Heide Lasher will add a bit of sparkle to next week’s historic presidential inauguration in Washington.
Lasher designed two lapel pins that received official sanction from President-elect Barack Obama’s inaugural committee. Colorado Democrats will distribute Lasher’s pins during inauguration parties in Washington and Denver.
“I never would have imagined it would have gotten as big as it has, or that the concept would have kept growing like it has,” said the Denver jewelry designer, who sold rhinestone-studded Obama pins on the 16th Street Mall during the Democratic National Convention in August.
Lasher is one of a handful of Colorado businesspeople making money from the inauguration. Also turning history into green are a Fort Lupton maker of crowd-control equipment that received a last-minute order for retractable belt stanchions and a Denver entrepreneur who opened a 6,000-square-foot T-shirt and trinket store less than two blocks from the parade route.
“I think people are going to be buying in volume because it’s historic. They’ll be buying 20 to 30 items for friends and family,” said Bahman Shafa, whose Denver-based Focus Sports sells merchandise at sporting and other special events around the country. “It’s going to be huge.”
For Doug Aden, owner of BSI-Crowd Control in Fort Lupton, involvement in the inauguration came as a surprise last week. A customer called and asked if he could produce and deliver 200 stanchions — like the ones used in Denver International Airport’s security lines — in one week.
He said yes, hung up the phone and hoped he hadn’t made a mistake.
“In today’s economy, you don’t want to turn anything down, so I said we’d figure out a way,” he said.
Aden, four workers and his two sons scrambled to clear existing orders and complete the inaugural order in two days, finishing Tuesday. The deal added $20,000 in sales at an uncertain time, he said.
Lasher began working on Obama-related pin designs nearly a year ago when she learned the DNC was coming to Denver. Her boyfriend-partner, Ken Toltz, a marketing consultant with ties to the local Democratic Party, helped her license Obama’s campaign logo and secure permits to sell on the mall during the convention.
Sales took off, so Lasher made more designs and launched a website, obama-bling.com, where pins sell for $8 to $100. Last month, Toltz helped her get official approval to use the inaugural logo in two pin designs.
The local Democratic Party ordered 1,000 of the pins to use for fundraising at inaugural galas in Washington and Denver next week, Toltz said.
Lasher said she plans to grow the business and won’t cater only to Democrats.
“Republicans like rhinestones too,” she said. “They’re half my customer base.”
Greg Griffin: 303-954-1241 or ggriffin@denverpost.com
