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Sportbinox™
ОглавлениеDriven to Invent?
Picture this. You’re at a football game in the nosebleed seats. The action on the field is far far away. So you grab your binoculars and hold them up to your eyes. Here’s the problem. How do you reach down to get your nachos and soda while holding the binoculars up to your eyes? It’s impossible.
That’s the problem Tristram Himmele decided to tackle. Tristram is a 38-year-old who used to race cars in his twenties. As an avid sports fan, he knows firsthand that your hands aren’t free while holding binoculars.
The search to solve this problem led the former racecar driver down a new road in life—the road to being an inventor. “I was tired of holding my binoculars and having to put down my Coke. So I thought, why don’t I mount the binoculars on my head?”
Tristram’s invention, the Sportbinox, is a hands-free binocular set with built-in AM/FM radio. It allows fans in even the worst seats in the stadium to get a great view of the game while keeping their hands free.
The road to developing this fan’s Sportbinox has been a long and bumpy one with many pitfalls, roadblocks, stops, and starts along the way. Reflecting on the path behind him, Tristram says, “I’ve grown a lot as a person.”
First, the product went through several incarnations before the final version was created. In fact, an early version of the Sportbinox was mounted in a tray.
Once the Sportbinox design was complete, Tristram wanted to hit the gas, but instead needed to slow down due to the numerous speed bumps on the road toward manufacturing the product. One turn went directly into a dead end when he traveled to Hong Kong to meet with a manufacturing company. This company ended up, as Tristram says, “taking advantage of me,” promising to develop the Sportbinox but then filing for a patent on its own.
The process also cost a lot more than Tristram had ever imagined it would.
“I’ve been able to finance it because of some good investments I’ve made in South Florida real estate.” But even so, he adds, “I’m quite far in debt.”
Another hard lesson to learn was how difficult it can be for an independent inventor to get his product into stores. “Buyers for stores don’t want to take a risk with an independent.”
Behind every great inventor there’s a lawyer. For Tristram, that lawyer happens to also be his girlfriend. Her unfailing support and the fact that she’s also a corporate attorney have been a big help.
Tristram’s vision for the future of the Sportbinox is bright and clear. After all, as Tristram sees it, “Everyone has two eyes,” and therefore everyone can use a Sportbinox.
Tristram also sees the potential in renting the Sportbinox at stadiums, allowing people to spend a lesser amount to use the product without laying out the full price to purchase one. Tristram’s plan for the road ahead is to use the public relations potential of the Sportbinox to get attention without spending dollars on advertising.
“The Sportbinox is highly visible because it sits on top of your head.” So Tristram plans to wear the Sportbinox while sitting in high-profile seats at sporting events. By doing this, he hopes to attract attention and score interviews with reporters from large media outlets.
Eight or nine years after conceiving the idea for the Sportbinox, Tristram is now somewhat of an expert on what it takes to succeed with an invention. “It’s been a learning process; I’ve learned so much about human nature. I am now able to help other inventors understand what it takes. It’s so important to have a large market for your product. And to make sure your product is a necessity, especially as economies are tightening.”
With Sportbinox, this former racecar driver sees the road ahead and certainly has the drive to make it all the way on the road to success.