An ultralight, inflatable raft, a wine glass with a corkscrew for catching sediment, and an adaptive bike light walk into a Denver bar.
Actually, those three products and many others were on display during Denver Startup Week’s IRL Physical Product Showcase on Sept. 25.
The event brought together a host of Colorado startups with physical products, from wearable technology to educational tools, and even edible bugs.
Check out these six companies that took part in the Physical Product Showcase.
The inflatable packraft company was founded out of a Washington Park garage about five years ago and has grown to appear in stores nationally and internationally since.
The raft folds down to be able to fit into a backpack and weighs only five pounds, making it a strong choice for any backpacking trip.
With two employees and a couple more contractors, President Kelley Smith said “the sky is the limit” for the company as they define the inflatable, packable raft market.
“We think that packrafting today is what standup paddleboard was in 2007. There was only one standup paddleboard company at Outdoor Retailer in 2007 and we were the only packraft company that attended Outdoor Retailer this year,” he said.
While sipping on wine with his wife Margarita, Patrick Vacanti said the duo discovered a problem with sediment filling their glass and consequently, their mouths.
They set out to reverse engineer a corkscrew design that traps sediment in the bottom of the wine glass, but initially found little success.
“It’s very difficult to design and manufacture, we had a lot of no’s that we can’t do it and can’t build it,” Patrick said.
After a breakthrough last year, they created the Spriale wine glass and launched a Kickstarter campaign that raised $90,000 for the initial production run.
Patrick said the company will launch soon on Amazon and hope to expand their product line into other beverage containers, like beer or cocktails glasses.
Mountain biking can be difficult and dangerous, especially when you can’t see around the corner you’re about to take.
“I like riding my mountain bike in the fall, and my buddies like riding their bikes in the fall. It’s the best time of year to ride. I’d mount a handlebar mounted light and couldn’t see where I was going,” he said.
Chris Slaughter and the Mystic Devices team have developed the Hydra3 light that mounts on the bike’s handlebars and senses motion to steer the light around corners.
The product launches on Kickstarter soon and Slaughter this product will allow people to ride their bikes safer, and later, into the day and season.
Whether on the baseball or softball field, in the car, or just sitting on the couch, chewing and disposing of sunflower seeds can be difficult, and frankly gross.
That’s why Amy Fisher and the Centennial-based Sqeeds team created a canister with an opening to disperse fresh seeds and an opening on the other end to spit seeds into.
The design keeps discarded seeds from ending up on the ground or car floor, while keeping uneaten seeds fresh.
“If you eat seeds, you get it,” Fisher said. “I’m sick of having a nasty cup or digging in a floppy bag for seeds.”
Wear it like a pirate, like an Aussie bushman, or just regularly, it doesn’t really matter.
For Damien Henning, sunhats never quite had a strong enough brim. The hat would lose its shape, long before it lost its style.
So, he created Shape Flexer, a sunhat with a sturdy wire brim to keep it in place through all weather conditions and activities.
“I was sick of buying a new sunhat after every other trip I went on, becaus they got droopy and the brim lost its shape. I hated having to waste the sunhat, because the stitching was fine," Henning said. "So, I had to make one."
The team at mcSquares wants you to scrap that paper notebook, toss out that bulky chalkboard, and get your hands on their diverse line of templated dry erase boards for your next meeting or class in school.
They offer a four in one dry erase product that can be stuck magnetically on a wall or be taken down and passed around for group work.
Steven Kumpunen said the product has become a staple for corporate and educational use.
