An intense mix of hail and wind whipped through most of New England this week, creating hazardous driving conditions, fallen trees, and mountains of snow on the driveways of all Massachusetts residents. The plows took care of general clean-up on main roads and highways, but residents were still left helpless when it came down to shoveling their car out of mounds in suburbia. Not only was the storm unexpected with spring arriving next week, but also extremely challenging for those with chronic back problems. Now, there’s a solution to everyone’s winter aches and pains called the Shovelution.
Downingtown-based inventor Howie Rosenshine had his own real-life “aha!” moment when he created the Shovelution, a NextFab-built ergonomic snow shovel. Just as it was depicted in the Golden Globe nominated movie “Joy”, Rosenshine followed in the same innovative footsteps and landed a deal with QVC TV in December. The results weren’t too shabby – 50,000 units were sold on-air, as opposed to the 2,000 sold prior to any licensing agreements. The Shovelution looks just like your typical shovel except for the spring-loaded second handle. It can also be attached to any shovel and adjusted for every user in terms of comfort. The product was designed to alleviate the strain regular shoveling puts on the lower back by allowing consumers to utilize their upper body strength instead. The item has circulated so much buzz that it has finally been made widely available on Amazon, Home Depot and Walmart.
Rosenshine went ahead and used Dassault Systèmes’ SOLIDWORKS platform in order to perfect the Shovelution throughout the entire design process. This rejects all of the preconceived notions associated with the platform, proving that it can also be used to create tools for everyday use. In fact, SOLIDWORKS even offers the SOLIDWORKS for Entrepreneurs program that provides software, training, and co-marketing resources to help ideas become a product and the product become a business. To learn more about how SOLIDWORKS for Entrepreneurs can help start a business from the ground up, just like it did for Rosenshine, visit our website for additional information.
