Backchannelmedia

Gazette, The; Colorado Springs, Colo.

Finger Gloves, doggie tote bags and nonstick cheese knives were the stars of the day during a live broadcast Friday afternoon from the Garden of the Gods Visitor & Nature Center.

QVC, the cable television shopping channel, made Colorado Springs the sixth stop on its 2005 "Decade of Discoveries" product search tour, in which budding entrepreneurs get the chance to pitch their products on the air for eight minutes.

Forty crew members set up a giant set in the visitor center parking lot, with Pikes Peak and the Garden of the Gods' "Kissing Camels" rock formation as the backdrop. More than 250 shopping fans packed grandstands to watch the show and whoop for QVC hosts David Venable and Jayne Brown.

Susan McKitrick of Colorado Springs and her son Jeremy came down just to give Venable a hug.

"I don't buy every day, but I watch every day," McKitrick said. "I wasn't going to miss this."

Carmel Stover, the only Colorado Springs inventor among the 10 small business people featured Friday, was first up selling her Finger Gloves -- latex coverings designed to protect your digits. Brown got the audience laughing as she pulled one of the rubbery sheaths over her finger.

"This is one of the products that when I first saw it, I thought, 'Hmm... that's interesting,'" Brown told the audience.

Something about the product clicked with TV viewers. As Stover and Brown demonstrated using the Finger Gloves with hot glue and caulk, the sales tallies steadily jumped on TV monitors scattered around the set. With six seconds remaining, Stover's Finger Gloves sold out all 1,600 units that QVC had ordered. They sell for $15.51 for a package of 60.

Stover jumped up and down as she walked off the set.

"That was really exciting," she said. "I kind of wasn't expecting (to sell out). I feel so happy knowing that there are so many people out there that need the product I created."

QVC spokeswoman Jen Scalora said usually about three-quarters of the items in the product search sell out. The network makes a comparatively small initial order and then invites the creators of the best-selling products back for future shows.

"It's not necessarily a big order for us, but to them it's huge," Scalora said.

Brown and Venable kept the show moving along with friendly chatter, jokes and live calls from shoppers watching at home.

"The more you can be natural and be yourself, it makes all the difference in relating to the customer," Venable said. For the crowd that lined up for autographs after the two-hour broadcast ended, Venable seemed to be the most appealing product.

Sharon Lucero of Colorado Springs was at the front of the line and answered "seeing David" when asked what her favorite item was.

"I thought I'd be the only one here," she said.

Sara Lebofsky of Highlands Ranch was just visiting Garden of the Gods and stumbled across the broadcast, but she was thrilled.

"We were so surprised to see this," she said. "I have a QVC card in my wallet and QVC jewelry on."

CONTACT THE WRITER: 636-0275 or awineke@gazette.com