Ivy Hartman: Welcome to SBTV.com's coverage of the 2008 Specialty Equipment Market Association Convention here in Las Vegas, Nevada. With me is Grant Gilbert from Grip Twist. Grant, welcome to Small Business Television.
Grant Gilbert: Thank you very much, thank you very much.
Ivy Hartman: Absolutely! Okay. What is Grip Twist and what do you do with that?
Grant Gilbert: Well, this is an industrial strength twist tie, and it's got a carbon steel alloy core, and it's coated with a medical grade foam. So, the reason for that is that, you're going to have the opportunity to secure something to your roof rack, or bike rack or maybe if you got a quad or something along those lines, and you can really use it as, it's got a lot of strength. Okay. So, you can bend that, it doesn't have a memory to it. Once you have twisted it around things, you can get it back to the original shape. So you got some pretty good length there out of it.
Ivy Hartman: It seems like what the bungee used to do. This is making it better.
Grant Gilbert: Absolutely! Well, and it is. And so with the benefits over a bungee cord of course are that it won't snap back and take your eye out. But it has some pretty good strengths to it as well.
So once you twist that, let's say, you're putting some 2x4 on your roof rack or a ladder or what have you. That's great, you can use rope, you can use a bungee. But what you're going to get out of this, is once you have get it secured around that item, and it's really tight.
You'll start to form around the shape of the item. Okay? And what you can do then is that's great the cables holding it, but you give it a couple of extra twist and now that foam starts to bide into it. So you're getting something even more secure, than a bungee cord or rope can give you. Alright!
When you're done with that, take it apart, take your roof rack, or take your ladder off your roof rack and then you can hang something up in the garage or put some on your quad or your four-wheeler, or what have you. So, it's a great application.
Ivy Hartman: And the thing I like is it's easy to store. I mean, it doesn't look like it's cumbersome or hard to throw away.
Grant Gilbert: Not at all, not at all. You just throw it over a hook and leave it there until you're ready to use it again.
Ivy Hartman: Fabulous product.
Grant Gilbert: Thank you.
Ivy Hartman: So, what you're doing here at this year's SEMA Show?
Grant Gilbert: Well, we have some distribution on this product in sporting. A little bit, bike shop that type of thing, in hardware, and there are definitely some great automotive applications for this product as well as in sporting and hardware.
So this is an opportunity for me to evaluate what types of avenues we want to pursue to get further into the automotive business.
Ivy Hartman: Start marketing it to those automotive people.
Grant Gilbert: Absolutely, yeah, yeah.
Ivy Hartman: And what's the life of one of these things? I mean how hard can I be on it and how I am going to expect it to last?
Grant Gilbert: Well, you can be pretty hard on it. It does not break down under UV, so a lot of exposure to outside, sun will not break it down. At least in the test that we've done in last three or four years, it has not broken down. And also being from Canada, it's been subjected to some pretty extreme cold, and that foam just will not disintegrate. So, it's -- I have got them in use for my garage for last three-four years, and again it's some minus 30s somethings, so that's pretty extreme.
Ivy Hartman: Talk about taking an idea in the marketplace, I know that you're the President of the company that distributes and manufactures the Grip Twist, so talk about just how the idea came about and then taking it to the marketplace.
Grant Gilbert: Well, the product was actually invented by a woman in Ohio and she was on a Ski Trip with her kids, and she was having a lot of trouble bundling poles and skis and everything together, and she actually thought of one of her hair curlers which was very similar in construction to this, but of course much shorter.
Ivy Hartman: Yes.
Grant Gilbert: And she thought, I need something to bind that all together, that's not going to scuff it, and she came up with this and then she realized she had something more than she had ever bargained for, which was a product that had just multiple applications, not only in automotive, but sporting, organization, storage, all kinds of uses, even gardens.
Ivy Hartman: That's fabulous.
Grant Gilbert: Yeah. So, I have taken over the distribution of the product. She remains the inventor of course and we are just trying to penetrate as many different markets as we can through some of our different reps in some other different business categories.
Ivy Hartman: You know that's fabulous because I keep thinking, where is my big idea. I get to sit across some wonderful innovators, and business people who have these great ideas and then they take it to the marketplace and I keep thinking, post it, you know, where is my big money idea really.
Grant Gilbert: I am with you, I am with you. I am having a lot of fun selling and marketing this product. And it just takes some tremendous engineering to come up with something like this and she remains a very good friend of mine and we're in constant touch and she has got a great product that we're having a lot of fun with.
Ivy Hartman: Let's talk about how people can get a hold to the product, and where we can find more information, a website?
Grant Gilbert: Yeah, absolutely, website is probably the best way to reach. Also we do sell the product online, but also it's available in some retailers, so website is www.griptwist.com.
Ivy Hartman: And if you want to reach him, you can call 877-263-8583.
Grant Gilbert: That's right. That phone number is on the website as well, as well as my email. So, we're always happy to hear from consumers. We get a lot of questions, about where can you buy it. The easiest thing is probably to order it off the website, but then there are some different retailers around it, that do carry it. So, we're always happy to let people know.
Ivy Hartman: That's interesting, and before you go online to order it, it's international. So, is there any issues with shipping and bringing it in?
Ivy Hartman: Well, right now, we're just shipping U.S. and Canada and that's sort of our next generation as we develop our international markets. We are just starting to penetrate Brazil and Australia and have interest in literally all over the world. So, as we do that, more and more consumers would be coming in and asking how can I buy it, if I am in Great Britain for example.
Grant Gilbert: Absolutely.
Ivy Hartman: How is having the retail component on Grip Twist website helps or maybe been a challenge for you?
Grant Gilbert: Well, it has helped because the product has not seen great retail distribution to this point in time. So, having that ability for the consumer to just say, well, I don't have any of the stores that you've listed near me, I'll just buy it online.
I had a woman in Louisiana who has recently, who I had a lot of fun with on e-mail actually back-and-forth and shipped her the product, because she wasn't really near any of the retailers that were carrying the products.
Ivy Hartman: Fabulous, griptwist.com. Great thanks for being here with us. We learn something new every time we're here on SBTV.com. Keep it right here, so we continue to bring you all things new in an automotive world and across all different industries here at the SEMA Show 2008, Las Vegas.
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