Bob may be tough, but his feet were not. Twenty-three years of getting in and out of fireman boots with stiff bunker pants on took their toll. His feet were deteriorating. The doctors took X-rays, MRIs, and bone scans, found a stress fracture in his ankle, and told him he couldn’t go back to work. No more jumping off the rig for this guy. He was also sentenced to wear a rigid cast for six weeks.
For most people, this would be a major inconvenience; for Bob it was intolerable. “The problem was that I had no relationship with crutches. I could use them, but I just couldn’t accept them… . I cut them up and threw them in the garbage, thinking, ‘I can’t do this; there’s got to be a better way.’”
It was a warm Indian summer night and, already restless, Bob couldn’t sleep. Out of desperation, he crawled backwards down the stairs to his basement in the middle of the night to make something to help him get around on the cast. Looking around the basement for parts, he took apart the headrest from a sit-up bar and removed its oblong cushion. He then cut two bungee cords in half and screwed them to the plastic bottom of the headrest. Next was determining how to anchor the cords.
Looking around again, he saw the rigid brown drive belt from a vacuum cleaner and slipped it over the toe of his cast. He rolled the drive belt up over his ankle and attached it to the bungee cords. It worked. The Cast Skate was Bob’s ticket to freedom for the next six weeks. He could pivot off his bad foot and lean on his good leg. The Cast Skate was easy to put on and take off. When Bob went to bed, he just kicked off the four cords, keeping the cushion on the bottom of his cast.
Six weeks later, when Bob got the cast off, he showed his Cast Skate to his orthopedic surgeon. The doctor examined Bob’s invention and liked it. A patent search revealed that no one else had a patent on this idea. So that meant Bob’s feat wouldn’t step on anyone’s toes. In fact, its construction was so unique that he was able to get a utility patent, not just a design patent, and his patent was granted on the first application. In the world of patents, that’s a big deal.
Next, Bob’s invention needed some attention, which is difficult for a single inventor to get. So he went to the Yankee Invention Expo in Connecticut. A few months later, he received a couple of letters from interested manufacturers. “My wife and I were doing backflips. But we still have to sit back and be patient. Nobody hurries in this business. They just don’t. It took a year and a half to get my patent and that’s like overnight. No one has a sense of urgency about my product, except for me.”
Today, Bob gets promo material in the mail and always responds to licensing inquiries. But he knows to be suspicious of anyone who asks for money up front. “Some of these people want $6,000, plus 20 percent of the proceeds, and have you sign over your patent for the full twenty years. I’m not comfortable with that.”
Bob has already spent about $6,000 on his invention, most of that on his legal fees. “It’s not wise for someone in my position to dish out thousands of dollars. The product needs to speak for itself.”
Bob has read an armload of books on the invention and patent process. He doesn’t skate around the fact that the Cast Skate is still in its early stages. “One of my books says, ‘Even an overnight success takes a long time.’ If you’re an independent inventor, you have a long road ahead of you.”
And Bob and his Cast Skate are heading down that road one step at a time.
Hold-a-Phone™
Excuse Me, Your Wrist Is Ringing
After missing calls and a broken dropped phone, Jim McGrath wondered. Is there any possible way to keep a cell phone handy and still have your hands free?
That’s the question 51-year-old Jim McGrath had been asking himself. Being in sales, Jim needed his cell phone to be accessible—no holds barred. So he studied several types of phone holders on the market. Some models would hold a phone, but had to be taken out of the holder to be used. He thought about bicep armbands, but the phone was too high to see the caller ID or to talk into it in that position.
So Jim decided on the wrist position and focused on the two main styles of cell phones: bar and flip phones. The idea was to be able to talk without taking the phone out of its holder and yet be able to see the caller ID. Choice of material narrowed quickly. He chose neoprene, which is soft and wearable, lends shock absorbency to the phone, and stretches, allowing one design to accommodate several sizes and brands of cell phones. And its pliability allows the user to dial through it.
In just three years, Jim has gone through all of his savings to create his Hold-a-Phone. “Luckily, I only had to make two prototypes. The first company I used was in Taiwan. They almost got it right the first time. I only made a few changes and it was done. I found Korea’s manufacturers more expensive than China’s. Now I get them made in China and save one dollar per holder. But I have to stay on top of the Chinese manufacturer—the quality control can get sloppy. I’m up late every night instant messaging to China, and work-ing on new inventions.”
Thankfully, after investing $100,000, he doesn’t have to spend money on it now. He’s gotten a lot of free publicity. Runner’s World magazine ran two sentences about it, and even without a photograph, he sold more than 200 that month. He’s just starting to buy advertising.
“My customer base is 80 percent women. That percentage was higher, around 95 percent, but now men are coming around. Women buy them for safety and security reasons. When they exercise, they want to bring their phones and need a place to put them. Men are buying them so they can use their phone during a race; that way they can call their wives and relay where to pick them up.”
The Hold-a-Phone has been particularly helpful to the physically challenged. As one buyer said, “My husband is confined to a power wheelchair and only has limited use of his right hand (his left hand and arm are immobile). We strap the Hold-a-Phone to his left wrist above his wristwatch. This enables him to make and receive calls using only his right hand and a Bluetooth wireless earpiece… . We love it!”
Jim’s marketing strategy is to contact everybody—there’s no holding him back. The Hold-a-Phone is sold on his website and in a few catalogs and stores. It’s been a challenge to get it into retail stores. Sporting goods stores say it’s a cell phone item and cell phone stores say it’s a sports item. Without his aggressive marketing, he’d be left holding the bag—or, phone.
To take hold of the market, Jim bought all of the Internet domains related to the phrase “hold a phone,” hyphens or not, and he worked his website to come up number one on Google searches for “arm phone holder” and “wrist phone holder.” Once people have one Hold-a-Phone, they buy more for their friends and running mates. Most just don’t know it’s out there.
By moving the cell phone from the belt to the wrist, Jim McGrath hopes to change the way we communicate. With Hold-a-Phone, this inventor has put a lot on the line, but it’s a “wrist” he’s willing to take.
Take It Pocket™