Local man creates product for common computer user problem
Many people experience can experience pain and discomfort in their hand, wrist and forearm area when doing various simple tasks.
“People make fun of me when I say ‘oh I make mouse pads. You make mouse pads? I don’t use those,’ but once you try them they’re like ‘wow they’re actually pretty cool,'” said Loftmat operation’s director, Paul Crockett.
Crockett began his career working in IT but has since made the switch to a more comfortable environment. He now manufactures mouse pads alongside his wife.
It all started years ago when Crocket found himself almost unable to pick up a fork a food due to the pain in his wrist from being on a computer all day.
“When he came home one evening and said, ‘you’re not going to believe it, I’ve just been resting my wrist on foam’ and made this kind of mock-up of a product that really helped him, I thought ‘yeah that’s great.’ fast-forward like a year or two later, and he says ‘I really just think that we should share this with everyone, this is a great product, I can’t buy it on Amazon, it’s not available in any store, we should really the word out that this is a cool thing and it’s helped me so it could probably help other people’, and my first response was ‘no,'” said Crockett’s wife and business partner, Stefanie Crockett.
Crockett quickly made his wife a believer by having her use one of his prototypes.
“Even though I never had any of the wrist issues or the pain, just having that soft space to come to when I was working on my computer just made it inviting, it made it comfortable,” said Stefanie.
The two have spent the past two years building their business ‘Loftmat’ right here in Idaho Falls, perfecting the product, spreading the word, and helping many with their pain.
“They try them, and they go, ‘I never really noticed how much my hand hurt at the end of the day,’ and then they start using them, and they go ‘it doesn’t hurt anymore.’ So I can’t promise that it’s going to remove pain, but we’re seeing that happen, just like it helped me,” said Crockett.
Instead of manufacturing the products in China, the couple decided to take on the job locally, in hopes of being able to provide jobs for people in their community when the company grows.
You can purchase Loftmat products on their website, Amazon and on through Facebook page.
