A Glass Act

Brand ID equals big success.

It's not the average person who could find inspiration in a clothing hangtag, but Chris Lipper found success by turning apparel and shoe company tags into brand- awareness tools.

Lipper, founder of Chris Co. Inc. in Morristown, New Jersey, created the Tattoo Hangtag after someone suggested he sell removable tattoos within the apparel industry. After incorporating a removable tattoo into a hangtag, he set about patenting the invention and selling it to shoe companies like Converse and Skecher's. "The idea is to give the buyer, who we believe is buying the product because of the brand name, a little something extra," says Lipper, 34, whose company's orders rose tenfold from 1997 to 1998.

Chris Co. has several more removable tattoo products with patents pending and plans to use the licensing contacts from the Tattoo Hangtags to market items like Tattoo Trading cards, Tattoo Greeting cards and Skooz, tattoo schedule cards for sports teams.

This article was originally published in the January 1999 print edition of Entrepreneur with the headline: A Glass Act.