Super Soles. Helping you see the band, not just hear the band!

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1 Super Soles Helping you see the band, not just hear the band! Being short at concerts and music festivals, where the audience are standing, can be a nightmare. Just when you think you ve found the ideal spot to stand, a tall person appears in front of you, and you can t see the stage any more. As a result, you can spend most of the time hearing the band, instead of seeing the band. (And you go all that way to see them, right?) Well, I ve come up with a fun solution the Super Soles. These are strap-on attachments, to fit shoes of most sizes and shapes, which allow the person to grow by around six inches. Not a lot but enough to make a big difference to a kid or shorter adult, whether at a festival/concert or otherwise. Because they are inflatable, they will be extremely portable and comfortable, and can come in a variety of shapes and designs. The most obvious market right now seems to be the music festival and concert market. However the fact that the design can vary means that they could be of more general interest to kids. The concept here is fairly simple (portable platforms), however I don t think anyone before has produced platforms like this, targeted at this market. Set out over the next few pages are some thoughts on: 1. Key features 2. Target audience 3. Construction 4. Form factor 5. Potential questions/issues

2 1. Key Features Here are the key features, as I see it: A strap on inflatable sole, which will attach over shoes or boots (including wellington boots - key for those muddy festivals). They will have a decent shoe like grip on the bottom (platforms for use in these scenarios can t have legs - many festival audiences stand on grass therefore they must not simply sink into the soil/mud). They will be high enough to be worthwhile for many people, but not too high, so that: there will be limited scope for other concert goers to be annoyed by them they can be walked on / moved on with little practice (and minimal danger of falling over) 2. Target audience Music festival goers Concert goers Kids Advertisers Music festivals these days are full of stalls selling clothes and accessories to captive audiences. Also, many gadget websites, certainly here in the UK, target festival goers with festival essentials every summer (e.g. portable telephone chargers, etc). This would fit perfectly into their offering. While music festival and concert goers (specifically the shorter audience members) are the obvious market, these could be of interest to kids generally. Super Soles allow them to grow up without growing old! (Potential slogan there?!). There is also some scope for logos to be included on the product, so they may be of interest to advertisers, e.g. as a festival/concert freebie. 3. Construction There are various potential methods of constructing these. My preference is that they are inflatable. Therefore the soles would be inflated, airbed style, by the user, before use. Advantages of this construction are: Lots of different, fun and interesting form factors can be used. I ve drawn a few examples below. My favourite is the caterpillar track. Hot dogs, bricks, cakes spring to mind as other possibilities. The Quirky community could obviously vote or suggest on different form factors. They may be more comfortable: with a mechanical approach I imagine more rigid materials would need to be used. They can be deflated easily. The key disadvantage is that it would probably not be possible to raise the soles when attached to the foot (a least not without including some powered

3 inflation device). With a mechanical construction this could no doubt be overcome. However this not a huge down side to the inflatable construction. 4. Form Factor I ve drawn a few different form factors below. These are (1) the caterpillar track, (2) the hot dog, (3) the brick and (4) a simple rectangular form. The caterpillar track is my favourite out of those four: it is the one I imagine would be most attractive, both to adults and kids. The others in particular are more suitable for the music festival type audience, where more quirky / outthere designs would sell. There is clearly lots of scope for investigating new form factors with Quirky community input. (1) Caterpillar track I envisage the caterpillar track model having an inflatable centre with a rubber track like sole all the way round. I ve shown a few colour combinations above, including a girly hot pink edition.

4 (2) Hot dog This is perhaps the most novelty design and only really included to show the varied design possibilities here. (3) Brick This is another quite novelty design. I like it because bricks are obvious items to stand on to gain height. The brick surface features would be printed on. (4) Simple This is the simplest design to make, and perhaps the most suited to advertising / freebies. However without a good eye-catching design it would be much less desirable than the caterpillar track version.

5 4. Potential questions / issues 1. If people use these at a concert will anyone else be able to see? Yes! These are unlikely to be used by anyone who is already tall enough to see properly, and they will not be so high that their users are likely to annoy others (any more than tall people already do). 2. They ll look stupid / I ll look like an idiot / They ll emphasise my shortness. It should be possible to design these so that they are a really fun and useful product nothing to be embarrassed about wearing. 3. They ll be unsafe in crowd environments The design/sizing does need to take this into account, however it should be possible to make them high enough so as to be useful, without causing any real danger of falling over. Also they are not really intended for the mosh pit! 4. Will they need to come in a range of sizes? Maybe two or three to start with. Obviously there doesn t need to be a sole matching every shoe size, and when you look at what the intended market is, those with larger shoe sizes are less likely to want the product. So it should be possible to launch without needing a large number of sizes. 5. Do they have to be called Super Soles? Not at all that s just my working name for them. I m expecting the Quirky community to have some great ideas for names.