Sep 21, 2008

Breaking up can lead to a businessBy Ilana DeBareSFGate.com

San Francisco, CA — Smashing Katie is a startup born from a breakup.

An online store geared to women who have recently gone through a divorce or breakup, Smashing Katie sells items ranging from a wedding ring coffin to the Ex, a kitchen knife block shaped like a person.

Owner Angie Schmidt got the idea from her own divorce – and named the store after the neighbor she believed was the other woman behind the collapse of her marriage.

“I was this blubbering mess of goo and tears,” said Schmidt, 33, of South San Francisco. “By day five, I needed something to laugh at. I created a T-shirt saying ‘Ask Katie where my husband is.’ I would look in the mirror and just start chuckling. … Those five days were the beginning of Smashing Katie.”

Years ago, divorce wasn’t anything to chuckle over – let alone chosen as a retail concept.

But attitudes have changed as divorce has become more common. About 10 percent of adult Americans are currently divorced and not remarried, up from 2 percent in 1950, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Time magazine ran a story in February about the rise of divorce parties – kind of the antithesis of the wedding shower. And a number of general gift stores such as Findgift.com offer divorce-related items alongside their more conventional selections of birthday, wedding and graduation gifts.

So far, though, Smashing Katie might be the only store devoted solely to breakup items.

“That either makes me smart or stupid. I still don’t know which,” Schmidt said.

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