Gene Luoma comes up with a ’Why didn’t I think of that’ idea
by Kyle Eller
Budgeteer News
Gene Luoma hopes he’s found the bathroom-drain version of the Post-it Note.
Necessity for this Duluth inventor and entrepreneur came in the form of drain clogs from his long-haired daughter. The invention: Zip-It.
Tired of bent clothes hangers, Luoma, who says he never throws away anything, cut a strip of plastic from an old sled and cut barbs along the side. When he pulled it up from the drain, a fist full of hair came with it.
“It worked so slick,” he said.
He handed out prototype samples to friends and family. The response was positive, and last Thanksgiving, Luoma’s brother-in-law asked him if any more had been done with it.
That’s when the inventor, who has sold seven or eight other inventions and has worked for several area companies, thought he might be on to something.
He didn’t even have to finish the sentence when explaining the concept to his nephew, Dan Stocke, who now works marketing the product. Luoma worked with a plastic injection molding company for mass production and a Duluth print shop owned by family members for packaging materials. The name came from Luoma’s wife, who told him “all you have to do it zip it in and zip it out.”
The Zip-It, patent-pending, was born.
Stocke started taking the product to local hardware stores. In one store, he said a crowd started to gather around.
The typical response of people hearing about the product for the first time convinced them something bigger might be on the horizon: “It’s a forehead smacker,” said Luoma, noting how people wonder why they didn’t think of it.
“The ultimate compliment is the forehead smack,” Stocke added.
Based on the positive response and a glimpse at a wide market — “I think just about everybody has a problem with a drain sometime in their life,” Luoma said — the company decided to start marketing nationally.
Stocke and Luoma have been reaching into all potential avenues for the product, including national chain stores, catalogs, the Internet and even large hotel chains, which also must clean out drains.
“Selling this thing is beautiful, because you don’t have to say anything,” Stocke said.
He has also been working the public relations aspects of the business, reaching out to trade publications and newspapers.
Menards picked up the product on Sept. 15, and the chain’s first order, Stocke said, was for 35,000 pieces.
His wife’s hairstylist used one until all the teeth were gone.
“And we have just begun,” said Luoma.
He is reluctant to make any predictions on where the product can go. But at an affordable $2.99, the sky may be the limit for Zip-It. As Stocke pointed out, “The market is literally every drain in the world.”
“It’s cheaper than any of the liquid drain cleaners. And it works better, and it’s faster,” Stocke said. “It’s a no-brainer.”
So there you have it — Zip-It. Will it be the Post-it Note or the pet rock? Or just a better tool for clogged drains?
Luoma for some reason knew that Norway has a statue dedicated to the citizen who invented paper clips.