Maureen Collins from Pearl River, NY works with children in preschool who are learning how to write letters, their names, and words. A lot of times she encourages students to write on their art projects, worksheets, and materials used in class. She found herself tediously drawing dashes which were inconsistent and sloppy when drawn quickly. She couldn’t find any tools on the market that would save a teacher’s time and energy while also providing children with consistent lettering for tracing. Maureen thought up her idea of a pen that would create a series of dots as teachers were writing so children could easily trace over the words. She realized dots would work better than dashes because of the curves in different letters and cursive writing. This dot pattern pen would provide children with more consistent letters to trace and help parents encourage their children to practice writing. This product could even be used by scrap bookers and crafters who want to mark a specific area for item placement or stitching on their projects.
Leonid (Lenny) Zaytsev is originally from Oakland, New Jersey. He owns a requiting firm that specializes in the Broker Deal Industry. Lenny’s son likes to draw with dry erase markers on boards in their house. One time his son started drawing on his wooden train. Lenny then started thinking it would be a great idea if his son could draw on all his toys without ruining them! So he came up with an idea for dry erase toys that kids can draw right on. Lenny believes that there are a lot different avenues that Quirky can explore with this idea and we agree.
Robert Schlecht is a self-employed entrepreneur, and owner/operator of an e-commerce website. He hails from the great state of Georgia. Robert loves to jump rope because it is a quick, easy, effective, and inexpensive way to exercise. When he was in the market for a new jump rope he looked for one that could chart his jump roping activity. He was really shocked to discover that there has not been much innovation in jump ropes in quite some time. He was already thinking about app-enabled devices from some of his other Quirky submissions and thought that the technology can also be advantageous for this idea. Robert thinks that a huge market exists for a stat-tracking jump rope because of all the exercise programs that are springing up in schools lately. Quirky has marked this invention idea as an “explore” and will look into the feasibility of the idea.
Christopher Manzione is an artist from Vernon, NJ, who was living in Brooklyn for the past couple years, using his bike on a daily basis. He had bought a bike seat cover, but never remembered it or took the wrong bag with him. As a result, he ended up tying plastic bags to his seat to keep it dry. He looked everywhere for a bike seat cover that attaches to the bike but could not find one anywhere and thus his idea was born out of necessity. As the bike culture grows, Chris felt that there really should be a great solution like this available on the market. The bikers at Quirky really felt that this would be a great product for other bikers, and so we decided to move forward with his idea.
Jonathan Ellis, from Astoria, NY represented David Ellis, a veteran living in Las Vegas, on Quirky, when David told him about a great idea that he came up with while trying to exercise in the pool. David had been instructed by his doctor to walk in a swimming pool everyday to help with his diabetes, however David quickly became bored of just walking and instead came up with his own pool exercise device. His idea is intended to make people healthier through alternative methods of exercise. It offers a way to use natural buoyancy to exercise without causing pain to joints and muscles, while also giving the potential for those incapacitated by disease to gain the benefits of exercise. David has documented a 50 point drop in his blood sugar level each time he has used this. Quirky was initially attracted to this idea of using this as a device for rehab, but we also noticed how many other products exist on the market. So to realize its full potential, Quirky decided to explore this idea a little more to see what we can come up with that will truly stand out on the market.
Wendy Leon, a web designer from Guayqui, Ecuador, was visiting a friend when her friend’s daughter brought over her letter blocks. She was only three but she kept putting together the letters and turning to ask Wendy to read the word she had just made. Most were not words, and some she recognized already, but seeing how this little girl was so interested in learning words gave Wendy an idea. She thought that if she could make letter blocks that read out the word they create when they connect to each other, it would be a great learning toy. Quirky loved this idea and quickly began thinking of other possibilities, including a game that is not only for kids, but for adults as well.
