Local inventor in prestigious national competition
A local inventor is trying to make it big in the automotive industry and his fate is in our hands.
Local News 8’s Linda Larsen tells us how we can help get a great new product on the market.
Meet the Urban family. They are a lot like many other southeast Idaho families. They enjoy spending time together, and they work hard at their jobs.
Cheryl a teacher, and Justin works for a trucking company, but they are also inventors and what they’ve invented has a chance to win a prestigious national competition.
“The name of my company is UCF Custom Fabrications,” said Justin. “My product is a customizable modular flat bed that replaces your OEM truck bed.”
Justin’s truck bed invention is one of 15 semi-finalists at one of the biggest trade shows in the world.
The SEMA convention draws more than 60,000 domestic and international buyers.
“It really is such a neat opportunity and SEMA has proved an incredible platform for us to try to advance this product and really truly bring it into production,” said Justin’s wife Cheryl.
Most flat beds come in one piece. It makes them hard to ship and hard to store, and if you damage it, you have to replace the entire thing. Justin’s invention addresses all of these problems with panels that come in slats and can be easily shipped right to your door, and if you damage part of the flatbed, it’s easy and cheap to repair just that part.
After months of getting patents and finalizing designs and prototypes, the pieces are falling into place for Justin and Cheryl.
And now they need our help.
To make it to the next phase of the competition, they have to get enough votes from the public to make it to the top 10.
The easiest way to vote is HERE. Most of you are probably either holding your phone right now or it is just an arm reach away.
“We’re hoping that people whether they’re from Pocatello or Idaho or anywhere in the United States can get behind that too, and see that this is a really neat product, and we need to bring it into production, so they can buy it.”
A win for this design could also be a win for southeastern Idaho and the Urban’s plan to manufacture the truck beds right here.
