Romeoville Third-Grader's 'Spikeyhairs' Could be Next Hot Plush Toy

Tyler Garrett-Neilson is an inventor.

He is also an artist…and a designer…and a businessman.

Tyler Garrett-Neilson is 8 years old.

Several years ago, the Hermansen Elementary School 3rd grader, who lives with a mild form of autism, sketched some drawings, cut them out and hung them on the walls of his Romeoville home. The cartoon-like characters had big heads with spiked hair and tiny arms and legs.

“All of them were kinda like stuffed animals,” said Tyler, who modeled them after his father’s Mohawk haircut. “Some of them were a little strange because they have those spikes.” 

He called them his “spikeyhairs.”

“They sat there for a couple of years and I’m not quite sure what gave me the idea, but I just looked at them and thought this would be really cool to make a stuffed animal,” said Tyler’s grandfather, Paul Richards, who is a former counselor at VVSD’s Phoenix Experience. 

“I did some research and found a company that would match it perfectly with the drawings.”

Thus was born the “Spikeyhairs” company.

“Our mission is to help other children and families, like our own, who live with autism on a daily basis,” Richards said. 

“To that end, once we get production going, Spikeyhairs will always donate at least 25 percent of the profits of sales of Spikeyhairs merchandise to charities and organizations that directly benefit such families.”

The key words in that statement are “once we get production going” because the Richards need $8,900 to make the first 500 Spikeyhairs plush toys. And they need it by midnight on July 6 because that’s the indiegogo.com fundraising deadline they’ve set for a go/no-go decision. Indiegogo.com is a website designed to help passionate, hard-working entrepreneurs raise money to bring their ideas to fruition.

“If we don’t get the $8,900, we won’t be able to produce them and Indiegogo will give everyone their money back. It’s kind of all or nothing,” Paul Richards said. 

“It won’t be the end of Spikeyhairs though. It’ll put the plush toys on hold for a while but we’ll still go on with fundraisers and other things.”

Richards plans on helping the Hermansen autism program with a fundraiser next school year by selling Spikeyhairs T-shirts and wristbands. He hopes to hold similar autism fundraisers throughout the area. He also hopes to create  a Spikeyhairs Foundation to fund special projects like sending siblings of children with autism to camp to learn about living with brothers and sisters who have autism.

Tyler also wants to create Spikeyhairs pajamas, a mouse pad and a Kindle cover case “so if you drop it, it won’t break. And then I’m going to do a water proof cover too with a Spikeyhairs logo on the back.”

“He’s very good-natured and caring. When he’s finished with a toy, he always wants to donate it to someplace like Goodwill,” Paul Richards said. “That’s where we got the idea to help other children with autism.”

Richards hopes Spikeyhairs grows into a thriving family business that will not only generate some present income for his family but also help provide money for whatever Tyler needs in the future.

“He’s been doing really well. But at this point, we don’t know how far he is going to go when he gets to be an adult,” Richards said. “It would be really cool if when he gets older he could take everything over and run it himself.”

“That would be cool, yes,” Tyler said.

Information on Spikeyhairs can be found at http://spikeyhairs.com, and a twww.indiegogo.com/projects/spikeyhairs and on Facebook at facebook.com/spikeyhairs. Richards can be reached by e-mail at paul@spikeyhairs.com.

Editor's note: This article was submitted by Valley View School District 365U.