In Los Angeles this summer, the medals will be Minnesota-made.  The Redskins wear Josten's championship rings, as do ten other Superbowl winners.  Recognition (from class rings to yearbooks to sportswear and beyond) is big business.

But bigger must be (muss sein in German is more imperative), and the natural expansion is into office products, a crowded market.  So you need a better mousetrap and look at what's there, disregarding the obvious.  Yes, it may always have beens so, but maybe . . .

A three-ring binder puts rings on a spine in a cover.  The rings were there first.  But they pull the last pages to the spine and unless you are careful closing the notebook, those pages tear.  Unless the rings weren't circles, but on the right slanted straight downward and outward.  It works, and the notebook holds a quarter more paper.

Expansion is also international, of course, and Josten's operates in Venezuela (plaques are big) and Canada and is testing markets in Europe in Japan.  Recognition products tend to be American traditions, and it's hard to tell which will translate where.  Will class rings catch on in Japan?