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What was you doing at 15 year old?


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the ninth-grade entrepreneur set to become a millionaire after the world - including Macy's - fell in love with her light-up 'Fish Flops'
  • Madison Robinson came up with the design for her sea-creature-adorned flip-flops with LED lights aged just eight
  • Every store buyer she has approached has placed an order for Fish Flops
  • She has now made enough money to put herself through college

By Daily Mail Reporter

PUBLISHED: 17:23, 3 June 2013 | UPDATED: 23:56, 3 June 2013

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At the age of 15, most girls are just learning about fashion. But Madison Robinson is already on track to becoming a millionaire thanks to an ingenious design for light-up flip-flops for kids.

The teenager, from Galveston Island, Texas, came up with the idea for Fish Flops at the age of just eight.

With the help of her father, Dan, and some 'friends and family financing' she was able to turn her drawings into product samples and sell the idea to retailers at trade fairs.

And it seems retailers themselves can't get enough of the brightly-colored footwear. Already more than 30 stores have placed orders including national powerhouses Nordstrom and Macy's.

 
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Teenage dream: Madison Robinson, 15, from Galveston Island, Texas, is already on track to becoming a millionaire thanks to an ingenious design for light-up flip-flops for kids

She told My Fox Houston: 'It's exciting. I didn't think [Fish Flops] would come all the way this far. I thought they would just stay in boutiques, but now they're in Nordstrom.'

She reveals that she made the initial approach to the retailer herself by letter, and created a series of custom designs that could be sold in stores across the U.S.

 

Now she is doing the same for Macy's, after buyers asked her to make a line for adult women.

The shoes sell for around $25 a pair, and, just two years since the company's official launch, over 60,000 pairs have sold, making for retail sales of at least $1.2 million.

 
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Flash of color: Fish Flops feature LED lights in the soles, making them popular with young beachgoers

 

Each pair comes with a tag bearing Madison's photo and a message explaining how her idea was born.

'I didn't think they would come this far. I thought they would just stay in boutiques, but now they're in Nordstrom'

'In 2006, I had an idea to make flip flops that showed my love for swimming, fishing and drawing,' it reads. ' I hope you wear them, love them and share them with your friends and I hope they make you smile.'

Madison, who will start 10th grade next fall, is involved in every step of the Fish Flops business.

She draws all of her own designs and chooses color combinations digitally, but has also learned how to pack shipments, stock the warehouse, explain her pricing, host a trade show booth, and make a sales pitch.

But it seems she has a particular aptitude for marketing through social media.

 
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Hands-on: Madison draws all of her own designs and chooses color combinations, but has also learned how to pack shipments, stock the warehouse, host a tradeshow booth, and make a sales pitch

 
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From me to you: Each pair of Fish Flops comes with a tag bearing Madison's photo and a message explaining to young wearers how her idea was born

Thanks to her Twitter account, she captured the interest of the daughter of Entertainment Tonight host Nancy O'Dell, as well as HSN fitness personality Tony Little.

She admits that her business has helped hone several life skills, such as public speaking, thanks to the experience of explaining her product at industry expos and making presentations to stone-faced department store buyers.

She has also learned patience. The worst part of business, Madison says, is 'waiting for stores to decide' if they want her goods on their shelves.

And Fish Flops has also made her a discerning consumer.

 
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Tried and tested: Madison tries on her creations for size on the beach near her home in Texas

 
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Celebrity status: Madison poses with a young fan in a department store

'When I go shoe shopping now, I look carefully at the quality of the materials,' she says. Fish Flops, she explains, are sturdy and made without punch-out holes in the soles so the straps don't pop out the way they do in generic flip-flops.

Madison has already put away enough profits to cover her college tuition, thanks to her father's wise decision not to allow her to spend them just yet.

'My Dad won't let me touch the money,' she admits. 'It's for college.'

The high-schooler says she plans to study business in college, and already has grand plans beyond Fish Flops.

'Eventually I want to do something by myself,' she says.

 

 

madting

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Everyday I read these stories with more and more scepticism.

I certainly know of 2 cases where this sort of thing was the marketing plan, but far from the truth.

Now every other new product/fad needs a child genius entrepreneur-supreme to sell it

:/

disclaimer:- yes i wish it was me that had invented the colourful flip-flop :/ :/ :/

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When I was 15 I was shotting and getting into this crazy new thing called "Emceeing" over "Eski" or whatever we called it.

 

Also studying. I feel like her dad would have played a big fucking part in this to be honest, but then again I have siblings that age who are on cash and as I remember it was the age I wanted to start getting money at aswell so who knows.

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Drinking on the rooftop of the shops tryna get brain, smokish hash, mcing to beats on my sony T610, missioning across the city to spit on sets, fighting every week, slitting my eyebrows, s-curling my hair, GCSEs, fingering lighties in u18s raves, eating pure cheap takeways, proud to be at the back - top deck, staying up all night on the phone to beanies, happily watching channel U all evening,  trying not to get nanked and robbed in foreign postcodes while linking these hoes off facepic/msn/rwdforum,  banging out need for speed, thinking I was gonna make it pro, saving for my ped, looking up to the wrong people,trying to find this weeks' house party.

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Drinking on the rooftop of the shops tryna get brain, smokish hash, mcing to beats on my sony T610, missioning across the city to spit on sets, fighting every week, slitting my eyebrows, s-curling my hair, GCSEs, fingering lighties in u18s raves, eating pure cheap takeways, proud to be at the back - top deck, staying up all night on the phone to beanies, happily watching channel U all evening,  trying not to get nanked and robbed in foreign postcodes while linking these hoes off facepic/msn/rwdforum,  banging out need for speed, thinking I was gonna make it pro, saving for my ped, looking up to the wrong people,trying to find this weeks' house party.

 

This basically

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Drinking on the rooftop of the shops tryna get brain, smokish hash, mcing to beats on my sony T610, missioning across the city to spit on sets, fighting every week, slitting my eyebrows, s-curling my hair, GCSEs, fingering lighties in u18s raves, eating pure cheap takeways, proud to be at the back - top deck, staying up all night on the phone to beanies, happily watching channel U all evening,  trying not to get nanked and robbed in foreign postcodes while linking these hoes off facepic/msn/rwdforum,  banging out need for speed, thinking I was gonna make it pro, saving for my ped, looking up to the wrong people,trying to find this weeks' house party.

 

why did you increase your font?

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Drinking on the rooftop of the shops tryna get brain, smokish hash, mcing to beats on my sony T610, missioning across the city to spit on sets, fighting every week, slitting my eyebrows, s-curling my hair, GCSEs, fingering lighties in u18s raves, eating pure cheap takeways, proud to be at the back - top deck, staying up all night on the phone to beanies, happily watching channel U all evening,  trying not to get nanked and robbed in foreign postcodes while linking these hoes off facepic/msn/rwdforum,  banging out need for speed, thinking I was gonna make it pro, saving for my ped, looking up to the wrong people,trying to find this weeks' house party.

 

why did you increase your font?

 

Mizchif did that. 

 

Ay when's the next volume of msn slags?

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