It became prescribed when online donor blew the doors off a second - chance crowdfunding run : Modobag , the corniest expect - peradventure - I - actually - need - that innovation of the year is go to be a world . Its inventor , Kevin O’Donnell , had a vision of commuter puttering around airdrome concourse on a carry - on suitcase powered by an electric motor . If you want cogent evidence that America is and always has been great , reckon no further than his invention , direct out of aSaturday Night Livespoof advertising , raise a third of a million buck this summer .
follow for the bags – and the proprietor who be intimate to ride on them – to be whizzing around American airport at 5 miles per hour as soon as November . In January , the bounteous shipments begin . For O’Donnell , the final steps to becoming a mechanise - suitcase Moghul took him through the Earth of motorcycle racing , Federal Aviation Agency regs , and Paula Abdul endowment shows .
Truly , if the track to fetch the world the first hybrid luggage / quadricycle / Mobile River - charge station were easy , someone would ’ve done it already . We need him how he went from wheel around his luggage like a bucolic to becoming the Steve Jobs of carry - ons .
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Break dancers led to the breakthrough
O’Donnell ’s intake come from an unlikely source : travel with a interruption - dancing team from his hometown of Chicago . Through a mutual conversance O’Donnell had met theChi - Town Finest Breakers , consisting of six dry pint - sized B-complex vitamin - male child and vitamin B complex - miss sib , backstage at a performance . " It was kind of a strong - fortune business deal , " he says . " The menage was formerly homeless and just starting to get back on their foot . They are such an awesome family , the kids and the parents , and crack dancing went a long way in getting them through it . "
At the time , O’Donnell , a veteran of e - Commerce Department startups , was expect for a new projection . He began funding and accompanying the young terpsichore company on trip across the country for tryout on TV gift shows like Abdul’sLive to Dance . It was during a post - audition layover with the kid when inspiration hit . " We had some time to kill , so I started tow the young tyke , DJ eFresh , around on my baggage to get to an colonnade on the other side of the aerodrome . It was fun , but I was getting kind of tired , so I kind of jokingly told them , ' human being , I need to put a motor in these things ! ' "
There , the clouds parted , a beam of light radiate down , a choir Panax quinquefolius , the whole nine . " And then , " O’Donnell says , " it was like ' Man , Ireallyshouldput a motor on these things ! ' "
Courtesy of Modobag
Finding the right partner
The first soul O’Donnell turned to for his novel idea of high - speed carry - ons was Boyd Bruner , O’Donnell ’s longtime friend and former AMA Pro Road Racing Daytona 200 winner . " I call him to my place , gave him the line of gab , and he just kind of stood there and shook his head , " O’Donnell says . " Then all of a sudden he get goosebumps . He experience it . He quit his twenty-four hours business pretty quickly after that , and we ’ve been doing this thing ever since . "
Bruner not only brought the proficient expertness needed to make O’Donnell ’s dream of marrying motor and luggage a reality , but his bona fides in the bike - step on it residential district also lent cred to an approximation that the populace was too keen to dismiss .
While O’Donnell and Bruner were gamy on the melodic theme of motorized suitcases , it took the residue of the world a little clock time to watch up . A 2015 Kickstarter dilly-dally , sort of like your regular ol' traveling bag does now when you adjudicate sit around on it . Would - be investors seemed to be intrigue by the musical theme conceptually , but not enough to plunk down the hard cash the team was hoping to see .
Modobag/Youtube
" It stung a little snatch , but we just keep labor , " O’Donnell says . " We kept improving the design , the manufacture process , the technical school , all that . We kept forge out one paradigm after another , the last substantially good than the first . count back , the tepid response to the first Kickstarter movement emphatically seems like a blessing in disguise . "
After a setback, a return to the design table
Sobered , O’Donnell and Bruner seriously up their technical school game . They upgraded to a DuPont ballistic nylon shell , refined the conception on the lightweight aluminum chassis , design customs duty , uber - perdurable , skateboard - inspired wheels , and incorporated cutting - edge atomic number 3 battery that can reach a maximum charge in under an hour , all while still managing to keep back 85 % of a traditional bag ’s storage capacity , at a weighting of about 19lbs . They found elbow room for a USB - charge up port and an optional GPS - tracking system , so no more lost luggage orGrand Theft Auto - style baggage jackings ( you ’re welcome for that visual , btw ) .
The Modobag also comes with indoor / outside speed modes : top speeds of 5 miles per hour indoors and 8 mph outside ( guard first , kids ) . A 180 lb rider on smooth terrain can now require a travel compass of about eight miles on a full electric charge , O’Donnell says . Its battery , good for 4,000 shoot down wheel , will keep you masticate up enough industrial airport carpet to compass the equator .
" With the newer bag , " O’Donnell say , " when I vanish back to Chicago , I skip off the plane , drop the purse into the cycle lane , and literally ride it home . "
Importantly , the metre between fundraising efforts also help the team conquer one of the most pressing problems : making certain they could throng all that tech into a travelling bag no bigger than 22 " x 14 " x 9 " , and to have a battery that would n’t go all Galaxy Note7 and burst into flames . They now meet all relevant standard , O’Donnell says : " Modobag barrage are as safe , if not good , than the batteries in laptop computer and smartphones . "
The team also juiced up their praseodymium crusade with this tap - dancing - on - the - edge - of - phantasmagoric video of genuine , grown - ass hoi polloi ride around on motorized luggage . You in all probability remember the buzz . Some 400,000 hoi polloi have watched it on YouTube so far , and unnumerable more across other weapons platform .
The viral succeeder of the video proved what O’Donnell and his squad had learned from their alive demos at swop appearance across the rural area : the best sales pitch is only allow folks see the Modobag in activity for themselves . " It ’s fun , right ? " he says . " It ’s hard not to smile seeing someone ride around on a suitcase . That ’s the initial claw ; people are like , ' What the heck is going on here ? ' But when people really start wrap their head around what they ’re get word , they start getting how useful and operable this thing really is . Now , when I travel , people come up to me and are like , ' Oh , my God , it ’s a real thing ! ' I ’ll have trajectory staff , even the pilot , coming out of the cockpit after a flight asking to take a ride . "
The mob has spoken, and it wants to ride suitcases
Indiegogo patron seemed to agree . This time around , some 350 angel provide O’Donnell & Co. with more than $ 330,000 worth of pre - orders . An initial output run of 200 will begin in November of 2016 – the first 25 are getting " the ultimate abuse trial " – while the balance will be delivered to other investors and partners starting in November .
If you just ca n’t wait to get your deal ( or rear close , as it were ) on your very own Modobag , you could still pre - ordering throughIndiegogofor $ 1,095 , a nerveless $ 400 off the expect retail cost . Sure , that ’s a hefty sticker , but your conventional carry - on ai n’t let you do a Jeff Gordon caricature from the TSA checkpoint to your departure logic gate , all while tear your iPad , now is it ?
A more robust production cycle starts up at the last of the twelvemonth , which means Indiegogo investors with antecedence purchase order fulfilment will be zipping around airport terminals , pattern nitty-gritty , and college campuses on Modobags as early as January 2017 .
For O’Donnell , watching the Modobag modulation from brainwave to legit travel root is live up to on multiple levels . " It ’s such a cool mint debate where we start , " he says . " Two years later the Chi - Town Finest Breakers and their parents are doing well , they ’ve strike out to a house in LA , the child are still dancing and find winner . And here I am still putting motor on luggage ! "
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