Inventing a path of Inspiration

Flip Clip inventor Jim Boda designs using a method that
gives him not just one idea, but a system of them.

Long before coming up with the Flip Clip, Jim Boda invented a method for designing products people want.

Boda, president and co-owner of Inspire Design Group, a product development firm in Middleton, said creating new consumer technology is more than just having a bright idea.

“It’s a process. It’s not just waiting for a light to go on,” he said. “Some inventors can have the best idea in the world but if they’re afraid to throw it out and start over, they’re lost. We wanted to create a program that would produce new products for the next five years or more.”

Before going to the drawing board, Boda and his team made a list of the things their new product would have to achieve. Boda’s list called for an invention that is simple and with low start-up costs. They wanted an item that could be patented and spun off into a family of products that would encourage consumers to make multiple purchases.

“We wanted a proprietary product,” Boda said. “So we went looking for what’s called a . . . product opportunity gap.”

Market research revealed an opportunity, Boda said, in the growing market of gadgets that help us organize our lives. He said there was a particular need for a device that would help consumers manage items in their garages.

“Take a look around, everyone’s garage is a mess,” Boda said. “Most of us have more toys than we know what to do with.”

That’s how Inspire Design, which has eight employees including two designers, came up with the concept for the Flip Clip.

Boda’s invention clamps onto the exposed 2-by-4 wooden studs that are found in the walls and ceilings of many garages, basements and attics. The Flip Clip attaches without tools and can bear loads up to 75 pounds.

An assortment of items can attach to the Flip Clip mounting bracket, offering consumers a range of storage options for everything from bicycles to gardening tools to canoes.

Even bulky items like rolls of carpet can be stored overhead using the clips. The company offers 14 kits for a variety of uses.

“Usually when designers design something it’s a single object like you’d find in a boutique,” said Doug Birkholz, Inspire Design coowner and chief design officer. “But what we’re looking at here is a program.”

Birkholz and Boda said Flip Clip allows its users to customize and modify their products as their needs change.

“We wanted to make it intuitive on how to use it so people can come up with their own solutions,” Boda said.

Flip Clip is available at the Garage Project, a custom storage solution center in Middleton or on the Web at www.thegarageproject.com. The storage kits range in price from $15 to $65.

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