his med-student girlfriend. It sells for $22 at Mason's Etsy shop, My London Sun.
Sunday is the last day to vote for your favorite gift in our Indie Merchant Holiday Gift Guide.
To recount, back in November we asked artisans, craftspeople and other independent merchants to tell us about a gift they sell that is truly special. We heard from hundreds of you, and found it tough to whittle down our favorites. But ultimately, we settled on 12 eye-catching products for our gift guide, based on each item's uniqueness, value and function -- and of course, the story behind them.
Editor's Note: We're rolling out 12 Days of Indie Merchant Gifts. Readers can vote for their favorite gifts, starting Monday.
This last item reminds us why we like entrepreneurs: They solve our problems, big and small.
Erik Groset of Zipbuds writes in his submission that “a team of college friends and crafty entrepreneurs” were continually frustrated by tangled earphones (these days, who isn’t?) and so they turned that annoyance into a business inspiration.
Groset and company designed a unique “vertebrae” zipper that essentially allows a person to zip up his or her earphones’ cords – and kiss that mess of knotted wires goodbye. “Zipbuds are the perfect earbuds for on-the-go listening, whether exercising at the gym, studying, road tripping, laying out at the pool, or traveling,” he says.
Plus, Zipbuds feature “feather-light flexibility” and “unrivaled sound quality,” he says. And you can pick your color: black or white with pink or blue.
In January, Groset adds, the Carlsbad, Calif., company plans to launch another line of earphones that will “turns heads” in the portable music industry.
We’ll be watching. And listening.
Check back tomorrow to vote for your favorite item in this year's gift guide.
Day 1: "The Shopping List Bag" - L.E. Green Bags
Day 2: Children's multicultural books - Hartlyn Kids
Day 3: Chalkboard beer mug - The Man Registry
Day 4: Recycled china pendant - The Broken Plate Pendant Co.
Day 5: Vegan lip balm - Sprout Skincare
Day 6: Fair-trade-certified soccer ball - Senda Athletics
Day 7: Digital luggage scale - EatSmart Products
Day 8: Dog treat pouch - Sara Bella Upcycled
Day 9: "Not sent from my iPhone" Stationery set - Red Letter Paper Co.
Day 10: Key lime BBQ Sauce - Reva Foods
Day 11: Periodic Table of Elements necklace - My London Sun
Editor's Note: We're rolling out 12 Days of Indie Merchant Gifts. Readers can vote for their favorite gifts, starting Monday.
We’re not sure if this next gift is geeky or cool – but either way, we like it.
In her submission to our Indie Merchant Holiday Gift Guide, Caitlin Mason of Malden, Mass., tells us that this smart piece of jewelry came to be when a friend asked her to create the perfect gift for his medical student girlfriend.
Editor's Note: We're rolling out 12 Days of Indie Merchant Gifts. Readers can vote for their favorite gifts, starting Dec. 12.
Leave it to an entrepreneur to dream up something to do with key lime juice besides making pie.
In her submission to our Indie Merchant Holiday Gift Guide, Kathy Varricchio of St. Petersburg, Fla., says she planted a key lime tree several years ago, and wound up with "gallons and gallons" of key lime juice in the freezer. "Since it takes very little juice to make a key lime pie, we needed to create something special with all of the wonderfully tangy juice," she wrote.
Editor's Note: We're rolling out 12 Days of Indie Merchant Gifts. Readers can vote for their favorite gifts, starting Dec. 12.
Today's gift is for the iPhone-obsessed person in your life. "I'm pretty addicted to my iPhone," business owner Stephanie Hinderer wrote in her submission to our Indie Merchant Holiday Gift Guide. "I'm betting a lot of people you know are, too."
Hinderer, who runs a stationery company called Red Letter Paper Co. in Jersey City, N.J., created these amusing "not sent from my iPhone" notecards, which of course are designed to land in a person's mailbox rather than email inbox. Snail-mail stationery with an attitude? We like it.
Editor's Note: We're rolling out 12 Days of Indie Merchant Gifts. Readers can vote for their favorite gifts, starting Dec. 12.
Chances are, someone on your shopping list has a furry friend. For that reason alone, we wanted to make sure we included at least one item for pet owners in our Indie Merchant Holiday Gift Guide.
It also turns out, based on the submissions that we received, that plenty of merchants make gift items for dog (and cat) lovers. We pored over photos of pet collars, leashes and safety-light contraptions, but this gift stood out the most: a dog treat pouch made of “upcycled” materials, made by Sara Bella Upcycled in Bend, Ore.
Editor's Note: We're rolling out 12 Days of Indie Merchant Gifts. Readers can vote for their favorite gifts, starting Dec. 12.
So far, the gifts we've picked for our Indie Merchant Holiday Gift Guide have ranged from whimsical to athletic, which is why today we've settled on a practical stocking stuffer: The "Prevision Voyager" Digital Luggage Scale.
This clever gadget, made by EatSmart Products in Wyckoff, N.J., aims to prevent those extra airline charges when your suitcase tilts the scales. (Many airlines set a 50-pound limit on bags, and tack on hefty fees when your bag execeeds it.) "After paying a couple of overweight luggage fees, the EatSmart Team decided to design the Precision Voyager as a practical solution to most airline luggage restrictions," the company's vice president, William Geronimo, wrote in his submission.
Editor's Note: We're rolling out 12 Days of Indie Merchant Gifts. Readers can vote for their favorite gifts, starting Dec. 12.
Many of the merchants who sent in submissions for our gift guide cited socially responsible or eco-friendly business practices -- something that impressed us as we made final selections.
We picked this soccer ball made by Senda Athletics because founder Santiago Halty tells us his products are made in Pakistan "in factories that treat workers with respect, pay fair wages, and do not have sweatshops or child labor."
Halty says he started the Berkeley, Calif.-based company after graduating from college in 2009 because "I could not find a company that made great sports equipment, while paying fair wages and making a difference."
Editor's Note: We're rolling out 12 Days of Indie Merchant Gifts. Readers can vote for their favorite gifts, starting Dec. 12.
Now here's a nice stocking stuffer. Adina Grigore tells us in her gift guide submission that she was frustrated by all the skincare companies claiming to be all-natural while still using synthetic chemicals. "I was having horrible skin reactions," she writes, "and I couldn't afford the higher-end natural brands filled with exotic ingredients."
So, like many entrepreneurs before her, Grigore took matters into her own hands -- and set out to make something "truly all natural, simple and affordable." All of Sprout Skincare's products, such as this vegan lip balm set, are made from organic, fair-trade or small-farm ingredients, and everything is handmade in Brooklyn, N.Y., she says.
Editor's Note: We're rolling out 12 Days of Indie Merchant Gifts. Readers can vote for their favorite gifts, starting Dec. 12.
Talk about a niche business. Juliet Ames, an independent merchant in Baltimore, specializes in making custom jewelry from broken sentimental family china. The name of her website says it all: IBreakPlates.com.
We received scores of submissions for our gift guide from jewelry makers, but Ames's recycled china pendant stood out to us because it's truly one-of-a-kind -- not to mention quite pretty. And the sentimental inspiration behind her business appealed to our softer side.
Editor's Note: We're rolling out 12 Days of Indie Merchant Gifts. Readers can vote for their favorite gifts, starting Dec. 12.
It’s Day No. 3 for our gift guide, and after announcing products that are eco-friendly or educational, it’s time to focus on the fun and quirky. Look no further than the Chalkboard Beer Mug.
This one-of-a-kind item is made by The Man Registry, a retailer of wedding gifts tailored to grooms, in Kansas City, Kan. "Last year we asked ourselves, how can you bring innovation to a product as simple as a beer mug?" co-founder Chris Easter wrote in his submission. "We ended up stumbling into the answer." (Yes, we’re sure some stumbling was involved.) At a beer tasting at The Man Registry’s holiday party, he and other VIPs were looking for "a creative way to label each mug with the name of the tasty contents….and the bell went off," he says.
Editor's Note: We're rolling out 12 Days of Indie Merchant Gifts. Readers can vote for their favorite gifts, starting Dec. 12.
Today's gift is for that special kid in your life. It was hard to narrow down the submissions that we received in this category, because lots of merchants sent in photos of super-cute children using or wearing their one-of-a-kind products. But we liked this series of children's multicultural books created by Hartlyn Kids the best.
of Cedar Grove, N.J. (photo above), priced at $13.99.
Need a gift for someone special? Want to support a small business? Look no further.
A month ago, we asked artisans, craftspeople and independent merchants to tell us about their one-of-a-kind items that would make a perfect gift for someone special this holiday season. We were flooded with responses – more than 200 in all – and found the task of narrowing the selection for our Indie Merchant Holiday Gift Guide rather daunting.
But an intrepid team of editors at Entrepreneur.com pored over your stories, photos and prices (we didn't accept items over $50), and selected the 12 items that we felt were the most unique, valuable or functional of the lot – and of course, featured a nice story behind its inception. As journalists, we like stories. You told us some great ones.
Editor's note: We're revealing our selections and a new timeline for voting. Please read "12 Days of Indie Merchant Gifts."
This holiday season, let's celebrate the artisans, craftspeople and other independent merchants who create one-of-a-kind items that make for special gifts.
From now until Thanksgiving, we invite all eligible businesses to tell us about ONE item that you sell that is the perfect gift for someone special this holiday season.
So tell us in 250 words or less the story behind the item: the reason you decided to create it; why it's absolutely unique; why it's different than anything you'd find in a mass-market space; whom it's suitable for; and what customers say when they buy it. The item must be priced at $50 or less. (Read all entry rules in our FAQ section.)
Connect with Entrepreneur
Most Popular on Entrepreneur.com
From the Entrepreneur Bookstore
