Corrie Wilder of Bellmore and Yelena Mogelefsky of Merrick met six years ago on the Long Island Railroad while on their commute from Manhattan. They became close friends and started taking their children to mommy and me gym classes. One day, while at the gym, Corrie’s daughter had a temper tantrum when she was told that she had to wear gripper socks over her tights so that she wouldn’t slip and fall. “They don’t match my outfit,” her daughter cried. Corrie said to Yelena after the outburst, “We have to make these so this doesn’t ever happen again!”

Corrie and Yelena refer to the temper tantrum as a “girly girl gym fashion freakout” and began doing some investigation on their own in the sock aisles of local retailers and discovered that while many children’s socks came with non-skid bottoms, there were no girls tights manufactured with non-skid soles.

“We needed to create an aftermarket [gripper] that you can put on any type of hosiery,” Carrie says and Yelena added, “We couldn’t believe it wasn’t out there already.”

Corrie and Yelena learned by doing their own research how to make a product and then take it to market. “We got a patent pending without a lawyer,” Corrie says proudly. “We did every thing on our own,” Yelena says. The women became Long Island “mompreneurs” and are now ready to help other women launch their products.

Corrie and Yelena envision a center where women can do research and development of their product while their children play. “If you have an idea, bring it to us,” says Corrie. “We think you can be your own product developer. We can help you connect from patent to market.”

“We started with Grippies for use after market and then we created our own line of tights,” Corrie says. She used her skills as a graphic designer and created the Grippie product packaging. She wasn’t content to make the packaging just look attractive, Corrie did a lot of research on biodegradable materials and chemicals and made sure that the packaging is environmentally safe. “Everything is recyclable and is BPA, lead and phylate free,” Corrie says proudly. Grippies retail for $5.99 for 24 pieces, and come in a variety of shapes and are packaged in two styles: iron on or peel and stick. Tights retail for $6.99 and have received the National Parenting Center Seal of Approval.

Corrie, who was an art director for a large magazine, now works from home and said, “I wouldn’t trade it for the world.” Yelena, who works in product development for a sportswear company, travels internationally for her job and used her business acumen to find a factory in Taiwan that manufactures Grippies.

Even with their different work and home lives, you can see the deep bond between the women and their commitment to their product and to helping others in their success. They even got their husbands involved. Yelena’s husband, Evan, is now their head of sales. Corrie’s husband, Mark, helps with their marketing.

In the near future, they have plans to expand the Grippie line to include adult sock grippers. “This started out as a kid’s product and then we were asked, ‘why don’t you make an adult version?’”, Yelena says.

Corrie and Yelena began selling Grippies nationally in all Target stores across the US as part of Target’s Parent Innovator program. Corrie has advice for how to deal with the perceived anonymity of big box stores and says, “Target is a big company, but it’s made of single people like us. If you’re ignored, it’s by a person not by a machine.” She believes that if you are tenacious you will succeed. “We are in talks to get on their [Target] sock wall now,” Yelena says with confidence. Grippies are also available online at www.BuyBuyBaby.com and www.BedBathandBeyond.com.

There are no rules for becoming a “mompreneur” and Corrie recalled the first time they had to ante up seed money for their joint venture, “Friends being partners? This is scary.” But it worked, and both their friendship and work relationship has blossomed. “This just brings it all together for me,” Corrie says.

For more information call 516-660-8181 or email cwilder@grippliesonline.com, ymogeleksky@grippiesonline.com or go to www.grippiesonline.com

If you know a super woman who deserves good Fortune—and a profile—e-mail your nominations to Beverly at bfortune@longislandpress.com.