As an engineer, Matt Walker spends his time figuring out ways to make things work better. In 1996, he created Mental Engineering Inc. and has since designed, perfected and released the company’s first item; a sled that lets everyone enjoy sledding during the summer.
The SummerSled™ is a product born and raised by Walker’s engineering skills but spawned through his imagination. Based on the concept of snow-sledding, the SummerSled™ is all the fun, without the cold and wet conditions. Designed to provide the same type of exhilaration, Mental Engineering’s unique sled glides down the sides of grass hills instead of snow covered ones.
Outfitted with a fully functional ride-on product, Mental Engineering Inc. now focuses less on engineering and more on marketing the concept that it expects will blossom into an entire line of accessories and products associated with summer sledding. Walker hopes strategic marketing and research will eventually make SummerSled synonymous with childhood pastimes. “It is very rare that we or our children don’t get at least one bike, skateboard…or pair of skates throughout our life,” he says. “We believe the SummerSled™ has the potential to become a traditional product as well.”
In his own words...
Velocity and a State of Motion
I´m an engineer by trade, and spent my whole career in the cable television industry, until I noticed children and adults snow sledding one extremely cold day while trouble shooting a fiber optic problem. It sparked the idea of a sled for grass, so the category of the idea was how I got into the toy industry. After about two years of physical and internet research, I was convinced there was nothing like it on the market. Then I started making sketches and exploring the protection process… I then applied for the patent and building a prototype out of cardboard to test the theory of a sled-shaped device with wheels. After the prototype worked as expected, I then began building a wooden prototype similar to the cardboard design to test the concept in actual use. I took it out to snow sledding hills to test its performance. Then I decided I wanted to perform a public demonstration to get consumer feedback and obtain more data on performance and construction requirements. This led to building three more wooden prototypes. I called a few of my college buddies and we formed Mental Engineering, Inc. We began the process of designing and developing a model and tools to produce a plastic model SummerSled™.
From Physics to Marketing
Our research has revealed that the SummerSled™ appeals to children as young as 3 and adults as old as 43, both male and female. We were excited to find out how broad our market demographic was, but soon came to realize how expensive it was to market. We began to research to determine who our most responsive consumers were and it was narrowed down to Mothers age 35-55 with children between the ages of 7-13. We focused our marketing efforts to that demographic. We depended on select markets and cable television networks like Lifetime, Nick, Disney, etc. to generate awareness and sales via our website and toll free order number. We also took advantage of the unique twist the SummerSled™ offered and pitched news producers and editors to do stories on this familiar but different concept of sledding. That led to a lot of exposure which increased our sales.
Achieving Equilibrium
I see the internet becoming a viable medium to retail and wholesale new products in the toy industry. [The internet will] provide a great platform for new products to enter the marketplace. We plan to adapt by maintaining and building our online presence to be ahead of the curve. We have had enough time to research how a recreational activity can give birth to an entire market of by-products. Just look at rollerblading, snowboarding and skateboarding. These activities drive an industry of by-products from apparel and safety gear to trick accessories. We intend to develop, market and license SummerSled™ branded by-products as the concept of Sledding on Grass™ becomes more popular. [In order to reach status as a household name] our main method is to research the organic growth of other ride-on toys and work to make SummerSled™ a new member of that elite group.
