Small Business Stories - Heads Up

Ivy Hartman: Welcome to SBTV dot com's coverage of the SEMA Show 2008 in Las Vegas. I would like to introduce Scott Draizin who is the President of Heads Up Industries. Welcome so Small Business Television, Scott. Tell us what Heads Up Industry does or what products you have? Scott Draizin: Heads Up manufactures 'Do It Yourself Headliner replacement kits.' Basically what a Headliner is, is the fabric that's above your head in your car and a lot of times the headliner just starts to sag. Ivy Hartman: You mentioned to me off camera, it seems like eventually every headliner needs to be replaced. Is that what you are finding to be true? Scott Draizin: Every car built in from 1974 to forward will eventually need a headliner. It's just not a mater of if, if it's a matter of when? Ivt Hartman: How cost effective is this because what's the alternative versus doing it yourself? Scott Draizin: Well you can bring it to an Upholstery shop and have them do it and generally speaking it's gonna be $150 to $200 to replace a headliner. You can go to your local Pep Boys or Autozone and pick up a headliner kit for around $39. Ivy Hartman: Cool, talk about starting the Heads Up Industries' business and then how it grew to be in the Pep Boys and Autozone and then you know the marketplace? Scott Draizin: You know that was a great story. It actually started with my brother and myself. My brother Tyne and I had headliners that were coming down and there was nobody out there to fix it. This was about 12 years ago, and I fixed my headliner, and it was, kind of, simple. So I did mu next door neighbors, they needed it and they needed it and the next thing, we are installing headliners. So we started doing dealerships and it was so simple, that we said, you know what there's gotta be other people that need these products, so we went in and - we are based out of Fort Lauderdale, Florida. And there was a company Discount Auto Parts, which is now Advanced Auto Parts, and there was a buyer there and he called us in, and said listen we are interested in a product and that's how Heads Up was born. Ivy Hartman: Talk about how the product works? Scott Draizin: Basically, most headliners come down because the insulation on the back of the headliner starts coming apart. And if you try and re-glue it, usually it doesn't stick. What need you to do is just take the headliner out of the car, which is very simple, it's velcroed up and you take the dome light up and the sun blazers, and the roof comes right out of the car. You clean off the old foam, lay down the new headliner material which we provide and use our quick fix headliner adhesive. You glue it up, trim it and pop it back up there. If you didn't know how to do it, it will take about an hour. Ivy Hartman: Really, and it is applicable to any model car? Scott Draizin: Absolutely universal. Ivy Hartman: So being here at the SEMA Show, what has that done for Heads Up Industries? Scott Draizin: You know I have been coming to the SEMA Show for ten years now and it's always been great. It's great to be in touch with your buyers. It's great to have your product out there and just mingle with who you are dealing with. Ivy Hartman: You got new products? Scott Draizin: Sure, I do. Ivy Hartman: What else, tell us about those? Scott Draizin: Gladly. We have one product now called Liquid Seat Cover which is basically a spray on seat cover. It's a cross between a fabric protectant and an anti-odor. Ivy Hartman: This is it, really? So the idea is how many often -- do I have to clean it and then apply this and how often do you apply it? I mean what - Scott Draizin: You apply it once. It lasts about six months. It kills bacteria for up to six months. So you car's interior doesn't smell and the nice part about it is if you spill a cup of coffee on it like I did on my shirt earlier, it won't stick. So you can soak it right up. Ivy Hartman: Wow, that's sweet. So how do you do your research and development for new products like this? Do you do it in-house or outsource and how does that work? Scott Draizin: No basically we do it in-house. I think, one of the nice part about Heads Up Industries is, and the fact that we have got great people at work with us, we are always coming up with ideas that we think we would use, so that's how we came about - Ivy Hartman: Now you are in [Indiscernible] what's your background in this? Is it in the automotive industry so that you started this or - Scott Draizin: No, no. no, this was just; we started it just by luck, by chance. Ivy Hartman: But your headliners are fine up, but were you an automotive enthusiast or was this your everyday car that you just had to - Scott Draizin: We came from a small town and there wasn't a lot of places to fix things, so we had to fix it ourselves. Ivy Hartman: Perfect, if we want to get the product, you mentioned we can get it at some retailers, but what about finding out more online? Scott Draizin: Sure, you can go into our web site which is headsuponline.com or you can go to JC Whitney or US Auto parts or Eastwood Catalog Company. Ivy Hartman: Perfect, very unique, it's a do it yourself Headliner and then I love this, Liquid seat cover, ha, those are for your kids or pets, thanks for being here with us, Scott Draizin of Heads Up Industries. Scott Hartman: My pleasure, thank you so much. Ivy Hartman: Absolutely, keep it right here as we continue to bring you the new products here at the SEMA Show 2008.