The Sharper Image: Creating Better Desires

As a result, The Sharper Image has morphed into perhaps one of the country’s premier, ahead-of-the-curve designers, manufacturers and marketers of irresistible high-tech consumer products for home, office, rec room, patio, swimming pool and automobile. Thalheimer created Sharper Image Design, a research and idea factory in Marin County, CA, and has assembled a staff of engineers and industrial and packaging designers who create some 15 new products a year, taking them from the drawing board all the way to the factory (usually in China). In addition, existing products continually are tweaked and improved. For example, the first Sharper Image Design product was item #SM605, the Auto Drive Tie Rack for $39.95. It was introduced on the back cover of the December 1993 catalog and has continually been improved over the years. Most recently, an upgraded model was introduced in 1999. Another product that has been improved is the sound machine. Originally it came with a choice of four background noises to lull you to sleep: Surf I, Surf II, Rain and Waterfall. It was later improved to offer a choice of harbor or country noise with the following variations: ship’s horn, buoy bell, loons, church bells, fog horn, dual horn, dove or rooster. Now, you can walk into the bedroom in the dead of winter and thanks to the Digital Sound Soothers X5, you can hear a summer meadow at night complete with crickets. This new model not only includes a clock, radio and alarm, but The Sharper Image has designed a portable model for the traveler.