Exasperation with kids who walk around with their shoe laces undone is an everyday parenting niggle but for Peter Greedy is was a problem looking for a solution.
Having faced this problem he went on to devise a system for fastening laces which will work with any type of footwear. Named Greepers it works by simply pulling a release cord to loosen the laces and pulling on two loops, that look like a traditional bow, to re-tighten it.
Greedy qualified in optometry from City University in 1987 and worked in independent practice before joining the Ronald Brown Group. He became a practice manager, pre-reg supervisor and contact lens buyer for the company before moving into a professional services role with Bausch & Lomb. Here his career developed across training and IT including a stint in the US. ‘There’s a serial inventor inside me because I’m constantly fixing things,’ he says, adding that he may have a dozen or so other ideas that could be developed once Greepers gets off the ground.
Although Greepers was originally developed for regular shoes it quickly became apparent that it had applications in sportswear, walking boots and among those with learning and mobility difficulties. ‘The origin of the idea was pure frustration with my kids,’ he says. Although they could tie their shoe laces, one child in particular would walk around with their laces flapping around. Being naturally inclined to develop new ideas and mend things Greedy started pondering possible solutions. ‘I was driving on the M40, probably going to Optrafair or the BCLA, and it just came to me.’ When he got home he fashioned the first iteration of Greepers from some beads and a lace. He put together a couple of working models which he said his kids used occasionally.
At the time he says he did not really consider doing anything with the idea: ‘I was enjoying executive life,’ he says. ‘I showed it to some of my mates and they said: “that looks like it’s got some legs”.’ Inspired by their enthusiasm Greedy sold his BMW 5 Series to pay for a patent agent and other initial work on the project. The Greepers story had begun with the design in 2001 and in the early days Greedy had continued in full time work assuming the idea would be incorporated into shoe design and licensed. The now fully patented, Greepers (see box on page 14) is a stand alone product using a modified toggle of the kind found on rucksacks and walking gear. Rather than squeezing the middle you pull on a loop.
Some of the initial BMW money had also been invested with a concept and design company employed to take the idea on. ‘That was a complete disaster,’ he says. The consultancy wanted to redesign the product and take it in a totally different direction. He felt his intellectual property was being misused.
By 2008 Greedy had the opportunity to take voluntary redundancy and decided to take that money to try to develop Greepers himself. In the early days he assumed the market would be everyday shoes and the path would be through licencing. ‘I never really planned to make the product, I thought it would be licenced to a shoe company. In my glorious naivety I thought someone would snap it up.’ He says not being in the shoe business was a massive disadvantage, doors just did not open. As an example he says it took him four attempts and eight years to get an appointment with Clarks. It eventually declined the product.
Peter Greedy with a team of runners using Greepers
The early rejection lead Greedy to manufacture his own line of shoes to get the idea into the market, ‘a kind of hybrid trainer,’ he says incorporating the Greepers idea. These were manufactured in China following a meeting in Hong Kong airport. ‘This was a complete waste of time. No one wanted the shoes but what they did want was the laces.’ This prompted the redesign for Greepers as a standalone product as a retrofit lace replacement for any type of shoe. The 200 shoes Greedy had made he shipped to Haiti as part of the earthquake disaster relief in 2010.
Around the same time Greedy took an interest in triathlon. Part of his kit included the elastic laces triathletes wear to speed their transition from bike to run. He realised triathlon was an application for Greepers helped by research which proves regular laces perform better than elastic ones. The fit with triathalon was confirmed by other trikit equipment providers and a rave review from a prominent triathlon magazine.
Triathlon also provided Greepers’ first bit of good luck when they found their way onto the feet of four-times world Women’s Ironman champion Chrissie Wellington. Serendipity had it that her husband is a cousin to the wife of one of Greedy’s cousins. ‘I sent a couple of pairs over,’ he says. She won races in Greepers. In terms of endorsement ‘you don’t get much better than that,’ he says. But Greepers is not just about sport.
Very early on Greedy identified a market for the product among people with issues such as autism, mobility problems and learning difficulties. He also says other markets such as safety footwear, police and the MoD are natural fits too.
To help tap into those areas the Sports product is complemented by Execs for smart shoes, Hikers for boots and Flats for street style footwear. While Greedy accepts his distribution is very niche he says the product’s users are evangelists and its following is growing. He now has distribution around the world and is expanding the sectors using Greepers.
For now Greedy works as a locum two to three days a week and spends the rest of his time on Greepers. He says the business turns over around £30,000 and is profitable but he clearly wants it to do more. ‘I would describe it as a cottage business that’s growing organically,’ he adds.
While Greedy continues to knock on doors to win a big distribution contract and seek licensees he is hopeful that the ‘tipping point’, when people start to request the product, will come. The journey has been tough, he says, but its offered him experiences and travel he would not want to have missed.
‘I’ve lost count of the people who have turned me down but then you will get a letter from someone who says it’s changed their child’s life, that’s the sort of stuff that keeps you going.’
How Greepers work
Greepers looks like a ready tied lace with a release mechanism at the top of the shoe. It has a toggle mechanism that allows the lace to be loosened and tightened with a simple pull.
Greepers is fitted by removing the old lace and threading the Greepers lace into the shoe from the top down. Once the last eyelet is reached the tightness of the fit is adjusted and laces tied beneath a small plastic tag and the loose ends cut off. The Greepers lace can then be loosened by pulling on a small loop and retightened by pulling the two loops of the permanent bow that sits at the top of the shoe.