Success sticks to magnetic idea
David Lytle said his products "hold families together magnetically."
Lytle is the owner of Magically Magnetic and Lytle Products. In his workshop, he creates more than 60 products including a magnetic paint additive, magnetic photograph frames, magnetic shelf labels and bumper stickers.
Lytle has a small office next door to his home on North Pike Road, the previous location of a gas station. An entire office wall exhibits photographs and papers held up with magnets.
In the next room is the workshop, where a large funnel packages the additive and where workers use a large circular machine and table to build the magnets.
"I came up with magnetic paint additive to increase the amount of space in the home where photos can be displayed,"Lytle said. "A fridge is small."
Instead of displaying photographs on the refrigerator, people can stick the magnetic frame anywhere they have the magnetic paint, making the entire house a potential display case. An added benefit is they can decorate their walls and not have to worry about nail holes.
Lytle said his frames, which come in all shapes and sizes are perfect for sending to relatives.
"You can stick them in the mail, and it's easy for grandmas to take it out of the envelope and stick it right on the fridge," he said.
Lytle was referring to his envelopelike magnetic frames, which have a magnet with a clear vinyl side that acts as a pocket into which the photograph can slide. These frames also can be made with different colored backgrounds that show through as a border for the picture.Lytle also sells self-adhesive magnetic backing that can go right on a photograph and stick to any steel surface or surface with magnetic paint. How much weight the magnet can hold depends on its size and thickness."A seashell magnet may work on the 'fridge, but every time you shut the 'fridge, the magnet would slide down. So we made a magnetic photograph frame," he said.Lytle didn't start out with magnetic photograph frames. His interest in manufacturing began in college when he attended the Tyler School of Fine Arts. He created Drinkin' Buddies, a line of ceramic mugs featuring 3-D figures depicting hobbies or occupations. He still keeps one on his desk.He sold his mugs up and down the east coast for awhile, living with his wife in an old wood-heated grange hall in New Hampshire before moving to York and finally California where he worked as an illustrator for the Peanuts cartoon with Determined Productions."I'd always wanted to get back into making products," he said.He moved back to Butler, his hometown, and with $700, he bought a guitar and amplifier so he could play rock music while working as a carpenter.One day he stopped to get gas on North Pike Road, saw the property and bought it. Then he added a workshop and started his business.Lytle showed his first magnetic photograph frames to Ritz Camera in 1988, and the company put in an order for 100,000, and later, 350,000.
"I was flabbergasted," he said. "I went from nothing to being in business overnight."Lytle drove around in his pickup truck to gather materials to make the frames. With the help of his church's divorced and singles recovery group, he was able to put together and take all 350,000 frames to Ritz in a U-Haul.While Ritz helped him develop the product by incorporating the magnet into the frame for the first time, the relationship didn't last long. The hot summer heat melted the glue in Lytle's product and ended his career working with Ritz.He had to redo his product and find a new market, but he hit another roadblock when digital cameras became more popular."People weren't getting photos developed anymore," he said. "However, frames are selling again. People are finding it's still a nice way to get pictures out."Lytle said he was the first to put these kinds of products online and has been offered as much as $3,000 for his Web address: www.lyt.com. He said three-letter addresses are hard to come by, but he snagged it before the Internet was widely used for business."If I come up with a new idea for things, we try it and put it up online," he said. "The Internet's great. We can change things very quickly."Lytle said he does most of his business online, making the frames and additive in his shop, except for some production that's done in China. The frames are packaged 50 at a time and sent out by UPS or the U.S. Postal Service to all 50 states, Canada, Australia and England.
One customer in England owns a castle that is used for business meetings. The castle uses magnetic paint on the walls to stick up items for presentations so nothing is put up with nails.Airlines also use the paint additive in rooms they use for displays. They can put up maps marking the locations of people or machines.Lytle also has received orders from a company that wanted to paint floors and lay magnetic carpet that can easily be put down and taken up during large conferences and trade shows.Lytle also makes white vinyl magnetic shelf labels. Customers can write on the labels with markers, then move them to different shelves as needed.One of his latest products is the Rare Earth Safety Cap. Rare Earth magnets are especially strong and can pinch children's fingers if a child gets his or her finger caught in between two. Lytle's magnets are just as strong, but always have the magnetic north pointing out, and two north poles repel one another.Lytle describes these magnets as pawns from a chess game. The magnets come in all colors, and children can safely use them to put up posters on walls that have the magnetic paint.Lytle's eight-person operation has progressed from an idea to a successful business, and Lytle loves what it's become."The business is a reflection of me and things I think about and create," he said. "It gives people a new thing to do with photographs. Instead of putting them off in a shoebox under your bed, now you could put them in the post popular room of the house. If not for our picture frames, people wouldn't have a way to stay in touch."
