FIRST ONE.
Steve Smith looks at the very first Musklip he created in 2008. He successfully made the first one on Super Bowl Sunday, missing the first half of the game. Smith will appear on the W Network sometime this summer with his
invention.
Jennifer Bowman
What started as an idea on the golf course is now taking a local man onto national television.
Steve Smith is a certified mould maker by trade. While work was scarce during the recession, he started designing what he calls the Musklip, a plastic hook-like structure that hangs onto your belt and holds your drink. This summer it will be featured on the “Back Yard Inventors,” a new show on the W Network, which airs across Canada.
“I think this will be a real game changer for me,” he said.
The idea started during some chatter on the golf course about the difficulties that come with setting your beer on the grass while taking your swing — difficulties such as forgetting your beer is there and running over it with the caddy.
The chatter became a sketch. Then he designed and made the machines, and finally created the parts.
On Super Bowl Sunday, just before the Super Bowl started, he successfully created the first Musklip.
Once he did one, he had to do another, he said.
He only watched the second half of the Super Bowl.
The Musklip is an invention that not only hooks onto a belt, but also chairs, drawers or anything else the narrow hook can fit onto.
Smith has them hanging everywhere — on the chairs in his yard, from the tool boxes and machines in his shop, on the door, and on his pants. They’re filled with everything from beer bottles and water bottles to WD40 cans.
So far he has distributed 4,500 Musklips throughout Muskoka.
It’s been a tough four years for Smith’s business.
“I’m fortunate that my wife’s a nurse to get us through this lump,” he said.
Smith approached the TV show Dragons’ Den with his invention. They lamented that they need a show for inventors, but didn’t bite.
In October 2010, he appeared on Dragons’ Den in Muskoka Parry Sound. He sold 84 Musklips in 15 minutes to a crowd of 350 people. He also had positive feedback from the investors, but still hasn’t heard from them.
“So there’s interest, people do like it,” he said.
From there he applied to the Collingwood Georgian Bay Dragons’ Den, but did not qualify because he was out of the region. It was there he learned about the Backyard Inventors.
He jumped on the opportunity and called them right away.
“They said, ‘oh you’re just getting in under the wire, get your application in,’” he said. “Then I got the call and went down for that audition.”
The Musklip will be featured on one of the Back Yard Inventors’ 14 episodes this summer on the W Network.