BoliGraphics 2018

The Problem

You are bored in class or a meeting, you need something to fidget with, twiddling your thumbs just won't cut it. What you need is penspinning! Penspinning is an art that requires extreme skill and concentration. It looks really cool too - see the video below of a professional doing it.

Awesome! So now what? Well, you will find out quite quickly that it takes a lot of practice to get that good and practicing during work or class can be difficult. Why? Because every time you drop the pen, it will make the loudest noise you have ever heard and everybody within earshot will be annoyed. What could solve this?

The Solution

A custom designed pen that will dampen the sound of failure while also enhancing writing comfort. The body of the pen can be overmolded with silicone to achieve both of these features.

Market Research (Viability)

When searching for penspinning on YouTube, it is clear that there is an appetite for it as there are six videos with over 1 million views and 2 of those have over ten million views. The virality of the fidget spinner and fidget cube show that there is room to innovate in this space.

The competition in the market currently consists of professional penspinning pens that are not designed for the beginner. They are loud both in terms of design and in terms of noise when dropped.

There is a market for more specialised penspinners as can be seen by the extreme popularity of videos but the lack of people owning a penspinning pen. In a survey conducted in our school, exactly 0% of people owned a specialised pen - 27% said they wanted to try with one.

Development of the Idea

The first prototype was simply a Bic Crystal overmolded in silicone. This was achieved by modelling and subsequently 3D printing a mold.

After getting some feedback from the reddit penspinning community, it was established that our product needed to offer a better shape for spinning. This prototype had focused too much on comfort and noise cancellation.

The second prototype was more streamlined and weighted at both ends. This made it easier to spin. However, this prototype did not have the Bic's case within the full silicone body and so was not rigid enough to write with. Another problem that was pointed out was that there needed to be more customisability to make the purchase worthwhile. For these reasons, the third prototype is being developed.

In the third prototype, the user can unscrew the the ends of the pen from the main body. This allows lots of customisability and also the ability to sell extra ends as add-ons instead of whole different pens. Unlimited customisability could be achieved through the use of SLS 3D printers which are cost effective in low count production.

Team: Owain Pill, Kian Rokni, Philipp Boyo, Mathias Malmberg Entrepreneurs of Tomorrow

This shows progress made up until the end of 2018.

We have come up with new designs and manufacturing methods since then. These new pens will hopefully be released in Spring of 2021.