Kickstarter<\/a> campaign that raised $4,927. The 500 units \u2013 tabletop and cabinet-hanging models for the paper towel holders and self-adhesive wall units for toilet paper dispensers \u2013 will be made under contract with a Chinese manufacturer.<\/p>\nThe units will be available for Holden to sell at the National Hardware Show in Las Vegas, which he will attend from May 5-7, as he begins efforts to market his devices.<\/p>\n
\u201cMarketing is a challenge for me,\u201d said Holden, who calls himself a creative problem-solver and has several patents, including one for a reversible spout for bottles to prevent a build up of liquid. He has a patent pending for the two magnetic discs he uses in his paper towel and toilet paper dispensers.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m a product developer. I design to solve problems. Marketing is a different animal, and you have to spend money,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Past efforts at marketing the dispensers, which failed to catch on, have included a professionally produced video and a bare-bones video Holden produced on his own.<\/p>\n
Currently, Holden is working on getting a robot to tear off sheets from his units at his display at the National Hardware Show.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I get the robot, maybe that will make a difference at the show and result in a few sales,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Holden\u2019s initial dispensers used gearing mechanisms to create resistance to allow tears from rolls with only one hand. He licensed the idea to Lifetime Brands, the largest global provider of kitchenware products for the home, but Lifetime eventually decided not to make Holden\u2019s design and opted for another gear-based dispenser.<\/p>\n
Under the licensing agreement, Lifetime\u2019s decision not to produce Holden\u2019s design prevented him from selling his gear-based dispenser himself.<\/p>\n
But Holden didn\u2019t give up on his idea.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you look at something like this, it\u2019s in every home, it\u2019s in every office. I couldn\u2019t not do this. That\u2019s when I thought of doing (creating resistance) with magnets, and it turns out it works better with magnets,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Holden\u2019s pending patent is for the design of two discs containing magnets that can be adjusted to create the right tension to tear a selected number of sheets of paper based on a roll\u2019s ply and its tension using just one hand.<\/p>\n
Holden\u2019s brother, who suffers from paraplegia and can use only his thumb and index finger on one hand, is able to use the dispenser to tear sheets, and Holden has spoken to occupational therapists who see a market for the dispensers to aid their clients.<\/p>\n
The market, even if limited only to serving those with disabilities, Holden said, would be enough to support his company, but he thinks the product has appeal to everyone.<\/p>\n
\u201cEveryone\u2019s so used to holding the roll with the other hand, but once you get used to it, you won\u2019t use anything else. It\u2019s analogous to kitchen drawers that go back automatically. Once you use those kitchen drawers \u2013 they go back more gently, they sound right \u2013 you don\u2019t want to go back to a normal drawer,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
parmijo@ durangoherald.com<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"William Holden\u2019s dispensers allow one-handed tears of paper towels and toilet paper<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":90036,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[685,356,13,28],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-90033","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-coronavirus-covid-19","tag-design-and-engineering","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-headlines"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90033","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=90033"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90033\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/90036"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90033"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90033"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90033"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=90033"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}