Sprinting deep into the 21st century with a revolutionary breakthrough in children’s running strollers, KidRunners in Bend is making its presence known to consumers and investors with an inspired eye toward the future. Story by Jeff Spry CBN Feature Writer
Owner Will Warne envisions his new product bringing back the simple pleasures of running with kids.
“It’s an exciting time for the company this year,” he said. “Right now we’re building locally-based momentum going into the Bend Venture Conference with my other two partners, Mauricio Mejia and Andre Caradec. We’ve been invited into the BVC to present our KidRunner product idea with a series of pitches trying to get to the finals this October 17 and 18.”
KidRunners are designed for running and walking, not pushing. The company’s thrust is to create a collaborative effort engaging runners and outdoor enthusiasts to help create a new, better experience. They’re lightweight, safe and surprisingly fast. Each unit weighs 20 pounds, fits in a backpack and is built for people who love to run, walk and explore with their kids.
The sleek, minimalistic design can accommodate children passengers ranging from six months to about 4.5 years and weighing from 10-45 pounds, utilizing quality lightweight materials. The frame is composed of composite wood for strength, flexibility and lightweight. Future versions will look at various combinations of composite wood, carbon and fiberglass to enhance performance.
Its ultra-cool, space-age design enables runners with kids to run freely using their hands and arms. The composite frame and flexible “bow” that connects to the runner’s waist decouples the up/down motion. It’s a smooth, safe, high performance ride for both the amateur and professional runner.
Warne is also spearheading a Kickstarter crowd-sourcing campaign to slingshot them into 2014.
“It’s all about running and exploring with kids, reinventing the stroller for kids as something far lighter and faster.”
The genesis of this two-wheeled wonder came high over the Pacific Ocean on a return flight home from Hawaii.
“It was a very personal experience,” Warne recalled. “My wife, Megan, and I are both avid runners and competitors and we just had our first daughter and were living in San Francisco at the time. Like many other parents we started running with our baby daughter with a traditional push stroller. Most are poorly designed and difficult to manage, prone to cause injuries and you immediately discover that.
“We were coming back from a great Hawaiian vacation and were talking about all the clunky, bulky strollers we saw everywhere. With those six hours I had to think of how to solve this problem. I used that flight to sketch out the original design. To conceptualize and plot it out.”
By the time they landed, Warne had sketched out the first prototype design where you are pulling instead of pushing. Fifty percent of running is performed with your upper body and using normal strollers, a good portion of that energy component is lost.
Out of that original prototype in 2009 came many iterations and refinements.
“We’re in the third of four phases of design and development and with that third phase, it represents 70 percent of the final go-to-market product. So now we go through building the final design build phase and then begin to solicit funding. Along the way we’re running hundreds of miles with these cool KidRunners, have secured two patents and are getting lots of inspiring comments and feedback.”
A big part of KidRunners’ effort is design and they’ve invested a huge amount of time to get the product as elegant and lightweight and as minimalistic as possible.
Each KidRunner is 35 percent lighter than traditional strollers and can quickly break down into a backpack. By definition, it’s much more of a piece of cutting-edge sports equipment rather than a necessary domestic accessory.
“There are four million kids born in the U.S. every year and four-hundred thousand of those kids’ parents consider themselves runners. And what’s unique about this product space is that there are very few people satisfied with the market’s available push strollers. We had to solve some unique problems to arrive at both a visual design and hands-free technical design that keeps the child’s seat still and does not disrupt the runner’s gait. Creating the arm that connects the KidRunner to the runner and absorbs the motion of your jog from the chassis. That took us two years.”
Currently, Warne and his team are engaging an entire community of runners to participate in the final design phase here in Central Oregon.
“It’s been great having a network of collaborators and bringing them into the orbit of our last stage of design and development.”
Warne has been demonstrating and showcasing the product at numerous running events throughout summer 2013 in Bend, Portland and San Francisco.
“Our goal is to create a new product that we can locally source and manufacture right here in Central Oregon,” Warne explained. “Running events and media are central to our ability to build a larger collaboration community and awareness.
“We want to put a call out to Central Oregon about regional manufacturing. We’re searching for companies and individuals who can work with us to be manufacturing partners, people that are familiar with composites, hi-tech sporting equipment and plastic injection molding.”
For Warne and his partners, the spirit of collaboration here in Central Oregon is amazing.
“We’ve had so much fun engaging with people on our progress and we’re driving forward into the future with our final design. The word is getting out and our prime goal is to build and manufacture this product in our own backyard.”
For more info visit KidRunners online at www.kidrunners.com and on Facebook at Go KidRunners or call 510-206-6590.
