JUST HANGING AROUND:.
The Fabric Garage Tool and Garden Hanger is the invention of Huntsville resident Edward Myers.
HUNTSVILLE - Necessity has long been identified as the mother of invention, but some credit perhaps needs to be given to experience, knowledge and even just idle hands.
Any one of the last three would best describe Edward Myers, who at the young age of 86 has designed a new invention that may be found hanging in most fabric garages in north Muskoka.
Myers has designed what he calls The Fabric Garage Tool and Garden Hanger, which consists of two main components – two metal brackets that are used to secure a two by four beam in a horizontal position on the steel posts holding up the garage, and wire hangers that clasp onto the wooden beam to allow items such as shovels and rakes to hang from.
Myers has been living in the Huntsville region for the past 16 years, retiring here with his wife Beverly after he sold his business, Myers Wire Productions, which was based in Mississauga.
“We always came north to here for weekends and that sort of thing for years, so we knew the area,” he said.
For more than 30 years, Myers’ company manufactured floor display stands for various items, including for brands like Wrigley and Kool Aid.
He said he came up with the idea about six months ago when he couldn’t find a proper place to hang his snow shovel.
“I had been creating and designing wire stands for so many years and found out there was no place for me to hang my garden tools inside my fabric garage. When you leaned the tools up against the wall of the garage and there was a big wind, it would fall over and strike the car. So we needed something to keep it from falling while the tools were in the garage.”
After designing the prototype, Meyers took it to his brother-in-law’s manufacturing facility in southern Ontario, where they created about a dozen of the brackets, along with an equal number of packages of hangers, containing five per package.
Myers did admit he hasn’t patented the hanger and probably won’t, saying that doing so sometimes costs too much.
“I designed golf gloves once that had a Velcro strap on it to keep your hand in place on the club. It cost me more than $1,000 to patent that. It is very expensive. I find that it’s the products that get on the market first that have the real advantage.”
Perhaps some of Myers’ luck in business and in life will aid him in his latest endeavour. Not only was he successful in running his own company for more than three decades, he was able to serve his country in the Second World War without having to see any action.
“I was on draft twice actually. In the European part of the war, I was on training when it ended. Then I was in training for the Japanese part of the war and I didn’t get overseas for that,” he said with a slight laugh.
For now, Myers said that he is waiting to see if his creation takes off, and then will decide what direction he will take with his new venture.
The bracket sells for around $29 and the hangers costs about $15, sold separately. Both products are on sale at the local Home Hardware outlet and Myers said that there is a possibility of someday selling the products throughout the chain, depending on sales.
“I am going to go with it as far as I can,” he said.