THOMASVILLE — Local inventor Doug Vick stumbled into a bright idea, literally.

Vick, the CEO of Scentco and Boston Ideas, invented BrightFeet, the lighted slippers that are becoming a worldwide craze. He came up with the concept last year by simply fumbling around in the dark.

“I got up to get a drink of water, came back into the bedroom and when I started to get into bed, I turned a little to quickly. I hit the bedpost, and I hit it pretty hard,” Vick said.

While lying in bed that night, something else hit the inventor.

“My mind started turning. I wondered how many people do this every night around the world,” Vick said. “So I started thinking of ways I could make it simpler to move around at night. I came up with bedroom shoes with headlights.”

The slippers feature LED “headlights” at the toe that illuminate when someone puts them on in the dark. The lights are activated by a person’s body weight, allowing visibility of up to 25 feet in complete darkness.

To conserve battery power, sensors on the side detect when it’s no longer dark and turn the lights off automatically. There’s also a delay in the slippers that keeps the lights on long enough for someone to get back into bed before turning off.

After a year of developing the slippers, Vick said he has a product anyone can find a use for.

“Everybody bumps into things when it’s dark. Teenagers do it. Middle-aged people do it. Seniors do it,” he said. “We all bump into things.”

Vick said BrightFeet are ideal for night-time trips to the bathroom, kitchen or kid’s room, and would also be useful to mothers checking on their babies at night. During power outages, the slippers could also be used to locate flashlights or candles while the lights are out.

The slippers are lightweight with a non-slip sole and come in a variety of colors — including pink, beige and camouflage.

As an inventor, Vick said his philosophy is to create something useful without too much complication.

“It’s the simple things in life,” he said. “Somebody made a pair of tweezers. Somebody made a ball-point pen. Those are things people use every single day. When I thought of the slippers, people I talked to thought it was a neat idea.”

Since Scentco introduced BrightFeet, the slippers have been featured products on NBC’s “Today Show” and ABC’s “Good Morning America,” in “Better Homes and Gardens” and “Real Simple” magazines, and on CNET.com and other shopping Web sites.

The slippers will soon be featured on HGTV’s “I Want That” segment, and Vick has also been contacted by officials from David Letterman’s TV show about BrightFeet. Last month, the inventor appeared with the shoes on the QVC network.

Such exposure has created a demand for the shoes nationwide, as well as in foreign countries — including Australia, Spain, Japan, Russia and Switzerland, to name a few. However, as impressive as the product’s success has been, BrightFeet are not the first of Vick’s big ideas to take off.

Scentco enjoyed similar recognition with Paint Pourri, a scented additive used in paint to create fragrances in homes. Vick also patented Wiper Breeze, which creates fragrance when added to an automobile’s windshield wiper fluid, and Filter Breeze, a polymer spray used on disposable home air filters to combat odors.

When he’s not inventing something, Vick spends his time speaking at local schools.

“I encourage young people to use their minds and to realize what they want to do in life before they leave home,” he said. “I’m a strong advocate of technical training. We’ve got one of the best technical colleges in the state (Southwest Georgia Technical College) right here in Thomasville, and I strongly support that. Young people can do anything they want to do, if they want to do it bad enough.

“There are so many opportunities out there if you have an idea of what you want your future to be.”

Indeed, big ideas have always come naturally to Vick.

“Since I was a teenager, I’ve always thought of ways to do something better or make something simpler,” he said. “I try to think of what people would want that they don’t have. It’s just that my mind’s turning all the time. I’m not saying I’m the first person who ever though of this, but I’m the first person who did something about it.”

Vick’s new slippers are available at www.brightfeet.com, larger J.C. Penney stores, and QVC. For more information call Scentco at 227-0737.



To contact reporter Brewer Turley, call (229) 226-2400, ext. 226.