Lancaster News

LANCASTER, Pa. (AP) - Jen Zoll's standard daily "uniform" consists of sweats, sneakers or flip-flops, and a headband.Always, always a headband.But instead of reliably keeping her hair out of her face during a sweaty softball game or fitness class, Zoll's headbands constantly slipped, pulled or popped off her head.Zoll's plan to try making her own nonslip headbands sparked an unexpected new direction for the mom of three, who had never so much as turned on a sewing machine. Now, thanks to hard work, determination - and a few YouTube videos - she's sold thousands of Bean Bands."I played softball from the time I could throw all the way through college," she says. "I was a bio/chemistry major. And now I'm sewing."Zoll scored an especially big hit with personalized headbands featuring team colors and players' names and numbers. Bean Bands is now the official supplier to USA Field Hockey, adorning the high-profile heads of women on the Olympic and national teams.Zoll is a true "mompreneur." Bean Bands is based in her Akron-area home, and she and other local moms make the velvet-backed headbands while their children are asleep, at school or otherwise occupied.It all started in July 2012, when Zoll, who taught jazzercise at Lancaster's Universal Athletic Club, attended a conference in Orlando, Florida. She noticed a commotion at one of the tents."Seriously, they were throwing elbows and pushing people out of the way," she says.Zoll was too scared to actually go inside the tent, but she could see racks filled with colorful fitness headbands that claimed to stay put no matter what.Later, when she dared to venture into the tent, Zoll bought a few bands. She tested them at home and they really did stay in place. But she didn't want to pay $18 (plus shipping) for more.So she decided to try making similar headbands - or rather, ask her mom, Lisa Hildebrandt, to make them."My mom is like Martha Stewart," Zoll says. "She can make anything: dresses, curtains, costumes."Hildebrandt, who lives in Frederick, Maryland, politely declined. She offered to buy Zoll a sewing machine instead."I never touched a sewing machine in my entire life," she says.After picking up basic sewing techniques from YouTube, Zoll made a few headbands and wore them to the gym. Friends asked where she got them, and soon she was taking orders.Buoyed by that early success, Zoll signed up as a craft-fair vendor. She worked two weeks straight to make 300 bands, netting $800 at her first show.In January 2013, Zoll quit her part-time job. She built her business by selling Bean Bands at sporting events, fitness expos, road races and craft shows. She was encouraged by the positive response everywhere she went.Bean Bands now come in everything from glitter to animal prints, chevrons, polka dots and jacquards. The bands, which range from 3/8-inch to 1 1/2-inches wide, sell for about $10 to $12 at events, beanbands.net and several local shops. (Personalization is an extra $3.)Ashton Whitmoyer brought Bean Bands to Glitz, her women's accessory boutique in Lititz, at customers' requests. Whitmoyer wears the bands herself and can attest to their staying power."Everybody loves them," she says. "That's the No. 1 complaint I get from people: `I can't wear (other) headbands. They slip off my head.' "Velvet backs keep the bands in place, Zoll says. Women and girls are Bean Bands' biggest fans, she says, but some long-haired men wear them too.Katie Naughton, commercial manager for USA Field Hockey, says each member of the Olympic team receives a Bean Band with the USA Field Hockey logo. But she has seen everyone from 10-year-old girls to grandmothers wearing the bands."The women's national team and Olympians love them," Naughton says. "They not only have the designs that they want, but they never slip off their heads."Bean Bands supplies and inventory now fill the basement - and half of the garage - in the duplex Zoll shares with husband Matt and their children, Camden, 7, Lexi, 4, and Liam, 1."We definitely need a bigger basement," she says.As Zoll's business grew, she hired her mom and three local friends to make headbands. Despite an offer to mass-produce the bands, she prefers to keep employing local moms.Just don't ask Zoll to sew anything else. Her newfound expertise begins and ends with Bean Bands.Online:http://bit.ly/1h48KeMInformation from: Intelligencer Journal/Lancaster New Era ,

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