Columbus Idea Foundry members Dylan Paul and Levi Crumley of ReFab Studio partnered with Kenji Prince from The Old Familiar Barbershop on a recent Kickstarter project to bring their product, a stainless steel comb bottle opener, to the masses.
Kenji walked in to the Columbus Idea Foundry with an idea and a sketch on a fast food bag of what he had in mind. From there, Levi and Dylan re-created the sketch using CAD software and proceeded to make a prototype in-house using the equipment at CIF. The prototype was used to test size, weight, and functionality both as a comb and a bottle opener–after all Kenji is a barber first and foremost, so the comb had to actually work.
From there the guys sourced a local shop to do the manufacturing, got a few samples and launched the project on Kickstarter with the intention of covering up-front costs and asked for $2,500. Local support and coverage on a few well-known blogs resulted in the final pledge amount of $22,352 (almost 900% of the goal!).
In the wake of the successful project the creators have formed a new company, The Old Familiar Comb Company LLC. If you want to know more about purchasing a comb now that the Kickstarter Project has ended, head over to their website.
