Tampa cop tinkers clip for socks

Don't you hate looking in a drawer for a favorite pair of socks and finding they got separated? Rich O'Connor believes he has the solution, though it took a while to get it right.

The Tampa Police sergeant is marketing Sock Cop, a small plastic clip resembling a handcuff. His fledgling company, Riverview-based OCON USA Inc., has several other patents in the pipeline, but he says he'd like to generate a profit from this particular invention before advancing the others.

“I saw a particular need for this, but I knew if I was going to do it I had to do it right,” O'Connor tells Coffee Talk. He says he perfected the clip over the last six years since he started tinkering with the idea in his garage, starting out with melted-down shower curtain hooks that turned out to be too weak to endure the heat of clothes dryers.

O'Connor and his wife, Susan, sell their Sock Cop clips online at $9.99 for a pack of 20, available in six colors (including black and white). He estimates selling 20,000 units annually, but orders them 5,000 at a time from a manufacturer in Pennsylvania so he doesn't get overwhelmed with inventory.

Having invested tens of thousands of dollars over the years in molds and machines, he figures he's now breaking even on Sock Cop. The biggest challenge so far, he says, has been warding off attempts to steal the product's clever name.

Sock Cop has received plenty of media exposure so far, having been featured on HGTV's “I Want That!” program and ABC's “Good Morning America.” It also has distribution through The Container Store, a national retailer, and O'Connor says he was close to a deal with Linens 'n Things before those stores shut down two years ago.

For now, O'Connor gives priority to his day job, which entails Tampa Police working with U.S. Marshals to track down felons. That's still more important than errant socks.