Concocting Family Fun
Cleveland Couple Gets National Attention with Back-to-Basics Message

It’s a scene that seems almost too idyllic for many of today’s families. Kids and parents sitting around the kitchen table together, working on fun and educational projects that don’t involve joysticks, remote controls or electronics of any kind. Getting their hands dirty, creating toys from everyday household items, and actually playing with them without losing interest.

Is this the 1950s we’re talking about, or the 21st century?

This kind of good old-fashioned fun is the premise behind Kid Concoctions, the Cleveland company created by John and Danita Thomas that has sold millions of books, videos and other merchandise and won multiple Dr. Toy and Parent’s Choice awards over the last 15 years. Now Kid Concoctions is entering the retail arena, with a new store at Southpark Mall and plans to franchise nationally.

It’s all based on a quite simple idea – recipes that allow anyone to recreate popular children’s toys using common household ingredients, and for less than a dollar per project.

“Our goal was that everything had to look like it came off the store shelf,” says John Thomas, whose curiosity led him to try a home recipe for Silly Putty passed on to him by a stranger in 1991. This tip kicked off the creation of Kid Concoctions. “But the homemade versions will exceed in quality the stuff you buy in the store tenfold.”

Such concoctions as Treasure Stones – a mixture of flour, water, salt and used coffee grounds shaped around a small toy and allowed to harden – compare to similar toys retailing for $20 or more. The Thomases offer instructions on making your own lip gloss, sidewalk chalks and paints, play dough and Chia heads. While some are classic toys with a new spin – like Silly Putty – the majority are original Kid Concoctions recipes. And they stay true to their promise of using ingredients found around the house – from Kool-Aid and Crisco to school glue and dryer lint.

Getting Back to Basics

What the Thomases say they’re really selling is a message. “We’re telling parents that it’s not about what you buy them, it’s about this quality family interaction,” says Danita Thomas. “We’re providing quick, easy, inexpensive ways to make that happen. Here’s a foolproof idea, it’s easy, just create this family moment.”

Those of us who are parents have likely felt the frustration of trying to create those “family moments” when projects claiming to be quick and easy become anything but. When you’re the only one left at the kitchen table finishing the project because the kids have lost interest or given up, it’s hard to see the benefit.

But don’t be too quick to put Kid Concoctions in that category.

“Our books were designed with you in mind,” John says to those skeptical parents. “Everything is dump and mix. If you can measure, and you can mix, you can make anything in the book.”

While it seems the Thomases might face an uphill battle pulling kids’ attention away from TV and video games to Gooey Gunk and Treasure Stones, sales of their products tell the opposite story. They’ve sold more than five million books since 1996, and sales are as strong today as ever. That sustained interest in Kid Concoctions could be explained by the cyclical nature of the children’s market or the “evergreen” content of their books, as they say, but it’s clear the Thomases’ perseverance and vision is just as important a factor.

The Gooey Road to Success

John and Danita’s tireless promotion of the Kid Concoctions brand over the last 15 years has paid dividends in national exposure. They’ve been regulars on the national and local TV talk show circuit for years, doing demonstrations on The Howie Mandel Show, The Donny and Marie Show, the former Morning Exchange and more. They’ve sold their products on QVC and HSN and hosted PBS pledge drives all across the country, shattering records for sales and pledges along the way, they say. They’ve served as the resident arts-and-crafts experts for HGTV, Lifetime, Discovery Channel and local programs, and their video series is now marketed via infomercial by Time Life.

As a result of national licensing agreements, the Kid Concoctions name and recipes are everywhere – on Chick-Fil-A kids’ meals, Froot Loops cereal boxes, Kid Concoctions fruit snacks and more. Deals with RoseArt and Cleveland’s own Darice Inc. have put Kid Concoctions arts-and-crafts supplies in retail locations nationwide.

But these achievements have not been without their challenges for the Thomases.

They met in the early 1990s, when John, a local video producer, held an open audition for “the perfect Kid Concoctions mom” to star beside him in his second Kid Concoctions video. At the time, Danita was married to former Browns quarterback Mike Pagel and had three young children. When her marriage ended, Danita nearly quit her Kid Concoctions job, until John convinced her to become his business partner and publish the first Kid Concoctions book, which they photocopied and bound themselves in 1996, selling them at events and appearances. They married two years later and had a fourth child together.

To this day, they manage the business almost entirely on their own out of their Strongsville home. Until recently, they distributed their own books – even warehousing books in their garage – and arranged their own press tours and appearances, bringing the kids along whenever possible. They’re still cooking up new concoctions regularly and maintain tight control over licensing agreements.

Why Stay in Cleveland?

The Thomases have spent years traveling non-stop between the coasts and everywhere in between for TV appearances, trade shows, book signings and meetings with publishers, retailers and major consumer products companies. Their multimedia empire depends on business relationships based primarily in hubs like New York and Los Angeles, yet they’ve never wavered in their desire to stay in Cleveland.

Why? “Because of our kids,” they respond, almost in unison.

“Sure, we could move anywhere, but we can also get on a plane and be anywhere we need to be in no time,” says Danita. “It’s almost a safe haven to come back here to Cleveland. When we come back here, it’s family focused, we’re nothing more than a normal family.”

“It frustrates a lot of people we do business with,” John agrees. “But it’s also the thing they really like about us. When we do these national TV shows, we always hear ‘we love you guys, you’re so Midwestern. Our viewers just love you.’”

They’ve even become celebrities of sorts who are recognized frequently when on the road, but not – inexplicably – in Cleveland. “Here it’s just low key,” says Danita. “People don’t even come up to us here.”

The Future of Kid Concoctions

Now John and Danita Thomas are laying the groundwork for their own retail empire, a franchise of toy stores that Danita calls an “interactive specialty retail toy store experience.”

After the first Kid Concoctions retail attraction opened last year at Dollywood in Pigeon Forge, Tenn. – which combines a stage show, interactive pavilion and retail store – John and Danita began to dream of creating their own toy store.

“After the Dollywood experience, we saw that this is how a toy store should be done, where kids can actually make the toys,” says John. “We thought, why didn’t we think of this? We’re Kid Concoctions! This is what we do!” So last fall they opened their first toy store – Kid Concoctions Place – at Southpark Mall in Strongsville, with plans to expand that location this spring and later franchise the store nationally. Guests can make their own Gooey Gunk and Fruity Lip Gloss in the store, or make a charm bracelet or other toy projects.

“It will be very interactive, unlike anything you’ve ever seen in a shopping mall,” says John. “The concept behind the store is you can come in and still have the same quality time with the kids but it’s convenient and you don’t have to do the clean up.”

That’s not all that’s on the horizon for Kid Concoctions. John and Danita have a new Kid Concoctions book out and are developing a cookbook to premiere on QVC in late 2007. They’re overseeing the formation of a Kid Concoctions pop group – “it will be a step up from The Wiggles, focusing on the tween market,” says John – and they’re developing a PBS Kids series that will combine Kid Concoctions demonstrations with quick lessons on the science behind them and music videos from their pop group. They’re also in discussions with the production company behind Veggie Tales to develop shorts for their Saturday morning ABC series.

Despite years of travel and incessant promotion, John and Danita still exhibit a natural enthusiasm for these simple recipes that made them famous.

“Sure, it’s the same old recipe, but we’re focused on the moment,” says Danita. “When a child tries it for the first time, it’s a whole new moment for them. The recipe itself we know backwards and forwards but it’s the other stuff that comes out of it that makes it really worth it.”

From Cool Cleveland contributor Jennifer Keirn jenniferkATwowway.com

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