UnbuckleMe owners pin hopes on ‘Shark Tank’ to reverse sales slip
Sales for UnbuckleMe, a Houston company that makes a device that enables people with weak thumbs from arthritis or other hand issues to easily unbuckle car seats, are down in a big way since the coronavirus sidelined many of its customers.
But that’s not cause for despair for mother-daughter duo Becca Davison and Barbara Heilman, who are about to gain major exposure, and possibly an investor, on ABC’s “Shark Tank.”
The pair will appear on the television show on May 6 with Davison’s 4-year-old daughter, who inspired the invention when her grandmother offered to watch her for a week when she was 6 months old. Heilman had trouble using the car seat, which requires 9 pounds of pressure to unbuckle for safety purposes.
An occupational therapist by trade, Heilman did not want to be stuck at home simply because she was not able to operate the car seat. She made a C-shaped tool out of some pliable, thermoplastic splint-making material. The device, which gets clipped around the bottom and top of the seat belt button, serves as a lever, enabling her to release the seat belt with far less pressure than pushing the button directly. The mechanism works similarly to a nutcracker.
“She spent her career designing adaptive equipment for people with disabilities of the hand,” Davison said. “When the time came to solve her own problem, it was very much within her skill set to be able to design something.”
In researching the market, Davison, a management consultant who grew up in Houston and went to college in New York, discovered that other people have the same problem.
They developed a prototype for UnbuckleMe in 2016 and went to trade shows to make contacts to sell the product, which hit the market in 2017.
On a typical month, the company sells 2,500 to 3,000 units at $14.99 apiece. The patented device, which is manufactured in Iowa, is made of hard plastic on one side and soft on the other.
The UnbuckleMe device comes in several colors and is sold through the company website, Amazon, local retailers Bering’s, Magpie’s Gifts, Pure Parenting in the Heights, and at buybuy Baby and Nordstrom stores nationally. Selected nail salons sell it to another market that was not originally envisioned: people with long nails or fresh manicures. Drivers also buy the tool for children age 4 or older to use themselves before passing it to the front seat for safe keeping.
Other customers who have adopted the device include those with carpal tunnel syndrome or a type of tendinitis called mommy’s thumb.
“Our product has made life easier for so many people,” Davison said.
To date, the company is approaching $500,000 in annual sales, very few of which occurred recently.
Since the coronavirus took hold in March, potential customers for UnbuckleMe are not driving much. Elderly people, who are among the most vulnerable to the virus, are increasingly keeping a distance from younger children. Parents are staying at home, and when they do get in their cars for essentials such as groceries, they are going alone. No one is going out for a manicure.
“Our sales have really fallen off a cliff pretty substantially,” Davison said.
In March, the company saw an 80 percent to 90 percent drop in sales volume, but things have picked up a bit in April. Davison anticipates the toll on sales will be temporary as the world gets back to normal.
“I know it will come back because people need it,” Davidson said. “It’s a need product, not a want.”