Funny where ideas come from, isn’t it?

The letter shown below is from George Church, the Industrial Design Manager for Hoover UK. Aged 11, I had been in correspondence with him since February of that year, having sent him some vacuum cleaner designs I’d come up with. Designing these cleaners was as much a hobby of mine as vacuuming – I wasn’t really collecting machines at that point.

The letter shown below was sent in September 1997, in response to a letter I had written him, asking for a few details from the missing ratings plate of my newly-acquired Hoover Constellation, a birthday present from my grandparents on the 12th of that month. Also enclosed were some designs I’d come up with for a modern Constellation – unfortunately, I no longer have these as far as I know, but it was black and silver. I also sent a few pages of designs of tools to go with it.

I eventually lost contact with Mr. Church, and I have no idea if he continues to work for Hoover. But all these years later, along comes a New Constellation.

I wonder – could a few drawings sent to the Design Manager by an 11 year-old have started an idea in the design department for re-issuing a classic machine, all these years later? Designers take inspiration from almost anything, after all. It seems a little odd to me that Hoover would have come up with the totally idea unprompted, especially as nowadays they seem committed to forgetting their glorious past, and churning out uninspired cleaners of poor quality. At face value, suddenly re-issuing the Constellation seems a little random, at best.

Perhaps it's far-fetched, but I'll always wonder if in some small way my idea contributed to the re-launch of the Constellation! If not, maybe I just have a knack for seeing into the future!

Shame more companies aren't like that.

I wonder if TTI would have sent such a good reply?

Jack I like your story, and can add what I know about the return of the Connie.
Back in 2006 when the Maytag Sattelite was first rumored, Fred S was put in contact with a man named Nick who in his email claimed to be responsible for bringing the cleaner back. Nick offered Fred one of the prototype Satellites he had for his collection, and as it turned out Nick's office(Maytag International) was in Schaumburg Illinois, 10 minutes from where I work, so I went to pick up the cleaner for him.
I had a nice visit with Nick, he demo-ed the Satellite for me, and talked about its history, and the high hopes they had for bringing back a classic old cleaner. Nick did NOT tell me it was his idea, but he did push to get this going and see it thru. Hoover's reputation suffered greatly under Maytag(they knew it too) and the Connie/Satellite was an attempt to rescue some of the rep. They were just kicking themselves because they could not call it HOOVER anyplace but in the US.
When Maytag was sold, Nick went to work for Whirlpool in Benton Harbor Michigan. He had a long Greek last name. I wish I could remember it!

Koukourakis

:-)

I wish I had the first e-mail that he sent me.

Jeff, you should check your saved e-mail... maybe I forwarded that to you?? It would have been Feb/March/April maybe, of 2006. My last email correspondence with him was in May 2006.

Fascinating stories you guys, its more than trivia its our own "Vault History"....I often wonder if its "In Our Genes"...hobbies etc...was searching the latest "HooverGram" and found this page.....have a look at the Divisional Prizes and find a familiar (to us) name??? Jack, Do you know of a relative who perhaps had worked at Hoover Perivale????

Cheers, Mike