SKIDDI: the First Ski-wheels Pocket Sized

Hallo I'm Sergio and I love skiing!!!!

Just imagine yourself during a normal Sunday at a ski resort: why should you feel a sense of fatigue and frustration before the day on the snow has even began?
You might find yourself having to carry sport equipment from the parking lot or from the hotel, up to the lifts (don’t you??) transporting your skis (plus maybe your sons’ or wife’s) on shoulders. That’s a quite tiring and Dangerous operation, by also wearing ski-boots that are not the most comfortable shoes. For this reason, I recognized the need for a new way of moving my skis simplifying every skiers' life. Here comes SKIDDI: a small simple device easy to use, suitable for all ages, even for kids, which will make you save energy and feel more confident on the snow.

SKIDDI is a pocket-sized and Made in Ital device that allows you, easily and fastly, to drag your skis as a trolley.
SKIDDI comes from a real need: to carry your skis in every situation, easily. You can use it whenever and wherever you want, and then bring it with you by storing it in your pocket.

I'm going to start a crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter in order to raise money to produce SKIDDI on industrial scale and bring it on the market for the next season.

Step 1: How It All Started

The idea of SKIDDI came into my mind a year ago after a day on the snow, where I had to carry my skis and my wife's ones for a long path from the parking lot to the lift (and back). That was the sadness part of the day. Then, same day, I came back home and started a web search to look if somebody had solved my problem somehow. No way. I just found few solutions but nothing very useful.

So I decided to find a solution on my own.

After tonnes of sketches and drawings, eventually the first prototype design come out!! Yeah!!! Great, It worked.

Step 2: Second Step of the Evolution

After the first prototype was made (BTW using spare parts I found at home), I felt like something was missing. So I bought my first 3D printer (a self assembled 3Drag) and started producing new prototype series being able to reach day by day a functional an esthetically appealing solution.

Thanks to my technical background in civil engineering, It was for me easy to design my solution using 3D modeling programs, and print new designs by myself at home.

Step 3: This Is SKIDDI: I've Made It!

After one year of passion, I've made SKIDDI. That's the name I gave to it.

The final version of the prototype has been designed to allow me to produce SKIDDI both using a 3D printer or an injection moulding tool if I will be able to have success with my campaign on Kickstarter, in order to collect money to meet the production costs.

Step 4: Final Step: a Campaign on Kickstarter

Yes, I couldn't give in to temptation of using crowdfunding to get it done.

You can have a look on our preview page of SKIDDI and leave any comment and suggestion.

I'll be very happy to have feeds from this community. I'm sure the product can be improved more than I've done.

Thanks to any person will be helping me.

All the best.

PS: If you are glad, you can also register to SKIDDI landing page to be tuned as soon as we go live.

Step 5: Lessons Learned So Far

I'll let this part, for anybody who wants to transform a true passion into something different. Once I first thought about the idea of SKIDDI, It was not clear to me, at all, how far I could have gone with my idea. After one year, I've learned great lessons and also made mistakes. Fortunately, I've found on my way valuable people that helped me, people I've learned from, and also gave back something.

It's a great journey, began thanks to "passion".

Yes, the avid passion has to be your fire, your true inspiration and motivation. But to turn that into something more, I needed to find out a path, a goal to reach, and a team to work with. Being alone is not always the best way.

I met people working in an incubator& accelerator where I had the chance to understand how far SKIDDI could have gone, and how much I should have pushed myself.

With them, my team so far, decided the strategy. Thus, I started working in a more organic, structured and focused way, in order to reach out the market with SKIDDI.

The crowdfunding campaign itself, it's just a marketing tool, very promising, but it is just a mean of transportation to the market.

So I feel like shouting out few tips and suggestions:

- follow you passion, your gut feeling: all comes from that!

- find trusted people to share your idea with: to develop an idea you need a wide range of skills!

- define your commitment: would you invest your own money on your idea? If not, why people should?

- form your team and define a strategy: bring people around your idea, share the commitment, and start working on a strategy, with goals and achievements!

- schedule your time, manage your project: time is a limited resource, don't waste it, be focused and organized

- explore crowdfunding as a channel: reward-based CF is a way to bring on the market new ideas turned into pre-industrial products. BUT It requires times, skills, and some money to plan, execute and manage your CF campaign.

That't it.

I hope this few tips will help you in your project.

All the best.

Sergio