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Rip Clips spare the tear on the thoroughfare

The Premise. If you’re not up for cuffing or hemming your jeans and alternate between heel lengths, your pants can drag, resulting in rips that can make your spirits drag so as well. There are a number of non-surgical approaches to addressing the losing battle that pants bottoms face when taking on rough sidewalks. These include double sided tape or clips that hem pants.

The Product. Rip Clips seeks to up the ante and your pants hems. The idea is to attach a clip to your shoes and the pants that connect via powerful neodymium magnet.Alas, there are compatibility issues and the product works only with Vans and Converse shoes for now.

The Pitch. Designers Chris Hackler and Nick Durantes take us through the a montage of lifestyle shots visits to an alterations shop, and the inside of the world’s most organized drawer complete with exquisitely spaced Rip Clips in explaining that their design will save you time and trouble in addition to tearing. Trips to the alternation shop, they note, can cost up to $26 and take up to five days. Invoking the classic infomercial refrain, they note, “There’s gotta be a better way!”

The Perks. Rip Clips depend on the attachments being on both the shoes and pants, but that may require some mixing and matching. As such, you may need to buy different parts separately. The project owners offer pants plates starting at $7 but a full set comes in at $13. That’s half of what they claim hemming can cost and the price might drop if the designers can scale up production.

The Potential. Rip Clips addresses an everyday issue. but many teens and young adults likely aren’t too concerned with ripping their jeans. It may be more tempting to market to those who would make the investment for work clothes, but these are the folks for whom alterations may not represent a lot of time and effort.