2005 News February 2006 – 5.0 Mustang & Super Fords Magazine November 3rd, 2005– The Wall Street Journal November 2005 – Pet Product News 9.14-16.05 – 96.7 FM the Wave 7.18.05 – Foster's Daily 6.18.05 – Portsmouth Herald July 18, 2005 Foster's Daily Rambunctious dog spawns new product PORTSMOUTH — A local couple has invented an innovative pet product, the Backseat Barrier, to keep dogs from moving into the front seat. The product was born out of the anxiety Kitter and Erica Spater, who live in the Atlantic Heights neighborhood of Portsmouth, felt every time they brought their dog Zelda in the car. Zelda is a 50-pound energetic plott hound who had the annoying and dangerous habit of standing on the center armrest or trying to climb into the front of the car. "I love the idea of having Zelda with us, but her habits in the car were starting to become really dangerous," Erica explained. "First we tried a metal gate in the back of our station wagon but soon discovered that it was always squeaking and needed to be removed anytime something big, like skis or lumber were loaded in the back. Also, we couldn't use it in my sedan. "We then explored the hammock option, but it was unsightly and needed to be removed every time we had a passenger in the back seat. We really just needed a solution that would allow Zelda some freedom in the backseat, but wouldn't be so restrictive, ugly or require lots of additional effort." Kitter worked with his brother and business partner, Gordon Spater, to develop this The Backseat Barrier fits almost all cars, SUVs and trucks with a headrest. "Zelda's The suggested retail price for the Backseat Barrier is $49.95 and it is being distributed Inventive Mind By Michael McCord PORTSMOUTH - Spend a few minutes with Kitter Spater and it doesn't take long to realize that he looks at the world differently than most of us. Spater, 32, is a compulsive tinkerer who also happens to be an inventor with an entrepreneurial bent. He's a principal in a Newburyport, Mass.-based business called Motivation Design that develops, markets and sells products he's invented. "I'm not a micro guy," Spater tells me as we stand in the drive way of the Portsmouth home he shares with his wife, Erica, and their dog Zelda. "It's best to be master of nothing and a tinkerer of everything," he said. Spater's tinkering has led so far to a full-time career as an established inventor of patented, and patent-pending products that people are actually buying - practical products such as Tire Totes, Tire Tote Wheel Felts, the Emergency Tire Tote, Tire Garage, and his latest gadget, Backseat Barrier. (Funny thing about Spater's current auto-related theme of inventions. "You'd think I was a big car nut but I'm not," he said.) The secret to his success so far? "It's important to take time to look at people and see how they accomplish tasks, how they interact with different products and tools," said Spater, who admits to lingering in various stores just watching people. It's not surprising to hear that Spater, a native of southern Vermont, studied anthropology and studio art as an undergraduate at the University of Vermont. He wasn't interested necessarily in following in Margaret Meade's footsteps by studying primitive or ancient cultures - observing modern, civilized Homosapiens using their gadgets was enough to spark his imagination. Another factor so far has been Erica's status as the family breadwinner. Just recently, Kitter drew his first paycheck because sales have been on the rise of late."It's always exiting, always something new and it always generates plenty of conversation," Erica Spater told me about being married to an inventor. "It also means moving a lot of stuff back and forth around the kitchen." Erica studied industrial design herself so she also helps out as "a sounding board" to Kitter's busy stream of ideas. Motivation Design is a two-person (Kitter's brother Gordon is the business and marketing whiz of the family), two-year venture, conceived in Brooklyn, N.Y., at an incubator associated with the Pratt Institute. Spater did graduate work in industrial design at Pratt and found he had a gift for pragmatic yet innovative product solving. Consider the Tire Tote. It's hard to believe but in this great country of tinkerers, there was no product quite like Tire Tote, which covers a tire and can be easily handled because, well, there is a handle with the special fabric cover. The Tire Tote, the company's most popular product to date, was born out of Spater's own childhood experiences and frustrations with lugging around tires after seasonal tire changes. He was also astute enough to know there are approximately 10 million snow tires purchased annually and that means 2,500,000 potential customers tired of lugging dirty, plastic-sheathed tires into the garage. "I like to look at a problem and want to solve it," Spater said. He must like looking at a lot of problems at once. Four times a year he and Gordon put together a list of 100 potential products ideas. "Some of them are the worst you can imagine. But some of them are pretty good," Spater explained. He has initially focused on the protective/safety side of the product equation but has learned, by watching closely, that Americans aren't the most proactive creatures when it comes to safety. The Backseat Barrier, which retails for around $49.95 has the potential to be a very good idea because it solves a potentially serious safety problem - dogs who can't stay still in a moving automobile. "Erica and I have been concerned about this ever since we got Zelda five years ago," Kitter told me. Zelda is an excitable, 50-pound Plott Hound who liked to sit on the center armrest or tried to climb into the front of the car. Spater experimented with different fabrics and bungee chord configurations before settling on a elegant solution of nylon and Velcro that works as a baby gate for the restless fido set. "This is going to be our biggest seller," Spater predicts. And if you think that in this early stage of the 21st century that Spater simply sits down at his laptop and goes through numerous design paradigms before settling on his favorite, you'd be wrong. He literally tinkers with materials, cutting and sewing (using Erica's old Singer machine), and building the potential final product one stitch at a time. One odd quirk. Before the products are made in factories in China - the only place he can afford small-scale production - Spater rarely sends technical specs to the manufacturers. They like tearing apart a finished prototype and reverse engineering it for production. You don't have to go far to realize a fundamental truth about the global economy - if China doesn't make it today, it likely will tomorrow. While looking for an affordable manufacturer, Spater called the Chinese Consulate in New York and was sent to a Web site containing the names of hundreds upon hundreds of manufacturers along with the types of fabrics they produced. Spater admits to being afraid of having his creations being produced out of sight and so far away, especially in a country with a deserved reputation for patent stealing. For now he has to run on faith that the manufacturers he uses are not ethically challenged. Motivation Design - the name arose from a beer-drinking conversation between overworked graduate students who wondered where their motivation had gone - has been kept afloat through private financing from friends and family Spater said he's looking for a second round of investors who can help his company move into the next growth phase. "We're really close to breaking even," he said. "We're gaining traction." Spater's products are starting to pop up in Brookstone catalogues and at Canadian Tire, a major department store chain which he told me was like "Canada's Wal-Mart." His products also can be found locally at Discount Tire, Bavarian Auto Sports and, in a few months, at VIP auto stores. He plans to hire the company's first non-family employees to bolster its sales capabilities. And Kitter Spater tells me he's ready to branch into other invention lines. Though he wouldn't reveal any detailed secrets, he did tell me that Americans are going through a do-it-yourself home remodeling and are transporting a lot of materials in vehicles not necessarily suited for the task ... and they may need some gadgets to make tasks a little easier to do. Michael McCord is the Herald business editor. Beginning June 26, Out on a Limb will move to the front page of the Sunday business section.
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