The Story of HDS MEDALLION®
Our story begins with our mother, Hazel Della Snodgrass, pictured above on her 100th birthday. And yes, that’s her real name. A feisty character born in 1907, she was fiercely independent and always well put together. As a senior, she was amazingly healthy, alert and mobile. At 99½, she broke her hip and everything changed.
After rehabilitation, she moved to an assisted living facility. Worst of all in her view, she was stuck with an ugly, medicinal looking, metal walker. She resented all aspects of it and was frustrated at not being able to carry her things in a stylish purse. .jpg)
Her daughters, Sharon and Carol, searched for a walker bag or mobility bag she would like, but none were found that she was willing to carry. Eventually, Sharon designed and made Mom the first of several walker bags with style and flair (center picture top of page). See how stylish she looked at 101 with her last HDS MEDALLION® Bag.
Naturally her friends with walkers, scooters or power chairs wanted bags as well. Mom’s friend, Ruby (pictured on the left) loved being one of the first to try out the bags. She now owns three. Soon the entire facility was full of ladies with lovely, fashionable bags, thanks to Sharon. All were gifts to the ladies.
Carol observed the ladies’ enthusiasm and devotion to their walker bags and the practical advantage of carrying personal items more easily and in a safer way. She conducted a focus group to find out what the women thought of their bags. What fun that was! They certainly had opinions and ideas and were as thrilled with the bright, cheerful colors as they were with the bags’ functionality. But the real hook for Carol was the way the women voiced over and over how the bags lifted their spirits, made them feel good and they loved the compliments.
Additionally, many of the current bags’ features came from this informal test group of Mom and her friends. Her best friends, Jessie, Joyce and Norma, (Mom’s friends shown below) continued to share their experiences with the bags they carried every day for over two years every time we visited.
Recognizing the opportunity to serve other fashion conscious women using mobility aids, Carol and her husband, Bill, started building a company to manufacture and market the bags that opened online on April 15, 2011. Sharon continues to design all HDS MEDALLION® Bags as an independent designer. Check out her creative designs in our available bags . To learn more about the company, Carol and Bill, go to Our Company.
What we have discovered as the business came alive was how many more categories of people can use our bags beyond seniors, whether it be a 13 year old girl with cerebral palsy, a 35+ year old recovering from an injury and resulting surgery to her ankle, a dying friend who used the bag to hold her GI bag, a woman with a spinal cord injury, one with MS, and so on. Young moms are putting them on strollers saving themselves from diving under the stroller time and time again. Another customer uses her bag on a cane-chair whenever she is vacationing.
We are so pleased at the applications people have discovered beyond walkers and seniors especially the disabled. We've spent the last six months designing and producing our new Premier Bags just for disabled women. They too deserve a psychological lift of being fashionable while receiving great functionality. These bags work on a very large variety of mobility aids including wheelchairs.
The HDS (Mom’s initials) was added to our name to honor her. Although Mom died at 102 in 2010, we believe she would be very pleased with our name and the products she inspired and her daughters' roles. She was a strong Texas woman who raised two talented women.
So honor your mom, grandmother, aunt, friend, daughter or loved one with an authentic HDS MEDALLION® Bag. Or treat yourself!
