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Hello, Dolly

They tell us we should all lift with our legs, not our backs. Thomas Dent III found a way to lift with his brains.

This 29-year-old entrepreneur financed his college education, two degrees in economics and sociology, by moving appliances. While on the job, he decided there had to be a way to make carrying heavy appliances a little less backbreaking.

Thomas experimented with straps going under the appliance to allow two movers to lift it while in an upright position. “This way, the larger shoulder and leg muscles lift the weight, decreasing strain on the lower back, hands, biceps, and forearms. Moving large objects becomes easier and safer. Plus, the hands are freed up to guide the appliance rather than hold it.”

The strap system worked. Thomas named it the Shoulder Dolly and used it at his job to lighten the load, making heavy appliances much more mover-friendly. His system even allows a 100-pound woman to lift a full-sized refrigerator. OK, put down the refrigerator. We get the idea.

When it was time for grad school, Thomas put his straps away to pursue a master’s degree in international economics down under. “I only lasted five months in Australia. I just couldn’t get this idea about developing the Shoulder Dolly out of my head. My dad thought I was crazy to come back to the U.S. and chase what he thought was a get-rich-quick idea. But I had to. And once he understood what I was doing with it, he became very supportive.”

At age 23 and carrying $40,000 in student loans, the inventor of the Shoulder Dolly was strapped for cash. “I needed investors, so I moved to where people with money live—Aspen, Colorado. I even slept in a tent the first summer I was there, before I could get established.”

Once again Thomas got a job doing what he knows best—moving appliances. He started to work for a high-end appliance retailer Contract Appliance Center in Glenwood Springs, about forty miles from Aspen. Naturally, he used his Shoulder Dolly prototype on every haul. Not only did the shop owners, Tom and JoAn Knipping, love the Shoulder Dolly, they became backers of Thomas and his invention. David Cook, editor of the Aspen News, also got interested and so did Craig Wilkening, an account executive with an appliance manufacturer. In 2001, they formed TDT Moving Systems, Inc. to launch Shoulder Dolly.

“I put in a lot of effort applying for a provisional patent. I did the description and drawings, and wrote it up as perfectly as I could. Once I got these investors interested, I hired a patent lawyer to apply for a utility patent.” That was the first hurdle Thomas has had to shoulder.

Next, he started participating in hardware trade shows—dozens of them— across the U.S. and Canada. People were impressed with his Heavy Duty Shoulder Dolly, but priced at $300 each, he couldn’t sell a large quantity of them. “No matter how marvelous and efficient they are, I had few repeat sales. Because the Shoulder Dolly is so strong and durable, they don’t wear out.”

Thomas realized he needed a Shoulder Dolly designed for a wider range of consumers at a lower price point. “In effect, I made a knockoff of my own product. I call it Light Duty.” This lighter-weight product is manufactured in China and sells for $59.99 through hardware retailers in North America.

The biggest and best exposure happened when Light Duty debuted on QVC shopping network. Thomas now plans to create and air infomercials, starting in small-city markets. He’ll test-market them before spending larger sums to run infomercials in larger metropolitan markets.

Early marketing, publicity, catalog, and website exposure have resulted in selling 20,000 units of Light Duty since it was introduced in 2003. “We have fifty distributors for the Light Duty version in just two-and-a-half years, plus it’s sold through Northern Tool and Harbor Light catalogs.”

TDT Moving Systems is now headquartered in Vancouver, Washington, where Thomas and his girlfriend Brenda Castine, who works full-time in the business, moved to be closer to his family. The growing company now seeks investors to go international. “We do have distributors in other countries and are looking to file patents in many of them.” It looks like Thomas Dent III has found the Shoulder Dolly to be not only an uplifting and moving experience, but also a weighty career.