Chuck Keegan loves going skiing with his two kids. The activity gives them a chance to spend time together outside and grab some snacks at the local mountain’s Waffle Cabin. But one thing Keegan never loved about the experience? Hauling their equipment to the lodge.
Keegan said he remembers a day at the Blue Hills Ski Area several years ago when he took his five- and nine-year-old sons skiing. Trying to carry all their equipment from the parking lot, up a hill and to the base of the mountain put a damper on the day’s fun.
Halfway up the hill, Keegan said one of his sons looked up at him and said, “This stinks.”
“And you’re keeping them encouraged, trying to carry your stuff, carry some of the stuff that falls out of their hands. So, I’m sweating by the time I get up to the lodge. And I’m like they’re right, it does stink,” Keegan said.
Keegan decided to take his experience as a senior vice president of design at a consumer goods manufacturer and create a new product to help families transport their ski and snowboard equipment. He founded the startup Tru-Kii that recently launched its own ski cart, which resembles the shape of a golf pushcart, with horizontal bars to carry up to four sets of skis or snowboards and an attached duffel bag to store the folded-up cart or equipment like helmets and boots.
The Milton entrepreneur’s first prototype was a kid’s sled. But as soon as he started to pull it up a hill to the mountain piled with bags and skis, they started to fall off. His next prototypes involved altering old golf carts with two by fours and parts from Ikea to hold ski equipment.
This was all before the pandemic. When Keegan found himself with more time at home in the last few years, he decided to revisit his Frankenstein golf cart design and turn it into a real product. He suspected he wasn’t the only person who wanted an easier method to transport ski equipment for a group of people.
Keegan said he knew he was on the right track when he started bringing his “Ikea-hack prototype” to Wachusett Mountain. He said they got a lot of stares and people coming up to them to compliment the prototype. When he brought his final product to the mountain, he said people would ask if they could buy it on Amazon.
Keegan declined to share how much they raised to develop Tru-Kii’s final products, but said they raised half of what they needed for the tooling and investment and their manufacturer invested the inventory and quite a bit of the tooling.
Other features of Tru-Kii’s ski cart include a table tray accessory that users can sit atop the cart for a makeshift lunch spot, cargo hooks that can hold two adult and two kid boot bags and an adjustable handle to match the user’s height. The cart can handle up to 150 pounds of equipment.
Tru-Kii’s ski cart is for sale on the company’s website for $499.99. The table tray costs an additional $59.99.
Keegan is still working at his day job, while also spending time getting the word out about TRU-Kii and its products. This past weekend he was at Boston’s Snowbound Expo.
Keegan said the product might not be for everyone, like skiers who go to the mountain alone or visit a ski area with accessible shuttle buses. But for families who want an easier method to get their equipment to the mountain, Keegan wants them to see Tru-Kii as a go-to choice.
“I think the best thing is seeing it on the mountain and seeing it in use. Every time we show it in a skiing situation, people are like, where can I get one of those,” Keegan said. “Usually when they see it, they’re walking from the parking lot. They’re carrying their stuff. And they’re like, wow, he’s rolling it.”
