Ever had a product idea?

multimodAL

multimodAL

Member
multiple options... feel free to be as descriptive or as vague as you feel comfortable with.

1.) something fun, or simple, you thought would be handy for personal use.

2.) something which crossed your mind, forgotten about, find someone else got to market before you?

3.) something for which you invested to maintain intellectual property (patented) or decided not to protect (and why?)

4.) something you successfully marketed and still sell or sold off the project to move onto something else.
 

Ever had a product idea?​


A couple that never got to the drawing board

but

Was a member of a think tank

Money people
Engineers
Designers
Marketing people

and

me....the word butcher

Last effort was a gun safe, unlocked with fingerprints

I came up with a name

The GRIP
Gun Retrieval In Possession (or something like that.....can't remember)

and a slogan

Be safe
Be ready
Get a GRIP

They loved the lines
But
The product tanked
Missed the marketing window
 
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two products, both unprotected but for different reasons.

one, a candle, i went through the the whole process of ip but pulled the patent and maintaining the trademark (though that lapsed now too.) reason it was easy to copy and is a survival tool.

the torchcloth candle is reinterpretation of the centuries old design. instead of a wick enclosed in wax, it is wax surrounded by a wick. looking like a crayon but of beeswax wrapped with natural cotton fabric (waxcloth) basically an inside out candle creating a carbonized chimney which retains the gasified wax within as it burns. it performed well in inclement weather was stackable and would siphon any wax candle remnants if placed upon it.

the second (i'll be vague) is a skateboard accessory which changes the geometry of the truck mechanism (axle assembly) to fine tune the turning axis front and back independently. unregistered to maintain secrecy. a patent disclosure opens one up to being copied.

i may revisit both products some time in the future but have always shared the candle freely with typhoon victims as well other people in need.
 

Gary O' said:

Ever had a product idea?​


A couple that never got to the drawing board

but

Was a member of a think tank

Money people
Engineers
Designers
Marketing people

and

me....the wood butcher

Last effort was a gun safe, unlocked with fingerprints

I came up with a name

The GRIP
Gun Retrieval In Possession (or something like that.....can't remember)

and a slogan

Be safe
Be ready
Get a GRIP

They loved the lines
But
The product tanked
Missed the marketing window
Click to expand...
i snagged a small gunvault from a resale shop's free pile, it has the four finger indentations but it only turned out to have programmable combination buttons instead of biometric sensors (that would've been more secure.)
 
I have no scientific knowledge, but if you remember the "mood rings" that were popular in the 1970s, when the youngest of my kids was a baby (late 1980s) I thought something like that would be a great idea for diapers... during the last couple of years I noticed someone did go forward with this idea, similar to the right side of this image:
https://www.compoundchem.com/2020/01/14/nappies/
 
A while back I thought up a board game called Rock N Roll Insanity. It's similar to Monopoly in that there is a square board that you navigate around with 3 different levels of play. In the Local Level you start off in the garage and book small bars and clubs to earn money all the while battling problems like booking agents, managers, equipment and van break downs, etc... You work your way from the Local Level to the Regional Level where the problems get bigger and so do the gigs and paydays. Here you record albums and sell them (in lots of 10,000). Finally you make it to the National Level. Here you sign a major record deal and deal with radio stations and selling more records (in lots of 50,000). You have large concert tours and all the problems associated with that lifestyle -drug abuse, lawyers, groupies, cancelled shows, etc... At any given time the band can crash and you can end up back in the Regional or Local level having to climb back up. The winner is the 1st person who earns a Gold Record by selling 500,000 records.

I approached the major game companies and did the whole copyright/patent thing with the lawyers and "consultants", but I couldn't generate enough interest. Board games were falling out of favor. I did make a prototype copy and my friends and I played it many times to work out the bugs. It was a lotta fun. But then we're all musicians.
 
Oh dear, never received anything on this product idea which became a regular feature but I've spoken to the suppliers for ink cartridges (which were very large and expensive) in the 80s. I discussed the possibility of refilling said cartridges as the cost wasn't stemming from the ink but the cost for making new cartridges for each.

In my working experience I went through different printers. Beginning with simple ribbon electric typewriters to (the one here which began all this) QUME Daisy Printer which were nearly eighty each for said ink cartridges, through laser printers, with added high costs for colour ink cartridges.

At work, I always recycled paper as well as carbon papers which, thankfully, disappeared quickly. As the machine offered saving features, I would print drafts on second side of paper, a supply of odd paper not of finished product quality. So, it was a great idea for all our office not only to save/recycle paper but ink cartridges as well.

It was approved and created a huge savings for all the government's departments. Sadly, I didn't benefited but it was my idea, bummer!
 
I had an idea for a travel water dish for dogs that could be used in a car and not spill. It would be made like the baby dishes of the fifties where you could fill the inner part of the dish (not the part where the food goes) with hot water to keep the food warm. Instead of hot water, you would fill it with cold water and put it in a freezer so when you put water in it you could keep it cool. It would have a cover that would snap on. I know it sounds stupid now when I am writing it down. But at the time I wanted one for my dog. I had a few other ideas.
 
Pepper said:
I was the 'idea man' as I lack the scientific ability to actually create it.
Click to expand...
No matter

I've known some folks that spent their time and money in product development
and even did the patent thing
(seems it was around $20Kusd at the time)
But
lacked the marketing connection
'It will sell itself!'
(heh heh)

One was an easy install clothes dryer duct
I think it was called Dryer Dock
Pretty good idea
The guy went into production
Even got Home Depot to carry some

Our group ended up taking it off his hands
as he'd run out of money
His inventory was housed in a barn
Turkey poop all over the boxes

Best to offload your idea for what's offered and move on

As far as cool ideas
Whoever came up with the handheld showerhead should get a Nobel
 
Pepper said:
I was the 'idea man' as I lack the scientific ability to actually create it.
Click to expand...
i've wound up on projects without prior knowledge of process or the product they made. placed in the position of the big-picture idea guy and managed to survive unscathed.

was requested by a manufacturer to step in when the move of a production line from daimler ag (germany) to a chinese weapons manufacturer in hong kong went south.

had to restructure the teams and redesigned the product to simplify the mold tool design without ever having been involved in that industry. with limited communication in either language, how i managed to pull it off is completely foreign to me.

upon my return it became apparent that the people i helped were attempting to pirate something else i was developing at the time. let's just say they found themselves in hot water.
 
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A vacuum cleaner that climbs stairs. Somebody invent one, please. Ideally, it would also convert to a riding mower with an air conditioned cab and a sNOWblower with a heated cab.

We can put a man on the moon, transplant organs. What's so hard about a climbing vacuum?
 
I’ve always enjoyed designing/making things more than marketing. Many of these things became market successes through the companies I’ve work for. I was also granted 2 patents while in their employment. One of them back in the 70’s was for a fully automatic battery charger that didn’t really exist for SLA batteries. Had the company enforced this patent they would have been very rich. Another idea I had was for a digital slide potentiometer used in audio mixing panels electronic synthesizers. The problem with these analog sliders was once you got the sound or level you wanted it was always hard to duplicate it. With my digital version it was no problem. Again, this was in the 70’s before the digital age.

This was one of the products using analog sliders. I was the design engineer for this product and the musicians would put duct tape over the sliders to keep the sound they wanted. This would force them to buy multiple units for each particular sound. All though the product was a success and is in many of the songs from the 70’ & 80’s they were not happy about it. Anyway, after building a few prototypes I moved on before the idea got implemented.

Quad 478.jpg
 
JaniceM said:
It kinda sucks when people have good ideas, but either don't know how to proceed or don't think they'd be taken seriously.
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Yeah my dad was like that and always wanted me to pull the rabbit out of the hat. Before GPS & graphical operating systems existed he envisioned a digital map that plotted your position on a screen. It’s very common now but back then we just didn’t have the technology to do it. Even me the electronics engineer didn’t think it would be possible for a very long time. Little did I know lurking out in the ether was Moore’s Law.
 
My latest idea is BenGay ointment scented with cologne or perfume. BenGay Musk, BenGay #5, RoseyGay, Pheromone Infused BenGay, you get the idea.

If that markets well (how could it not?) I have already started testing on flavored BenGay. I'm getting incredibly positive feedback for my Prune&Pepto flavor. Fingers crossed!
 
well, I recently decided to jump on the POD (print on demand) bandwagon. only at the very beginning of my journey and to the far left on the learning curve. anyone else here interested in POD...?
 
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SmoothSeas said:
well, I recently decided to jump on the POD (print on demand) bandwagon. only at the very begging of my journey and to the far left on the learning curve. anyone else here interested in POD...?
Click to expand...
i know some talented people who could use this avenue to monetize their work. haven't considered it before but in retrospect i am aware of a location with large format color laser printers, digitized embroidery equipment, screen print rigs, and a whole plastic applique operation ready to go... but currently in disuse. hmmm?
 
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I know I made a joke post on this thread earlier but in truth I have designed and developed many products. I was a machinist by trade but eventually became responsible for our companies product development, from concept, engineering and prototype right thru to production.

That type of work suited me very well, I got to use my brains and my hands every day.
 

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