From the WSJ Real Estate Archives

Designers Target Klutzes
With Shatterpoof Wares

by Danielle Reed
From The Wall Street Journal Online

August 11, 2004 -- Christy Canterbury likes the delicate sound her new wine glasses make when guests toast each other. She admires the goblets' elegant shapes. Best of all, when the 28-year-old financial adviser to wineries drops them in the sink, they bounce.

That's because they're made of a special titanium-reinforced crystal that the manufacturer advertises as "the most break-proof." They're less expensive than similar high-end glasses made of lead crystal, but "I don't think anyone would really notice the difference," she says. "I think of it as clumsiness insurance."

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Titanium-reinforced wine glasses from Schott Zwiesel
It used to be that "break-resistant" was synonymous with clunky-looking patio dishes, and the closest thing to shatterproof stemware was your child's sippy cup. Now retailers are pushing new, upscale housewares, fixtures and furniture that look fragile but are strong enough to survive routine domestic disasters. From reinforced-glass dishes that look like porcelain to faux-glass windows and rubber tabletops, the new unbreakables are aimed at the stylish klutz in all of us.

"No one wants to worry about breakage, but no one wants the everyday stuff to look mundane, either," says Thomas Moleski, marketing manager of tableware manufacturer Arc International, which recently came out with a new line of break-resistant glass dishes.

Looks Like China

With the lines blurring between indoor and outdoor living, demand for unbreakable products has surged in recent years. Catalog retailer Frontgate added a separate $100-and-under "unbreakable" category for tableware in its catalogs, displayed alongside crystal barware that costs as much as $240 a set. Serving-dish maker Bon Chef just introduced a line of wavy-shaped platters and bowls that look like china but are made of cast aluminum. At a recent food-industry trade show in New York, a company representative happily demonstrated the products' durability by hurling the "Futura" dishes onto the floor. (None were damaged).

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Bon Chef's cast aluminum bowl
It's not just tableware that's becoming more durable. When guests walk into Susan Pappalardo's and Brad Weed's newly furnished Kirkland, Wash., home, they see an oval-shaped table with a metal frame and a rubber tabletop, an imitation-leather bench, and a tall lamp with a shade made of industrial resin. "We just had two kids, and function is as important as aesthetic," Ms. Pappalardo says. "You'd never know this stuff is indestructible."

Some architects are starting to use windows made of shatterproof polycarbonate plastic to enclose sunrooms and patios in upscale homes. The faux-glass windows, which are used more commonly in greenhouses, are translucent. "Like all plastics, you can still scratch them," says Bob Daley, owner of Sundance Supply, which sells the material.

Until recently, the obvious clunkiness and cloudiness of unbreakable materials -- think scuffed-up faux-glass tumblers -- relegated them to backyards or the kids' table. Now, manufacturers are using improved technology to create better designs. Arc's new imitation-porcelain dishes are made of tempered glass stamped with color. The company says Target and other retailers have inquired about the "Color Moods" line, to be sold under the Luminarc brand starting this summer.

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Gulassa's rubber table
German manufacturer Schott Zwiesel's "Diva" line of Tritan crystal contains a mix of titanium and zirconium. It was introduced in the U.S. last year, and "we've sold well over 10,000 sets," says Josh Farrell, director of catalogs for the catalog and Internet retailer The Wine Enthusiast. At about $65 for a set of six Burgundy glasses, they are relatively inexpensive.

The Stem Problem

High-end designers started developing upscale unbreakables just a few years ago, largely as a response to better-looking inexpensive competition. Riedel, which sells wine glasses that can cost as much as $90 each, has just come out with a line of break-resistant, stackable wine glasses called "O" that cost between $9.95 and $12.50. They come in the same shapes as one of

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Transparent plastic vases from Driade
the company's crystal lines but are made from a more durable glass. But there's a crucial difference: The break-resistant versions have no stems, and basically look like tumblers. "Glasses break mostly on the stem," says Maximilian Riedel, Riedel North America vice president.

High-end tableware retailer Mikasa solved the stem problem a different way. It introduced $13 wine glasses this year that are manufactured using a process that produces crystal-like, five-millimeter-wide stems that are slightly bendable. "Because of the flexibility, they're less likely to break in, say, the dishwasher," says David O'Connell, vice president of product development. Mikasa's high-end wineglasses can cost as much as $130 for a set of two.

The company also added aluminum to the clay used in some of its fine china to strengthen it, and this year is launching an aluminum-strengthened designer series of dishes decorated with platinum that will sell for roughly $70 a place setting.

But break-resistant doesn't mean tantrum-proof. "We were going to call the glasses 'unbreakable,' but we threw one in the office and it did break," Gary Sullivan, director of sales for The Wine Enthusiast, says of the Schott Zwiesel glasses. Instead, they're described as the "most break-proof crystal glass in the world" on the retailer's Web site.

Others feel there are no substitutes for the real thing. "People who are spending the money to eat at a fine-dining restaurant expect to have fine crystal glassware," says Fred Dexheimer, wine director at Laurent Tourondel's BLT Steak in New York. "It's part of the whole experience."

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