Ryan gave us 15 Crazy Ways People Make Money in Today’s Economy. I give you number sixteen: Jeans Insurance. Bertie Ranger has tapped into a need of thousands of dieters and vain women everywhere. I’ll be watching to see if this one takes off!

The Problem

You want to look your best so you stock up on rice cakes and hit the treadmill. Your reward? A new pair of jeans! If you’re like many consumers these days, you shell out $100 – $200 for the pair that makes your butt look good. But maybe you’re too successful. What if your high fiber and power sets take you down an extra size? Or perhaps you have a lot to lose. It’s not like you can hold out for your ideal size before buying a pair of good jeans. But who can afford all those different sizes on the way down?

The Solution

Bertie Ranger’s insurance for jeans could be the answer to the weight loss dilemma. This clever entrepreneur charges 30% for a policy. All you have to do is send in the original purchase receipt and your fee and your jeans are insured against weight loss for up to a year. When you lose weight, you send the old jeans in for a refund of the full purchase price.

The Business

Ranger started the business out of frustration over her own weight loss and subsequent need for successively smaller sized jeans. A simple site facilitates the transactions and she’s actively promoting her insurance throughout the BlogHer network. Will she succeed? Maybe. I think she’s tapped into two distinct micro-niches. First there’s the one she’s identified as dieters in need of new jeans as they continue to lose weight. She also may get some good business from the super vain and trendy who just want to keep buying different designer jeans.

The first niche should be fairly profitable when you account for the customers who will never either a) lose weight, or b) cash in on the policy. (Of course, there doesn’t seem to be any restriction against gaining weight and buying larger jeans.) Presumably she has identified a secondary market for the used jeans so she has that income in addition to the insurance revenue.

She may have to put some restrictions on that second niche. There are certainly women I know who would love the chance to get a new pair of jeans once a month!

What is out there just waiting for you to think of?