Little Viper Pepper Spray Self-Defense Bracelet: News and Customer Reviews
Little Viper Pepper Spray Bracelet
Little Viper Pepper Spray Bracelet
Friday, May 16, 2014
Post Tribune article today, 5/16/14
http://posttrib.suntimes.com/news/27423457-418/local-mom-creates-pepper-spray-bracelet.html#.U3X47_ldWSg
BY KAREN CAFFARINI Post-Tribune correspondent May 15, 2014 10:44AM
Caroline Olah explains the benefits of the Little Viper, a pepper spray, self-defense bracelet, during an appearance on the Steve Harvey show. | Supplied photo
At A Glance
What: Little Viper, a self-defense pepper spray bracelet
Inventor: Caroline Olah, of Lakes of the Four Seasons
Cost: $19.99
Where: They can be bought online at littleviper.com or locally at Phillips Ace Hardware, 3100 Calumet Ave., Valparaiso.
ARTICLE EXTRAS
Updated: May 16, 2014 2:05AM
LAKES OF THE FOUR SEASONS — Caroline Olah has put fashion and function into self-defense.
Olah, a Lakes of the Four Seasons resident, designed and developed a lightweight silicone bracelet that contains three to six bursts of pepper spray, is easy to use and access, and is inexpensive ($19.99 per bracelet) and fashionable so young people won’t mind wearing them.
Her inspiration for the product came from her own experience with her two teenage daughters, Olah said. She took the name from her knowledge of vipers, which are snakes that spit venom and protect their young, she said.
“I always gave each of my daughters a can of pepper spray every time I’d drop them off at the mall or when they’d go out with friends. They’d put it in their sweatshirt or backpack. I thought, ‘If they’re caught off guard, how are they going to get it out?’ ” Olah said.
She brainstormed and drew up a bracelet that she believed would work. She then worked on the design with a CAD operator and researched manufacturer after manufacturer before finding one.
“I knew I wanted the bracelet to be silicone because it works well with joggers. I wanted it to be more fashionable, too,” Olah said.
The adjustable bracelet fits most size wrists and comes in pink or black. Olah, 41, said the bracelets would be good for almost any age but said it would be up to parents’ discretion whether to give one to a young child.
“If you think a child is mature enough to handle it, it would be OK,” she said.
She said she tested the product over and over again and it doesn’t matter which way one puts the bracelet on, or if it turns to inside the wrist, one can’t accidentally spray herself.
And unlike vipers spitting their poisonous venom, the bracelet’s pepper spray will cause choking, coughing and an intense burning sensation that is designed to affect an attacker long enough to run away, but it won’t kill the attacker.
Olah said the product was launched in July. She said it’s made overseas, but Olah, her husband Jason and daughters Claire, 16, and Grace, 12, put them together in their home.
The bracelet is catching on. Olah was featured with other inventors and their products on a segment of the Steve Harvey TV show that was taped in March and aired April 7.
The Little Viper can be bought online at littleviper.com and locally at Phillips Ace Hardware, 3100 Calumet Ave., Valparaiso.
“They’re selling pretty well here. I had some people looking at them today,” Keri Miller, marketing manager at Phillips Ace, said one recent day.
She said the store tries to sell items made and developed by local residents. The Little Vipers are near the registers with other pepper spray and self-defense items, Miller said.
Olah said she is scaling back on her work as a career consultant to work more on her first invention. She would like to create a leather version and is trying to get more of a presence in the retail market.
“That could take awhile,” she said.
Thursday, May 15, 2014
Friday, May 2, 2014
New article written about the Little Viper!
http://www.xojane.com/fun/little-viper-pepper-spray-bracelet
Cute story alert: When I moved to the mad, bad, rad city of Los Angeles as a wee 20-year-old, my nervous father started sending me a check for $35.00 every month, begging me to please, please use it to valet park whenever I was alone by myself at night. I never did use the money for his intended purpose, because behold: I am the cheapest babe in the whole damn valley. Paying for parking is pure insanity, and I'll drive around the block seventeen times and walk down the sketchiest side streets known to man in order to save myself five bucks. Every single time.
It has recently started to cross my mind that this is maybe not the smartest life plan, but instead of starting to splash out for valet parking, I did what any thinking girl would: invested $19.99 in a simple-looking black bracelet called the Little Viper.
It's an 8.5" long rubber bracelet with three adjustable snaps that just so happens to also house a miniature tube of pepper spray. You can wear it whenever you feel like you might be in a dangerous situation, as simply depressing both sides of the canister releases a burst of oleoresin capsicum (which is legal in all 50 states). It comes in both pink and black, but I like the black best because you can play it off as a fashion accessory.
So I was minding my own business last week, waiting for a friend at a bar in Hollywood (wearing my Little Viper bracelet, of course, as I had just walked six blocks from a residential neighborhood that allows overnight parking) when I suddenly found myself tackled from behind. I instantly thought of activating my bracelet but then remembered I was in a busy bar, not alone on the street, and that pepper spraying someone in the face might be considered an overreaction in that situation.
I whipped around and the look of shock on the dude's face immediately told me the whole story. He instantly apologized and said, "Oh, my god, I thought you were someone else! I'm so sorry!" I laughed and said, "Well, she must be real pretty then!" He smiled and moved on, dramatically bowing and scraping as he did.
About an hour later, the same guy walked by the table I was at with a foxy blonde on his arm and waved goodbye to me. I waved back and then leaned forward to tell my dining companions the story of "that guy" almost getting pepper sprayed by me. Would you like to guess what they said?
"That's Jonah Hill, you idiot. Don't you work in Hollywood?"
"That's Jonah Hill, you idiot. Don't you work in Hollywood?"
They were right, of course. Both about it being Jonah AND about me being a clueless idiot when it comes to celeb sightings. But one thing I wasn't wrong about is my Little Viper purchase. I keep it in my glove box, (but be careful doing so if temps in your area reach over 120 degrees or below -5 degrees) and anytime I've had to go out by myself at night or know I'll be walking alone a bit, I pull it out and wear it. It's made me a tad less anxious and a little more aware of my surroundings, which is never a bad thing. The only problem is that I'm now kind of just looking for any excuse to pepper spray some lecherous creep -- even if it winds up being poor, sweet Jonah Hill.
I'm on Twitter: @IveyAlison.
A POSTSCRIPT: Immediately after writing this, I headed out to my local garden store, where I could have sworn I saw one of my BFFs in the dirt aisle. I of course marched up, hit her on the shoulder, and said, "Boo, you whore!" At which point the lady in question turned around and revealed herself as not actually being my pal at all. I made sure to take a minute after that embarrassing debacle to thank my lucky stars she hadn't yet heard of the Little Viper -- and armed herself!
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