We are so proud of our fellow Round Rock business, Light Bohrd. They have been selected as the winner of the Under Armour Future Show. The Austin Business Journal reports that:
A Round Rock company has developed T-shirts with embedded lighting that got the attention of athletic apparel giant Under Armour Inc.
Light Bohrd Inc. is making luminescent running apparel without wires, chargers or batteries. The product was selected from 4,000 applicants to receive the $25,000 top prize at the Under Armour (NYSE: UA) Future Show in September.
CEO Chris Forgey now plans to reach a development and distribution deal with the Baltimore-based sport apparel giant. Any such deal would take a year or two to reach stores, he said.
Under Armour officials couldn’t be reached for comment.
The latest development could carry huge implications for Light Bohrd, which was founded in 2010 when Forgey set out “to build a better skateboard,” he said. Forgey is now applying Light Bohrd’s threadlike light-emitting diode, or LED, technology to products such as backpacks, helmets and firefighter jackets.
The 3 mm-thick LEDs are embedded between layers of fabric, making them suitable for running and cycling apparel. An accelerometer enables users to illuminate the LED continuously or only when the wearer is moving, Forgey said.
“We want to improve the way Austin looks at 5:30 in the morning,” he said.
Light Bohrd employs three workers. Forgey and his wife, Jen, started the company to develop products that are waterproof and charged wirelessly. Last year, the Austin Business Journal reported on Light Bohrd’s line of skateboards.
The idea came to Chris Forgey one summer night in 2010, after an evening of taking pictures of his oldest son, Mason, riding a skateboard. Mason loved the idea, so his dad bought a hobby kit from Roarockit.com and started tinkering with LEDs in the kitchen. He made a crude prototype, which had a logo with eyes and teeth that lit up on the bottom of the board.
By June 2011, the Forgeys had patented the “ruggedized luminescent display embedded in an object.”
By early 2012, the Forgeys decided that Light Bohrd had gone as far as it could go as a garage operation. Seeking to be seen as a valid player in the longboard industry, they bought a 5,000-square-foot manufacturing space in Round Rock. After adding helmets to its product line, Light Bohrd applied its technology to clothing — leading to the entry in Under Armour’s annual competition.
It also enlisted local consulting firm Napkin Venture to position it for growth. Firm founder Tina Cannon said Under Armour’s well-known brand name combined with its supply chain and sales channel should be a huge boon for Light Bohrd and its products.
“It’s a clothing line that Under Armour will run with,” she said. “They’ll do all the heavy lifting.”
This is such a “cool” product, and such an honor to be picked by such a trend-setting brand as Under Armour. Light Bohrd, we are huge fans and can’t wait to see your products with the Under Armour brand on it.
