How It All Started | Flight Fillow - Reinventing the Neck Pillow

 

Hi! I’m Georgia Wilson, Founder of Flight Fillow. I’m so glad you landed here!

Flight Fillow is my creative passion, and I never would have thought it would come to life and I’d be here today. This is my story.

 

IT ALL STARTED WHEN… 

I was packing for a weekend trip to New York, and had the age-old internal debate of

“should I? Or should I not bring my neck pillow”?

I wanted the comfort of my neck pillow on the flight but hated the inconvenience of carrying it around. Since it was a short trip I figured I should pack light.

I left my neck pillow at home. 


THE A-HA! MOMENT 

What a terrible decision!

I got on the flight, and my seat was SO uncomfortable. This was a budget airline: It basically felt like sitting on plastic, with no recline, no legroom, not even a real seat-back tray. AND, I had the middle seat.

In-flight beverage or snacks? Yeah, that’ll be $12.

In a desperate effort to make 2 hours not feel like 2 years, I crumpled up my sweater to try to use it as a pillow.

I crumpled one way. Then another. Then another. Just trying to get comfortable. And then I found if I rolled my sweater a certain way, it actually felt similar to my neck pillow. BUT, as soon as my head nodded off it would unroll and I had to start all over again. 

I thought, “This stinks -- I need something to hold this together and keep its shape. Like a sleeve of some kind.” It was a classic ‘there has to be a better way’ moment.

And THAT was the birth of Flight Fillow.

 

GETTING STARTED… 

I came back from my trip and immediately went to the fabric store to make a prototype. I worked with my dad (Papa Flight Fillow!) to sew together this idea.

We tried it out on that same sweater and it worked! I started using it on all my trips.

Pretty soon my friends, family, and strangers next to me on the flights were asking me about it. When I showed it to them they were saying it would be a huge help not only for comfort, but for making extra space in their luggage.

That’s when I realized this was so much more than I originally thought.


FLIGHT FILLOW WAS LAUNCHED TO SERVE A GROWING PROBLEM.

Picture this: It’s almost midnight, and your flight is at 6am -- you’ve spent the last THREE HOURS packing. Your suitcase is stuffed to the brim and just when you think you’ve got everything inside, you zip it shut and spot that hoodie *still* sitting on your bed. UGH -- how are you gonna cram this inside now? Oh my god you’ll have to repack the whole thing. What are you gonna have to swap out to make it fit?

Flight Fillow makes your decision easy -- you don’t have to choose, bring it all!

Flight Fillow turns that extra hoodie, sweater, or jacket into a comfortable travel neck pillow. Simply roll up your garment into the Flight Fillow sleeve, pull out the arms, and BAM -- you just made a neck pillow to keep you comfortable all flight. Wanna add your wallet, headphones, eyemask, and other items? Go for it! Flight Fillow expands as big or as little as you desire. It’s like having an extra carry-on that the airline WON’T charge you for!

Never choose between comfort and convenience again.


FLIGHT FILLOW TODAY...

Since launching in June 2018, we’ve sold over 1,000 patented Flight Filllows. We’ve been featured on WGN, Business Insider, MSN, and other local news stations. How cool is that?! The girl who couldn’t get comfortable on a budget airline is now on TV!


WHO AM I 

I never planned to be an entrepreneur. I actually took an entrepreneurial class in college and then told myself this wasn’t what I wanted to do… but here I am! 

I work a corporate job during the day as a Contract Negotiator and work to change the way people travel on nights and weekends after my daughter goes to bed (occasionally before she wakes up, too)! 

This journey has taught me so much, but most of all, it has taught me that you can figure anything out if you look hard enough. If you want something bad enough, there are no excuses!


TRY FLIGHT FILLOW TODAY

I’m so excited to continue this journey, and I hope you’ll hop on board and help Flight Fillow take off!

Safe travels,

Georgia 



Check out our interview on WGN's Steve Cochran Morning Show: