Two Gisborne blokes are hoping to take on Kim Kardashian in a battle of the back-lit mobile phone cases developed for selfie-lovers.
Former police officer Mark Ainsworth recruited his long-time gym buddy Matthew Goss to develop MirraMirra – a new iPhone 6 case with a slide-out mirror complete with backlighting and ‘mood’ lighting.
The slim-fit, durable case uses an app to control the strength and colour of lighting emitted from the phone’s screen for the perfect selfie.
Small LED lights around the mirror provide sufficient light for applying or improving makeup.
The device was designed to rival a similar product created by celebrity Kim Kardashian, which sells for almost $A100 in the US.
Mr Ainsworth said it had taken more than 18 months to perfect the prototype, which was launched in Toronto last week.
He said the idea came up over coffee in a Gisborne cafe. “I was sitting there with my mate Darren Storace, who’s a chippee, brainstorming ideas for a business,” Mr Ainsworth said.
“We saw a woman sitting in The Corner Cafe trying to apply makeup using the front camera on her iPhone. Women struggling to do a face check in selfie cameras, window reflections and even the mirror effect from a knife is what sparked the idea.”
Mr Storace later went on to pursue other ideas then Mr Goss joined the team and now drives marketing remotely from his home in Canada. The case can be dropped from 2.5 metres without breaking, will fit the iPhone 6 and 6s models and comes in rose gold, marble and black varieties.
“We’re targeting the woman who spends a lot on makeup and has hundreds of selfies stored on her phone,” Mr Ainsworth said.
“We wanted to create a go-to solution attached to our most attached possession, our cell phone. It’s a basic idea that fills a need.
“We involved a team of beauty bloggers, focus groups and a female-led media team to vet every angle of this project to make sure we nailed it. And we feel we did.”
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