Williams said he'll need another full-time person in early 2000 if Pair Tree's initial activity becomes common practice. We're sort of a stuff-storing society. The Blankenships first contacted Williams three years ago, but that was with a prototype made of wood. A year later, they switched to plastic and came to Williams for help refining the design. Inez Mowery of Kennewick is one of the few to already own a Pair Tree.
Most women have a little shoe fetish.
Before adding the column to her walk-in closet, Mowery kept her footwear on a shelf. A Pair Tree display is set up on the second floor of Bell Furniture in the Richland Parkway. Through the nine years it's taken to bring the Pair Tree to market, inventor Meg Blankenship presented her idea to major closet companies and got a good response. The growing national exposure is giving her fledgling business a big boost. Blankenship also is making sure Pair Tree is involved in the humanitarian side of the industry.