Some of us may be snowed in right now; if not, we’re waiting for the next storm, and then we’ll be snowed in. Well, three years ago, industrial designer John Mosher was snowed in, in Hopington, Massachusetts,, and he went out with his snow blower to clear the driveway. It broke down. A 160 foot driveway is tough to clear with a shovel, and Mosher made it half way when he said that’s it! The rest made shovel history!
Thinking about the biomechanics of shoveling, Mosher began to envision an ergonomic shovel, one that would not break your back during use and, who knows, maybe even prevent a few heart attacks. He made several prototypes until he came up with the current model, a long handle of thin light-weight PVC clamped to a wide shovel, which adds leverage to the user’s weight during use.
The SnowBow ergonomic shovel: © Elements Industrial Design Inc
The SnowBow ergonomic shovel: © Elements Industrial Design Inc
SnowBow is now patent pending, and selling from the "SnowBow" website. Included with your purchase of $39.99 is a short SnowBow video (below) that shows you how to use the shovel, while hardly even bending your back!
Couldn’t have come out at a better time, hey?
sources: SnowBow, MetroWest Daily News, Wall Street Journal
