Project Industry: Sport

Abom Unfoggable Goggle

No Fogging Way.

If you’re a skier or snowboarder you know how frustrating it is when everything is right but your goggles are fogged. It was this problem that client Dave McCullough expressed to his friends Howard Russell and Jack Cornelius. These two friends were sort of the dynamic duo of Patent Atty, Howard and Engineer, Jack. The two did some research and came up with a solution that could address this problem:  Heated ITO film. ITO is a transparent  conductive material that is sputtered onto a clear substrate. By applying a  a voltage across this film, the surface heats up and decimates the fog. Having a firm grasp on the physics of fog, Jack  correctly theorized we only needed  to get the temperature above dewpoint.

Jack built a quick proof of concept with a couple of large lithium ion batteries and a  piece of of ITO film. Next, Jack and Howard came to FUSE with the plan to build a ski goggle and challenge the industry. Long story short, FUSE did the industrial design, brought in the electrical engineer, built two generations of prototypes and completed the database for the final production version goggle. We also found the manufacturer and key suppliers and creatives along the way, named the colorways and even named the the company founded to deliver this new piece of equipment. Abom sold out of their first years production.

2012-05-01 10-42-16.411

 

 

 

 

Orp Smart Horn

HEAR HERE!

Orp was  developed after a spate of fatal right hook vehicle vs. bicycle accidents here in Portland, Oregon.  It seemed like there had to be a way to make bikes more visible to drivers. It seemed a a loud horn could make this visibility happen.  Also with this digital platform we could design our own sounds and have multiple sounds. We were really excited and started with just a dual tone horn but got a big “meh” from targeted users. When you look at the circuitry it got us thinking, it would be  really easy to add LEDs wyhout adding a whole lot of volume.

Adding the lights  made Orp much more intriguing. You ve got to have a light, right?  With a slew of positive feedback we launched a Kickstarter campaign and  it did fairly well. Our media coverage  during the campaign and after production was amazing. Highlights included the TODAY show, Wired and the Wall Street Journal.

It took a year to get us to production Orps. We went to the factory twice during that year. About a year later we introduced  the REMORP-Orp’s Remote.  All Orps were built Remote Ready. First year sales were amazing and  included the Museum of Modern Art Store.  There are around 35,000 Orps in the world and  still  its growing.