Bionic Wrench(TM) Awarded Highest Honors in Two Prestigious International Product Design Competitions
LoggerHead Tools and Apple Computer Only U.S. Companies to Receive Top Distinction for Both iF and Red Dot Awards
Chicago, March 21, 2006 - Not even a year after launching the Bionic Wrench(TM) -- a new class of hand tool and the company's first product -- LoggerHead Tools has received the highest possible honors in two international product design competitions: the Red Dot award and the iF product design award. LoggerHead Tools and Apple Computer are the only U.S. companies to receive the highest honors in both prestigious international competitions this year. Apple Computer was honored for its iPod nano personal music player.
The iF Gold Award
On March 9, LoggerHead Tools founder Dan Brown was honored in Hannover, Germany, with an iF Gold award, one of the most coveted honors in product design, presented by the International Design Forum (iF). The iF seal of quality design was given to 688 out of 1,952 competing products from 37 countries, and only 50 of those were selected as iF Gold award winners for outstanding design achievement. Only five of the Gold award-winning manufacturers were from the United States: LoggerHead Tools, Apple Computer, Et²n Corporation, Harman Kardon and IBM.
Red Dot: Best of the Best Award
On March 6, LoggerHead Tools Bionic Wrench(TM) received the Red Dot award's Best of the Best distinction for pioneering design in its category. The Red Dot is an internationally renowned design competition that provides an objective quality label for good design.
A total of 485 of the 2,068 product submissions from 41 countries received a Red Dot for superior design quality and 36 received Red Dot: Best of the Best for pioneering design in a category. Only two of the Best of the Best were from the United States: LoggerHead Tools and Apple Computer. The 2006 Red Dot awards will be presented on June 26 in Essen, Germany.
"Creativity by itself is not enough," said Professor Peter Zec, initiator of the Red Dot award and president of the International Design Association. "The products also have to be of high quality, and the task of design is to communicate this quality," he said. The Red Dot jury's selection criteria included degree of innovation, practicality, formal quality, ergonomics, and self- explanatory functional quality.
Simple, Intuitive Design
The Bionic Wrench(TM) is a new type of hand tool that optimizes the best features of an adjustable wrench and a pair of pliers. It has a simple, intuitive, universal design that requires no locks, knobs or adjustments. With the squeeze of a hand, the Bionic Wrench(TM) automatically sizes and grips a wide range of U.S. and metric-sized nuts and bolts, distributing equal force on all sides of a fastener. This patented design innovation provides several advantages: it will not slip or round off corners, it eliminates the need to find the exact wrench size, and it is portable and lightweight. Together, the Bionic Wrench(TM) family of 6-, 8- and 10-inch wrenches replaces 38 SAE and metric wrench sizes from ¼ inch to 1¼ inch or 7 mm to 30 mm.
A Winning Product
Since its introduction in May 2005, the Bionic Wrench(TM) has been a favorite of design award competitions. At its product launch at the National Hardware Show in Las Vegas, LoggerHead Tools received the coveted Editor's Choice award from Popular Mechanics for innovative product design. The Bionic Wrench(TM) was one of 16 products chosen from thousands selected.
Later that year, the Bionic Wrench(TM) received a 2005 Good Design award from the Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design. The Good Design awards bestow international recognition upon designers and manufacturers for advancing new and innovative product concepts - for pushing the envelope beyond standard product design.
Differentiation by Design
According to Brown, the international design awards fulfill one aspect of LoggerHead Tools' mission: adding value through the "differentiation by design" process. "LoggerHead Tools is also taking the 'path less traveled' these days by manufacturing its products in the U.S.," said Brown. "In a highly competitive market of commodity products produced by cheap labor, this commercialization model requires significant strategic innovation, combined with world-class manufacturing and marketing processes." He added, "To receive a value-added price, we must create new meaningful distinctions in our products." Brown said his personal vision for LoggerHead Tools is to lead by example - hopefully demonstrating to other American companies that through innovation, strategic partnerships and product differentiation, it is possible to stay competitive in a globalized environment with a domestically produced product.
Bionic Wrench(TM) Availability
The Bionic Wrench(TM) is available through Orchard Supply, ACE Hardware stores, Herrington Catalog, and a growing list of national retailers and catalogs. Products are also available directly through Loggerhead Tools: www.loggerheadtools.com or 1-888-564-4374 (LOGGERHEAD).
About LoggerHead Tools
LoggerHead Tools LLC designs, develops and commercializes inventive, new-to-the-world tools manufactured in the United States. The company's mission is to create value-added, problem-solving innovations that provide enhanced value to its customers. The company is developing a series of tools based on the patented Bionic Gripping(TM) technology.
