Hasta La Ideas

This is one of those “not for me, but I can see how this is useful” products. The CLiP System, designed by South-Carolina-based design/engineering firm Lever Gear, was created for those who need to carry small items around–flash drives, meds, SD cards, et cetera–and compensates for the inherently poor UX that comes with trying to access tiny objects. Take a look:

The flat form factor seems so much more user-friendly than the standard cylinder. I also like the carabiner functionality, the removable belt clip and particularly the flashlight on the BitLight version. Mike Scully, the industrial designer and mechanical engineer behind Lever Gear, appears to have really thought this object through.

I’m often interested in where people’s ideas come from, and the genesis of this project is printed on its Kickstarter page:

A few years ago, Lever Gear founder, Mike Scully, injured his back. It was not good. Around that time he also had his teeth straightened, which was good, except he now got spinach stuck in his teeth at every meal. (And he doesn’t eat much spinach.) Those two problems meant he was carrying around small pills and toothpicks all day. Not a big deal except the toothpicks ended up covered in pocket lint and the pills sometimes went through the wash.

As fate would have it, he had been working on an idea for an EDC pocket screwdriver that stored bits in a slide out drawer. It dawned on him that he could store any small items in his pocket driver. Or was it that he could add a hex bit socket to his pillbox? Either way, anytime he can combine tools to carry less, he’s all for it.

That’s when the real work began. Now that we had a product concept, we had even more questions. How could we add even more functionality? How could we make it easy to carry? What other tools could we create using the same form and even the same parts? What accessories can we create to enhance the design?

We spent nearly two years in development because we were designing a system of tools. In fact, the BitVault and BitLight are just the beginning of the story. With your help, we can write the rest.

The campaign has already been successfully funded, with $24,967 in pledges on a $16,000 goal. At press time there were still 36 days left to pledge.