iSharks Revealed!

For the last month or so, I've been working on a top-secret project for our swim team coaches.

Every year at the league Championships, our coaches dress up in some sort of themed costumes. The theme is always kept quiet until the morning of Champs when the coaches come on deck for the team cheer all dressed up. Everyone on the team—parents included—eagerly awaits the big reveal! One year it was Batman & Robin, another year, it was Ronald McDonald & In 'N Out...you get the picture. Sometimes their costumes coincide with a recent hit movie, or other current theme. Last year, they recruited my help in assembling their "UP" costumes, which seemed to fit the duo perfectly.

This year, they approached me again to assist in the process. They threw some ideas my way, I threw some at them, but nothing seemed quite right. That is, until the new iPhone 4 was released. One of our coaches is a huge iPhone fan, and had parents on deck calling every Apple store within a 100 mile radius trying to track one down. Suddenly, a light went on...they should be iPhones for Champs!

This is a screen shot of my actual phone

Figuring out how to construct a man-size iPhone was no easy task...Plexiglass was too expensive and too heavy. Yet it needed some weight and substance to hang right on their bodies. So we called around to appliance stores, and tracked down a refrigerator box. After covering it in black felt, and wrapping the edges in silver duct tape, the body of it was complete.

Then came the apps! I used some of the real iPhone apps - either recreated in Photoshop or pulled from online sites. Then, I created apps of team-related activities. There was an app for each age group of swimmers, apps with photos of our coaches dressed up from previous meets, apps representing our team special activities (Thursday Thunder & Animal Swim) and a "secret" app for each coach—thought up by the coaches.

I created each app in Photoshop, then printed them out on photo paper and laminated them to withstand splashing and wet hugs on deck. I used a super-strength adhesive to attach them, and crossed my fingers that they would hold.

I attached the fronts and backs together with a strong webbing and staple gun, and put a piece of elastic across each side to keep them from flapping around too much.

I used my Cricut to cut white vinyl for the back. Instead of calling them "iPhones", I aptly named them "iSharks", with the "model" represented by the number of years each coach had been with the team.

It took more hours than I can count to put them together, and I was giddy with excitement the morning of the race to see the big reveal. When they walked out on deck, they had their hands waving in the air "for better reception" and everyone went crazy!

I love projects like this—taking an idea and figuring out how to make it a reality. Now if I could just figure out a way to get paid for it...