It's a sports bottle shaped as a huge clip allowing your water bottle to clinch on the blade of your hockey stick freeing up a hand
This project will only be funded if at least $15,000 is pledged by .
It is called the Clincher. It is a sports bottle shaped as a huge clip. Your water bottle clinches on the blade of your hockey stick when walking to and from the locker room and the ice rink.
When playing ice hockey I never had a free hand when waiting to get on the ice with my team. I always had a stick in one hand and a water bottle in the other. If I had to adjust my helmet or push open the door to the rink, it was always a juggling act. One day waiting to step out on the ice, I was looking at the blade of my stick and thought there ought to be a way to clip my water bottle to it. So here we have it.
The Clincher is currently in the early prototype phase. I have a basic physical working concept model that will be used in the next phase of developing a production ready prototype.
https://www.facebook.com/clincher2016/
The trade-off in the design is you will lose some water volume in order to gain functionality.
A lot of players carry two sticks (game stick and a spare). The offset of the Clincher’s shape allows two sticks to be gripped in one hand.
A view of gripping two sticks while using the Clincher.
The taper of the stick down to the blade allows the sticks to be flush together while gripped in one hand as there still remains enough of a gap where the blades line up to allow the Clincher to be used.
Figure 1 shows a profile of the Clincher with the key shape and design of allowing the bottle to act as a clip.
Figure 2 illustrates the bottle turned 90 degrees from Figure 1 with the important design of the shape allowing for the bottle to be clipped on the blade of a standard hockey stick.
Figure 3 presents a similar view from Figure 2. Where the Hockey Sports Bottle is shown in reference to a hockey stick blade and how it would attach by being clipped down on the blade, clinching it securely.
The number one concern for the Clincher is to obtain substantial international legal protection in order to be successful in licensing. There is already a provisional patent in place to protect the concept during this marketing phase; however the majority of the funds being raised will be dedicated towards protecting the design. A more extensive patent is the number one priority in moving forward. This will be overcome with a successful funding campaign which will cover prohibitive legal costs.
Other challenges are keeping expenses contained. Thanks to breakthroughs in 3D prototype development/3D printing and CAD software, getting the design ready for licensing and production should require minimum costs.
Once in production, the Clincher should be very scalable.
There is the risk of adoption. As the creator, I feel this is a simple, low tech and low cost solution for managing a sports bottle when playing hockey. Should the hockey community not agree with or adopt the design of the Clincher as a solution, the viability in continuing its production could be brought into question. This will be evident in sales figures.
Learn about accountability on KickstarterI initially had it in place to send Backers a Clincher for providing support over a certain amount. Unfortunately, Kickstarter has a rule preventing a Creator to offer a product not currently being made. Which seems fair and valid. However, as a Creator, I will be maintaining a list of all those who provide support and I’m the type of person who remembers good gestures. So… I’ll let you figure out the last part of this idea I’m laying down that I’m just not permitted to write.
- (30 days)