Slipping on a rug can be truly dangerous. You can purchase sticky under mats for rugs that keep them in place, but they always find a way of peeking out unattractively. Slipguard is a non-slip rug grip in a can. It sprays on the bottom of a rug and grips the floor. To protect the floor underneath for spills on the carpet, another coat can be applied as well. For the Slipguard kit backers can donate $50 and will also receive a t-shirt and one hands free cellular device for estimated delivery in July 2014. This product from Washington hopes to raise $18,000 in a 30-day Kickstarter campaign.
Tag: stick
Campers or hikers look for products with various uses to lighten their loads when they’re enjoying the great outdoors. The WorkingStick is more than just a walking aid, it’s a phone-holder, picture-taker, and quad-pod for holding your various camping accoutrements. The stick folds out into a teepee shape, has a screw for digital cameras and a slot to hold phones. Each stick has extender capabilities and can reach up to 60”. Early-bird-watchers will receive the WorkingStick for $55 or for a regular price of $59 with an estimated delivery date of June 2014. WalkingStick has a low $2,000 goal in its 29-day Kickstarter campaign.
The Premise. For many, the multi-function nature of the smartphone has provided one tool that can achieve the functionality of a GPS device, a camera, a camcorder, a digital music player and much more. Perhaps there’s a similar opportunity to create another kind of do-it-all product for tasks in the physical world beyond the Swiss Army Knife or Leatherman multitool.
The Product. The Bergaffe is, by the Austrian designers’ own description, a “simple tube” that is threaded that it can be connected to a variety of different ends to create tools used for what seems to be primarily winter sports. When broken down, the tube itself is nothing more than a small threaded cylinder designed to create “a series of tubes” as the Internet was once famously described. Bergaffe plans to create multiple connections to increase the functionality of the tool.
The Pitch. The short campaign video walks us through some of the Befgaffe’s bag of tricks, showing its use as a shovel, a rake, a tripod and, perhaps most impressively, a bench. The last trick, though, requires use of a snowboard.
The Perks. The Bergaffe is due to hit slopes in March. Backers can offer £120 for the full basic package. At that price, it certainly won’t compete well with many of the products such as a shovel and tripod that it can replace.
The Potential. One can see the use for some of Bergaffe’s current applications, but the company hasn’t really offered a tantalizing view of what lies beyond and how someone could create it in the field cost-effectively. Beyond a select group of skiers and snowboarders, this probably won’t help much, and it certainly won’t be worth the price of entry the way pricing is currently set.