Local startup ZipSip has an important new patent in hand, has rolled out a new product and is taking up new space near Wichita as CEO Lacie Leatherman guides the company into a busy 2022.
The business, which she started in 2019, makes a beverage sleeve designed to fit around virtually any container.
“It’s the only product in the country that will fit anything at a tailgate,” she says.
Leatherman ended 2021 with a big boost, having finally been granted a utility patent on ZipSip that officially makes her the owner of the intellectual property on the product.
And, she says, she’s even already sent her first cease-and-desist letter defending that IP.
Leatherman was at a trade show in Atlanta this week concurrent with the rollout of the newest offering from ZipSip, which is under the Sip Brands division of her LML Ventures LLC.
That product is a larger version designed to fit Ball Stadium Cups — recyclable aluminum cups that are growing in popularity at event venues
“I believe these infinitely recyclable cups are going to be in all the stadiums across the country in a couple of years,” she says. “And we really want to follow them in [to the venues].”
After having previously lined up licensing deals with Wichita State University, Kansas State University and the University of Kansas, Leatherman says she hopes to add as many more collegiate licensing deals as possible.
She is also investigating licensing deals with professional sports leagues.
That’s all translating to growth and hiring for the company, which she says is now up to 11 people when combining full-time employees and contract workers.
“We’ll probably need a couple more here in the next quarter,” Leatherman says.
That’s also led to a change of address — though it’s one she expects to be temporary.
ZipSip has taken a one-year lease on space in a former church in her hometown of Mulvane, just south of Wichita.
It’s a short term, she says, because she’s confident she will outgrow that space in the next 12 months.
And while she says she is willing to look elsewhere locally for new space when she needs it, her hope is to keep ZipSip in Mulvane in the future.
“Someone told me once that I couldn’t build a million-dollar business out of Mulvane,” Leatherman says. “I’ve just said ‘watch me.’”
