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Hitting The Motherlode Lily Winnail Finds Success With Padalily
www.TodaysCharlotteWomanMag.com | May 2015 12
o an outsider, Lily Winnail’s life may sound a bit charmed. The creator of the Padalily® — a baby product that just reached $2 million in sales — is also an inventor, an actress, a wife and a mother, and she has traveled the world. But Winnail wasn’t born into such a glorious life; she made it happen. Winnail grew up one of five children in a small town in eastern Canada, with parents who were devoted to a strict religious order that shielded Lily and her siblings from popular culture such as mainstream music, movies or television. They didn’t have a lot of money, but Lily’s mother was always working to earn extra income, and she passed on her “can do” spirit to Lily. “We lived in a pretty repressed area, but I would collect empty beer bottles and beer cans, return them to the local store for the recycling fee and use that fee to buy candy,”
Winnail says. “Then I would take the candy to school and sell it to kids for a profit. I made pretty good money for a little girl!” Winnail earned her degree at a U.S. college, met her husband, traveled the world as a flight attendant and had three children. In 2007, after giving birth to her third child, son Blake, she was struck by the idea for the Padalily® — a fashionable and functional cushion that wraps around the handle on infant car seats, providing 360-degree comfort. The item can be customized in over 20 fabric choices. She was at the post office with her two older daughters, a package to mail in one arm and the heavy car seat in the crook of her other arm, when the ah ha! moment hit. “As my arm became sore from the car-seat handle digging into me, the idea struck,” she says. “My love for designer fabrics and all things handsewn brought my first prototype into
existence that very same day — scrap fabric and stuffing make very cute Padalilies, too!” She adds, “I went home, did a little research and discovered that nothing like this existed in the marketplace.” A talented seamstress, she sewed 300 prototypes, which she sold out of her son’s stroller at the park. “Sometimes, I just gave them away to women in the grocery store parking lot who looked like they were struggling with the pain of carrying a heavy car seat,” she says. “Complete strangers were so supportive.” One day, she gathered her courage, walked into Mud Pie Monograms & Gifts in Blakeney, and sold her first boutique order. Three years later, Padalily® became profitable. Winnail’s timing couldn’t have been more auspicious. Her husband lost his job just as her business was taking off. “It was a wonderful feeling to be able to support my family with my idea,” she says.