Greetings -
Interesting question!
There are a couple ways to approach this challenge: independently or
via established corporate channels.
If you approach it via the latter method and your product has enough
commercial marketability, you could get a patent on it [which is
advisable no matter what direction you take, for legal protection],
and attempt to sell the patent/idea to an established athletic firm.
Or you could alternatively seek to work out a licensing plan with the
company. This would afford you much less long term work. The company
would handle pretty much everything, and give you a cut of the
proceeds. It will also require more work up front in selling the idea
to a company.
Another method along the same lines would be to pursue an "invention"
company that specializes in doing everything -- design, fabrication,
mass production, distribution, etc. One company that specializes in
this sort of "multi-hat" operability is called "T. Pico
International." You can visit them
at http://www.tpico.com. If they like your idea, and find it is
marketable, they will put up the capital to finance every element of
it, and actually handle a good portion of the
design/engineering/marketing directly.
If you approach this independently, you will have to have the
necessary capital to fund your operation, using one or a combination
of self-financing, borrowing, or venture capitalization methods. Once
you have the necessary capital, you will have to find an independent
contract designer/firm who will develop a prototype of your product.
A company that could assist you in this regard is
http://www.t2inventions.com or http://www.quickparts.com. Once you
have your prototype, you can then move to the mass production phase,
where you will need to identify a company that could mass produce your
product. t2inventions.com may
be able to point you in the right direction here, if you're working
with them
on a prototype. If your product is mechanical in nature, then
http://www.productionrobotics.com would be able to help. Sources here
will differ depending on the nature of your product [mechanical?
wearable?, et cetera] You will then need to identify distributors
that can bring your product to the retail market. These will again
vary depending on the nature of your product.
The independent approach is a lot more work, and a lot more expensive
in the long run [if you're financing it].
To determine if your product already exists on the market, there's no
real cut and dry way of doing this that I know of, because there are
thousands, if not millions of athletic products out there. However, a
real good start would be to search the patent records at the US Patent
and Trademark office at http://www.uspto.gov. You could also search
various athletic outlets around the country via the web. A company
such as the one at
t2inventions.com may also help with patent searching.
Additional links:
http://www.canadaone.com/ezine/expert/expert151.html
http://www.cio.com/archive/100100/foot_content.html
Search Strategy:
prototype
inventions
"Bringing to market"
mass production
contract designer
If you need additional clarification/information, please ask before
rating this answer.
Thank you,
jbf777-ga
GA Researcher |
