Yak About It > Yak Nation > January 25, 2010

January 25, 2010

The Wine Diaper.

If you're like me, you like to travel and drink wine. And buy wine. And bring it back home in your suitcase. But wine can break, and you

lose not only the bottle--but more importantly--often stain all of your clothing. With that in mind, I came up with a new product to prevent this from happening.

The Wine Diaper is a reusable air-tight zip-locked bag that is lined with the same material found in baby diapers!

The bag cushions and protects your wine, but in case of accidental breakage while in-flight, the diaper material will rapidly absorb up any liquids so that none of your clothing or valuables are ruined.

The whole idea was born years ago by one of our founders, Angie Cucco. As the saying goes, necessity is the mother of all inventions, and that was true in this case, too. In her younger years, Angie did a lot of Trans-Atlantic traveling between Italy and the United States. As a young globetrotter, she couldn't afford to bring back much in the way of souvenirs, certainly not those Prada shoes that were always calling her name, but as with most post-adolescents, there was always money enough for alcohol! So for gifts, for memories, just for drinking?she brought back a lot of wine.

The problem was that despite her best efforts, the wine didn't always survive the flight home. Whether it was the rough handling of the bags, or the pressure in the flight, bottles were often sadly discovered smashed when the bags were opened up back in Michigan, and worse than the loss of the drink was the loss in fine Italian clothing! (Or Gap jeans.) So Angie pondered: what would protect her precious bottles? Was she doomed to no longer smuggle the alcohol abroad?

Then one day when flipping through travel magazines, she came across a letter from a woman who said that she always wrapped her breakables in baby diapers to help protect them. Baby Diapers? What an ingenious idea! Not only would the diapers cushion her wines, but if they broke, chances are the diapers would absorb up the liquid. After all, wasn't that what they were supposed to do? So Angie experimented with this for some years, and it worked rather well!

Over the years, however, she began to wonder: what if the diapers could be made into different packaging, so that you could slip the bottle of wine inside, and protect it even better? She bought some diapers, cut them up, tried this out, but had little success. In the meantime, she got married, had kids, began working, the Wine Diaper was forgotten as other more pressing issues got in the way.

And then one rainy night many years later, she was sitting around the table with her husband and some friends, and brought up her failed attempts at creating the Ultimate Wine Diaper. She figured they'd scoff at such a silly idea, but her story was met with unbridled enthusiasm! The Wine Diaper?? It's genius! It's wonderful! Why hasn't anyone thought of that? Let's make it!

And the rest is history.

Inventor: Angie Cucco

Angie Cucco, the inventor, spent much of her youth traveling back and forth between Italy and the United States. After college, she moved there—leading tours, teaching English…until she met her husband Marco and moved back the U.S. permanently. In her day job, she works for Google as an advertising strategist.

Of course, the company doesn't consist of Angie alone. She could never have made the Wine Diaper without the help of her team. And true to the idea being born from travels between Italy and USA, the team consists of Italians and Americans. The rest of the Wine Diaper squad is:

Marco Cucco: Angie's husband from Torino, Italy, who, when not enjoying Juventus soccer, heads up the Wine Diaper's sales and marketing efforts, which he employs based on his years of experience in that camp.

Carmine Capo: Another Italian and Renaissance Man from Florence, Italy, Carmine is our CPA, when he is not teaching himself to play sonatas on the piano.

Dan Gardner: The last of our team is another American. A former engineer specializing in the non-woven diaper material, he brings the technical expertise to the table.

When first trying to put together a mock-up of the Wine Diaper, Marco actually went out, bought a sewing machine, and tried to sew cut up baby diapers together. Having never actually used a sewing machine before, the results, let’s say, were less than successful!!

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Wine Diapers (Includes 3)

Angie says:
Jan 27, 2010 at 10:58 am

Hi guys, You can't wring it out and reuse the wine--sorry! This is meant as a protection for your clothing and valuables when carrying wine in your suitcase...sometimes bottles break under the pressure, and absorbing the liquid will save all of those … more white shirts!

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Fra says:
Jan 27, 2010 at 4:10 am

Must have

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Cletel says:
Jan 27, 2010 at 12:10 am

I agree with Bill. Being able to wring it out is key. Have these been tested for human use? Seems the price point is much cheaper than normal diapers and being able to wring it out and save the leavings would be great.

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ale says:
Jan 26, 2010 at 4:26 pm

Killer Idea!!!

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Bill says:
Jan 25, 2010 at 12:58 pm

Can the "diaper" be wrung out into another container to save the wine too?

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The KAZ e KUP® is a universal cup holder insert that fits into, and improves existing cup holders found in cars, trucks, boats, golf carts, exercise equipment, RV’s, and more.

The KAZ e KUP® quickly transforms your current cup holders to allow them to securely hold a much larger variety of beverages including the BIG fountain sodas, coffees, frozen drinks, sport drinks, and many other otherwise hard to carry beverages.

The KAZ e KUP’s unique design also allows it to catch spills, drips, and condensation and store them in its self-contained reservoir for later cleanup.

Dishwasher safe makes cleaning the KAZ e KUP® easy and fast.

As a frequent traveler and former commuter, I always seemed to have had a beverage in my car. Many times my cup of coffee spilled and made a mess of my cup holder, my car, or even worse, me. One day I designed a ducted taped mock- up of what I thought could make my coffee’s “to go” less messy. Once the mock-up was completed, I quickly realized that my prototype, (now called the KAZ e KUP®), actually converted my car’s cup holder so that it could hold just about every size drink. I decided to have a rapid prototype created and took it on the road with me, trying it in every rental car I drove. I was amazed at how many cup holders it made work better. I found that many existing cup holders would not hold a sports drink or large beverage until I placed the KAZ e KUP® in it. In 2004, I decided to “go for it” and filed my patent application. I then went ahead and had the KAZ e KUP® mass produced. I now spend much of my time learning about marketing so I can find better ways to spread the news about my product. I guess you can say the real work has just begun.

Inventor: Steve Kazyaka, often called “Kaz” by my friends (Hence the KAZ e KUP®).

For 20 years, I was a technical sales manager and designer in the vinyl window and door industry. I left that career behind in 2006 and have been happily self-employed ever since. I spend much of my time pursuing distribution opportunities for my inventions as well as for fellow inventor’s products.

The KAZ e KUP® was originally designed as an improvement to existing cup holders but shortly after its introduction to the marketplace we developed an accessory package allowing you to add a clamp, beach pole, or magnet to the KAZ e KUP® and use it anywhere.

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KAZ e KUP®

Barbara says:
Jan 30, 2010 at 3:46 pm

While trailering my boat, the originally installed cup holder blew out. I was thrilled to find that the Kazekup fit perfectly into the empty hole and holds my drinks securely.

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Robert says:
Jan 29, 2010 at 8:22 pm

Looks like a needed addition to every car.

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Kaz says:
Jan 27, 2010 at 4:15 pm

Hi Lori, Thanks for the feedback and question. For harder grounds like that found around a soccer field, I would recommend using the KAZ e STAKE™ Camping Stake. This is basically an oversized plastic tent stake that pushes into these harder grounds. … more The KAZ e KUP® then easily slips right on top of it. Thanks again for your feedback.

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Linda says:
Jan 27, 2010 at 2:35 pm

I love this product. I have an hour commute to work and just about everyday spilled coffee on my console. Not anymore,now at the end of the week I just put the Kaz e Kup in the dishwasher and I am good to go. No More Mess!!

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Lori says:
Jan 26, 2010 at 9:24 am

Great idea, especially the sand pole idea can that also be stuck in the ground say at a soccer match? The accessories look like they make it functional on many levels. You may want to promote the accessories a little more, they open a whole new market, … more beach goers, boaters, vacationers. Good luck.

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