Before Scott Swierski began inventing, he had to reinvent himself. He was in the real estate business, but when the market began to suffer he needed to get out. So, he started inventing, reports South Charlotte News.
Standing in his kitchen, he sifts through a plastic bin of forks and spoons designed with toddlers in mind. The bin holds an inventory of ideas that served as stepping stones to Little Grips, the invention he is now trying to market. He’s been selling the toddler-sized forks and spoons with unique handles to people as far away as Malaysia, Germany and Australia through his website.
It’s been said necessity is the mother of invention.
Perhaps, in Swierski’s case, it’s the father. When his 5-year-old daughter, Riley, was a toddler, he realized the toddler utensils currently on the market weren’t working well for her.
She’d fumble with or drop her utensils. Her food would fall off the fork or spoon on the way to her mouth. These were typical toddler struggles that Swierski thought he could fix.
He created utensils with wristbands and clips to keep them from falling to the floor. But that didn’t solve the problem of the awkward path from the plate to her mouth.
So he redesigned the handles to more easily fit a toddler’s grip. He created prototypes – including a particularly expensive one that was pressed out of a printer-like machine from a three-dimensional design.