By Andy Owens
aowens@scbiznews.com
Published Aug. 7, 2009

A Charleston startup began selling its products in Apple Stores worldwide this week and has plans to launch 12 products each year exclusively for the Macintosh family of computers.

Andrew Green, the head of creative for Twelve South, said the company launched its Web site this week and is selling two of the company’s first three products online, as well as in Apple Stores across the United States, Europe and Japan. The company plans to expand to Australia soon.

Having products in Apple Stores and listed on the Apple Web site is a much-coveted positioning. That a small, self-financed new company has achieved it is remarkable.

“We’ve been working on the startup since the beginning of the year,” said Green who formerly worked with DLO, another company that started in Charleston. DLO, short for Digital Lifestyle Outfitters, was acquired by Royal Philips Electronics and makes gear for Apple’s iPhone and iPods.

Green said that relationship helped him get an audience with Apple and helped him understand what the company would want from a line of products.

“They always have great feedback and suggestions, and at Twelve South we really brought them a message they wanted to hear,” Green said.

That message was the Mac. With a lot of focus on selling for the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPods of various models, Green said Twelve South saw a gap for well-designed, useful products for Apple’s signature computer system.

“That kind of left the mothership device, the Mac, kind of ignored from an accessory standpoint,” Green said. “So when we came to Apple with accessories designed exclusively for the Mac, it was definitely preaching to the choir.”

The two products available in the Apple Store now are the BackPack (pictured), an adjustable, gravity-enabled shelf that sits behind the Mac monitor and can hold a USB drive, among other things — Twelve South’s Web site suggests Transformers action figures — and the BookArc, an adjustable stand for the MacBook laptop.

Both products have the look and feel of Apple products, with their signature aesthetically seamless design. Green said he designs all of the company’s products, and the BackPack started as a piece of paper folded on a table one Saturday morning.

“They all kind of happen differently. We’re all Mac users here, so we build what we want, and they all kind of take different forms,” Green said.

The company’s products are manufactured overseas and are shipped around the world through a variety of means. Twelve South has warehouse space in North Charleston with Blackhawk Logistics, which fills and ships orders. Twelve South also shares a special connection with the Apple Store on King Street, which Green called the company’s “home Apple Store.”

“We went down and had a celebration with them last week,” he said.

The name Twelve South comes from the company’s vision of creating 12 new products each year. The company is a two-person, husband-and-wife enterprise, with Andrew Green as the head of creative and Leigh Ann Green as CEO and president.

“We don’t really want to be the biggest company in the world. We want to be the best in making the best Mac accessories,” Green said.