Inventors Get Ideas, Make Them Reality
Back when they were students at Bertha Vos Elementary, Keith Nielson, Kevin Vann and Tom Hills liked to take things apart to see how they worked.
Now the friends are designing and manufacturing their own products through their fledgling company, Foresight Design Group.
“It’s something we’ve done in our spare time,” said Nielson, 29, a mechanical engineer who put his career on hold to work for his family’s property management company. “We’ve had these ideas for products but because of a full-time job, marriage and kids, it’s been really hard to find time to work on them.”
So far the group’s most successful invention — and first full pending patent — is the Caution Clip, a heavy-duty plastic clamp with mesh safety flag and marker light. The clip helps keep drivers legal and safe when hauling extended loads.
“It’s the ‘American dream’ kind of story: three of us getting together in someone’s garage,” said Vann, 29, a former marine engineer who handles business management and relations for the company.
Though the inventors occasionally walk store aisles to see what’s already on the market and what could be improved, Vann said most ideas for products come from daily life.
For instance, the Baby Blow-Out Blocker, a disposable diaper attachment that helps contain messes and serves as a barrier between babies and their clothing, was created in response to “blow-outs” by Vann’s then 3-month-old son. The Sqooshi, a bath loofah with an integrated reservoir that dispenses body wash, came about during a shower and the realization that two products could be combined to save time and space.
“A lot of times for me it happens when being the consumer,” Nielson said. “I’m trying to utilize something and I’ll say, ‘Man, this is frustrating. There has to be an easier way to do things.’”
“You hardly ever wake up in the middle of the night and a lightbulb comes on,” added Vann.
Photo by Foresight Design Group.
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