Aikido Jewelry....any interest?

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[cococoppa]

I always wondered why I can't find some nice Aikido jewelry. I am not a businessman, but my friend owns a long established jewelry store in NYC. I asked him if he could make me a mold & give me some ideas. He would make gold or silver pendants. They could either have the writing with or without the outer ring or he could fill in the background of the ring. I am not looking to get rich. I would just like to help fill a need. No prices yet. It will be based on the price of gold/silver. At this time, I am just looking to see if there is any interest and for possibly some feedback.

[sakumeikan]

I always wondered why I can't find some nice Aikido jewelry. I am not a businessman, but my friend owns a long established jewelry store in NYC. I asked him if he could make me a mold & give me some ideas. He would make gold or silver pendants. They could either have the writing with or without the outer ring or he could fill in the background of the ring. I am not looking to get rich. I would just like to help fill a need. No prices yet. It will be based on the price of gold/silver. At this time, I am just looking to see if there is any interest and for possibly some feedback.

Dear Michael,
I personally do not wear jewelry -not even a watch.The item shown looks quite nice. May I say that you show remarkable lack of ambition[ no negative connotations meant] inasmuch you do not seem to be interested in making loads of dosh[money ]. Why not try ebay and market the item/s on this medium?Could I become your U.K rep? We might both end up like Donald Trump /Richard Branson.Oh what joy. Cheers, Joe.

[cococoppa]

Hello Joe,
Eventually I would like to start making some $$$$, but initially I would like to see if there is any type of market for these items. I like your idea of e-bay. I would need to have my friend make a couple of pendants & then see how they go. If they start moving, I wouldn't mind some help across the pond. I figured I'd throw it on here first & see what the aikidoka 's think. Attached is another look I think might work. By the way, I don't wear jewelry either, but I might wear a ring if I can design something simple. Thanks for responding & we'll see where it goes.

Hopefully talk to you in the near future,
Mike

[Krystal Locke]

Limited market and more saturated than you may think. Lobby senseis and shihans to require aikido pendant necklaces, maybe? Tough sell, I am afraid.

[cococoppa]

It appears there is nothing but costume jewelry out there. I haven't seen anything really nice for Aikido. I do agree with you that there may be a limited market. Some martial arts want to advertise to the world, while practitioners ofAikido seem to be more humble.

[Diana Frese]

Haven't been to NYC and boroughs in many years, busy with family, in-laws, husband's different kinds of work at which I sort of help out. Etc. We practice a bit here but as you can see I am still interested in what's going on in the wide world of Aikido.

But I'm thinking, why not see if my old recollections aren't of any use to you all? It's early, the air outside is cold and crisp and the sky turned some interesting colors around dawn and I think I'll do most of my activities indoors. So what's my suggestion?

I remember some dojos in your area, and now there are undoubtedly more. I remember bulletin boards. I remember much friendly conversation, other than the sneaky habit we had of holding on to the towel of a gi-clad fellow practicioner until it ran out of slack and they lost their balance on the way to the shower.

The pendants look really nice and I would just say show them to people there at the time, and ask them to post a flyer, maybe smaller than eight and a half by eleven, but substantial and at least slightly glossy paper. Since there are different affiliations represented in the area, ask local people to send flyers to their friends and to the dojos across the country and maybe even overseas.

This may be a trades thing, like word of mouth, but you might want to try it with marketing. Sorry about the long description, but I wanted to give some sort of visual descriptive story on how it might work these days of many more dojo around than when I was training.

[cococoppa]

Thank you Diana for your input. The pictures I have are cheap metal copies from the mold. I think I will take a chance & have my jeweler produce a couple of silver ones & show them at some dojos in the area. While I'm there I'll take your advice & see if I can get permission to post a flyer. I definitely want him to make the pendant without the outer ring; This will keep the price down as well.

I appreciate you taking the time to help.
Mike

[Neal Earhart]

To give you an idea of what is out there currently, take a look at...

www.aikitrend.com

They have some beautiful jewelry.

[TomAiki]

I think that would make a nice signet ring imho