Everpurse: A Purse that Charges Your Phone Wirelessly

Kira M. Newman Sep 10, 2012 Tweet

Battery life.

You’d think we would have figured this out already, but we haven’t. The iPhone can do a million and one things – recommend recipes, monitor your children, gauge your manliness. But sometimes – usually, at the most crucial times – it just won’t turn on.

Everpurse launched a Kickstarter campaign today to raise money for a clutch purse that wirelessly charges your smartphone. The leather version, which you can preorder for $119, has a wristlet strap and comes in orange, purple, and black. The fabric version, at $99, can have a cross-body strap and comes in red, purple, and black.

Everpurse isn’t the first blend of technology and fashion. Designer Richard Nicoll is creating a tote bag that charges your phone, but it has to be plugged into the bag. The same is true for Powerbag, a backpack that can charge up to four devices. But Everpurse has a “magic pocket” that charges phones wirelessly using inductive coiling and magnetic technology. (The purse gets its power from a charging mat, so you need to leave it on the mat when you’re home.)

“Honestly, if it wasn’t easy to use, I wasn’t going to use it,” says CEO Liz Ormesher Salcedo. “Why would I expect anyone else to use it either?”

Ormesher Salcedo got the idea for Everpurse a few years ago. So her husband headed to the store, bought a few parts, and started tinkering. He combined them with batteries, and it worked – her purse became a charger.

Since then, the Chicago startup partnered with local designers 1154 Lill Studio and Laudi Vidni to custom-create the purses. They’re hoping to raise $100,000 on Kickstarter.