AbsolutelyNew Licenses Breakthrough Stretch Grip™ Pliers

SAN FRANCISCO--(EON: Enhanced Online News)--AbsolutelyNew, Inc., a next generation consumer products company that brings independent inventors’ best ideas to market, has signed an exclusive licensing and manufacturing deal with the inventors of Stretch Grip™ pliers. The company will begin selling their pliers in Spring 2009.

“We look forward to launching this inventive product, along with several others, into hardware stores and homes beginning in early 2009.”

Stretch Grip™ pliers bring everyday pliers into the modern era, adding a scissors-like inside grip and thumb catch to traditional pliers. This simple but ingenious innovation means:

• More precise control while opening, closing and gripping
• Firmer grip, most notably when gripping wider and heavier items
• Increased safety because of reduced risk of losing control or grip
• Greater ergonomics and comfort
• New usage by persons with arthritis and physical limitations

The inventors, a Pennsylvania couple that wishes to remain anonymous, found traditional pliers insufficient for certain routine tasks in the shop where they worked – the traditional pliers simply didn’t provide a firm, safe grip on larger, heavier items. So they took to their home workshop and welded a scissors grip to standard pliers. The improvised solution proved highly effective.

The two initially didn’t plan to patent their invention. However, after repeatedly seeing companies launch new products similar to ideas they had also thought up but not acted upon years earlier, the couple decided they weren’t going to lose out again. They patented their pliers in 2000.

Success proved elusive until the inventors connected with AbsolutelyNew in 2006. AbsolutelyNew’s product development team refined the design for still greater ease of use, including adding the thumb catch, and also for improved manufacturability. It then chose to license directly from the couple.

“We’re elated with how things have gone,” the inventors said. “The folks at AbsolutelyNew have taken this beyond anything we could have comprehended.”

“The innovative Stretch Grip™ pliers are a wonderful example of the good that can come from home invention,” said Richard Donat, AbsolutelyNew’s CEO. “We look forward to launching this inventive product, along with several others, into hardware stores and homes beginning in early 2009.”

AbsolutelyNew will sell Slip Joint and Needle-Nose versions of Stretch Grip™ pliers, both made of drop-forged carbon steel with molded plastic handles. The company will start shipping to hardware stores nationally by Spring 2009.

Product photos available upon request.

About AbsolutelyNew, Inc.

Headquartered in San Francisco, AbsolutelyNew is a consumer products company that finds and drives to market the most innovative goods from the world’s inventors. The company’s team of 80+ employee experts has helped thousands of inventors bring their ideas to life. Products in the company’s portfolio span a wide range of categories, and can be purchased in stores, in catalogs, online, and on TV. AbsolutelyNew is privately held, with venture capital backing from Artiman Ventures. For more information, please visit www.absolutelynew.com.

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