How the Pancake Wheel Folding Products Came To Be.

By Rick Shapiro, Pancake Wheel Designer-Inventor
The idea for a “pancake thin” folding wagon first popped into my head during a summer day while at Virginia Beach. I thought about locals carting their big, bulky, overstuffed wagons or carts on and off the beach to their vans or SUVs. Because my family didn't have a van or SUV at the time, carrying such a large contraption was out of the question for us. I started to daydream about a folding wagon or foldup cart, one that would fold up to fit in even a small car trunk. They say that necessity is the mother of invention...
Since I work full time as a plaintiff's personal injury attorney, designing such a device wasn't really part of my “day job.” However, during law school, I had worked as a patent searcher for a prominent patent law firm in Arlington, Virginia. My job was to search the U.S. patent office library and report on the patentability of client inventions. The job was at times fascinating, at times very boring, but along the way, I learned a few key things. I had done patent searches for big companies and government agencies, where their mission was to search the "state of the art" for all patents covering one area and then improve upon it. I knew how to go about such a mission.
My goal was to create a new method to make the thinnest wagons and carts. I studied hand trucks, wagons, and anything else that folded. I looked at ideas everywhere. I built mock-ups in my garage out of cardboard, wood, and foam insulation. My "eureka" moment soon evolved into months, and years, of design drawings and a dedication to refining the designs into working concepts and ultimately prototypes, and then later spread to joggers, strollers, wheelbarrows and other consumer wheel products.
Pancake Wheel was formed to design and license the various technologies which are evolving from the unique pivoting wheel axle. We are now actively involved in both marketing and licensing these unique Pancake Wheel designs to wagon/cart and other manufacturer/distributors in the USA and around the world. The U.S. Patent Office granted my first pivoting wheel axle technology patent on folding wagons in April, 2001, and now over 18 other U.S. and International patents have been granted and more are pending for adaptations of the pivoting and folding wheels to other folding wagon, cart and carrier products. About ten years after my first folding wagon technology patent was granted, Pancake Wheel signed a patent license deal with Radio Flyer, licensing my folding wagon handle designs. Later, I signed a patent license and design development agreement with Big Max golf products, and co-developed a fold flat baby stroller with a baby stroller company called Nikimotion in Europe.
My background as a personal injury attorney really has informed my folding wagon inventions, as I’ve endeavored to design safe, sturdy, fold flat products. I think there are very few personal injury lawyers in the United States who also are inventors. As both an inventor and an attorney, I actively practice with a Virginia Beach law firm where I am a partner and also serve as editor of a Virginia Beach Legal Examiner personal injury law blog on the Legal Examiner network.
As you will see on our products page, we have also been focusing on applying the pancake "fold flat" technology to the world's thinnest folding wagons, folding kid's fun cars, strollers, tricycles, bike trailed carriers and other similar wheeled products.
The idea for a “pancake thin” folding wagon first popped into my head during a summer day while at Virginia Beach. I thought about locals carting their big, bulky, overstuffed wagons or carts on and off the beach to their vans or SUVs. Because my family didn't have a van or SUV at the time, carrying such a large contraption was out of the question for us. I started to daydream about a folding wagon or foldup cart, one that would fold up to fit in even a small car trunk. They say that necessity is the mother of invention...
Since I work full time as a plaintiff's personal injury attorney, designing such a device wasn't really part of my “day job.” However, during law school, I had worked as a patent searcher for a prominent patent law firm in Arlington, Virginia. My job was to search the U.S. patent office library and report on the patentability of client inventions. The job was at times fascinating, at times very boring, but along the way, I learned a few key things. I had done patent searches for big companies and government agencies, where their mission was to search the "state of the art" for all patents covering one area and then improve upon it. I knew how to go about such a mission.
My goal was to create a new method to make the thinnest wagons and carts. I studied hand trucks, wagons, and anything else that folded. I looked at ideas everywhere. I built mock-ups in my garage out of cardboard, wood, and foam insulation. My "eureka" moment soon evolved into months, and years, of design drawings and a dedication to refining the designs into working concepts and ultimately prototypes, and then later spread to joggers, strollers, wheelbarrows and other consumer wheel products.
Pancake Wheel was formed to design and license the various technologies which are evolving from the unique pivoting wheel axle. We are now actively involved in both marketing and licensing these unique Pancake Wheel designs to wagon/cart and other manufacturer/distributors in the USA and around the world. The U.S. Patent Office granted my first pivoting wheel axle technology patent on folding wagons in April, 2001, and now over 18 other U.S. and International patents have been granted and more are pending for adaptations of the pivoting and folding wheels to other folding wagon, cart and carrier products. About ten years after my first folding wagon technology patent was granted, Pancake Wheel signed a patent license deal with Radio Flyer, licensing my folding wagon handle designs. Later, I signed a patent license and design development agreement with Big Max golf products, and co-developed a fold flat baby stroller with a baby stroller company called Nikimotion in Europe.
My background as a personal injury attorney really has informed my folding wagon inventions, as I’ve endeavored to design safe, sturdy, fold flat products. I think there are very few personal injury lawyers in the United States who also are inventors. As both an inventor and an attorney, I actively practice with a Virginia Beach law firm where I am a partner and also serve as editor of a Virginia Beach Legal Examiner personal injury law blog on the Legal Examiner network.
As you will see on our products page, we have also been focusing on applying the pancake "fold flat" technology to the world's thinnest folding wagons, folding kid's fun cars, strollers, tricycles, bike trailed carriers and other similar wheeled products.
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© 2020 Pancake Wheel LLC
Fold Flat World Products
Pancake Wheel: read our blog on the best, fold up, compact travel carts, wagons, joggers and more! The world’s thinnest folding solid base carts and wagons, over 18 U.S. patents and counting. View all Pancake Wheel’s Youtube videos on fold flat carts, wagons, joggers here.
Fold Flat World Products
Pancake Wheel: read our blog on the best, fold up, compact travel carts, wagons, joggers and more! The world’s thinnest folding solid base carts and wagons, over 18 U.S. patents and counting. View all Pancake Wheel’s Youtube videos on fold flat carts, wagons, joggers here.