Debbie Lowsky, MS, CCC-SLP, had spent her career as a speech therapist and kept running into the same problem: the tools she needed simply didn’t exist. Lacking the right shape, the right texture, the right level of resistance, and other features forced her and other therapists she knew to improvise. So she decided to make them herself.
Debbie’s husband John, an engineer with a talent for bringing ideas to life, began observing her therapy sessions with the eye of a problem solver. Together, they designed their first product, the Probe, which they designed specifically for speech therapists. That’s when ARK Products was born.
Today, ARK Products is made up of 20 full-time employees, including Debbie and John’s two children, Evan, who leads product development and administration, and Rebecca, who leads sales and marketing. Within their 20,000-square-foot facility in Columbia, South Carolina, employees design and manufacture ARK’s line of 175 sensory tools that are made using medical-grade materials with no additives.
“We make sensory tools for everyday life—from birth to geriatrics,” explained Dave Calhoun, CEO of ARK Products. “Our products help thousands of customers across the globe meet their regulation and sensory requirements so they can be more calm, more relaxed, and just live a better life.”
ARK’s product line has expanded far beyond that first tool that Debbie and John developed. Their flagship Z-Vibe® product helps speech pathologists, occupational therapists, and caregivers help their clients and loved ones improve eating, drinking, and speech skills. But the company’s breakthrough came when they realized sensory needs extended far beyond the therapy room. For example, the Krypto-Bite® is an inconspicuous chewable necklace that helps individuals of all ages manage stress, anxiety, sensory needs, and more.
The company was able to innovate more products when they brought all of their manufacturing in-house 10 years ago after using outside molders. Manufacturing externally made it difficult to develop new products because outside vendors required large minimum production runs that didn’t fit ARK’s model of offering a wide product variety in smaller batches.
“We started getting into manufacturing our own products, and that’s where we had more ideas,” Evan explained. “We wanted to make products that were more widely accepted, more discreet.”
In 2010, when ARK began selling in the Amazon store, their products were so unique that Amazon had to create a new product category. The partnership has been transformative for the business, giving therapists, parents, and teachers access to their sensory tools.
“Amazon helps us reach a lot of new customers, both with our brand and our products,” Calhoun said. “Amazon is about 26 percent of our revenue this year, and that’s continued to grow year over year.”
The company uses multiple Amazon seller tools to educate customers and grow their business. The A+ Content program, which uses rich text and engaging images and videos, allows ARK to describe their sensory tools in detail and tell their story at scale, which historically only happened through one-on-one sessions.
“We’re able to share a tremendous story in detail, enabling people to understand the value of the product and what it’s going to do for them,” Calhoun noted.
They were also able to engage with new customers by offering discounts during Amazon Prime Day in 2025. “We were very excited to see that the amount of customers looking for our types of products during Prime Day was even larger than we had expected,” Calhoun said.
The ARK team was also worried about knockoff products, so they tapped into Amazon Brand Registry to ensure customers receive genuine ARK products. The feature uses advanced machine learning and expert investigators to prevent the attempted listing of counterfeit or infringing products.
While ARK currently sells their products in 66 countries through wholesale partners, they will soon sell directly to customers in Canada, the UK, and Germany through Amazon Global Selling. The program enables sellers to expand their business internationally without needing to establish physical warehouses or local operations.
“There’s so much more opportunity to tell the full ARK story,” explained Calhoun. “We’re going to continue to expand our customer reach and be able to solve problems for more customers around the globe.”
The company’s commitment to sensory tools extends beyond profit. Through their Chew It Forward program, ARK has donated hundreds of thousands of products to nonprofits, schools, and individuals who cannot afford them.
“We want to help all those who we can,” Calhoun said. “Wherever you are in the economic scale of your life, people need help and they need support.”