BY Kimberly Link-Wills
America hasn't seen the last of the Claw.
The bicycle storage mechanism invented and developed by Tech alums David Moeller and Craig Forest failed to advance in the semifinal round of the television show "American Inventor" but that doesn't mean the Claw won't make it onto store shelves — and garage ceilings.
Moeller, ME 02, and Forest, ME 01, won the New York City regional leg of the competition and, along with five other semifinalists, were flown to Los Angeles and given $50,000 and one month to ready their products for market. The Claw, a replacement for a ceiling or wall hook, latches onto a bike tire with just a vertical motion depressing a central plunger. It releases the bike in the same manner.
In the July 25 episode, the remaining six inventions were whittled to three. Moeller and Forest were beaten out by a single mother's backless bra, a firefighter's device to douse burning Christmas trees and a schoolteacher's remote-control vehicle kit for kids. The final decision was left to viewers. The votes will be tallied and the winner awarded $1 million in the final episode airing on ABC Aug. 1.
The Tech grads granted that their invention doesn't spark the same emotion as, say, the Guardian Angel, heralded as a lifesaving Christmas decoration.
"Even in New York City we thought there was no way we were going to advance because we don't really tug at the heartstrings. We were so shocked. We were just trying to make it as young engineers with a solid idea," said Forest, who managed to earn his doctorate in mechanical engineering at MIT this spring while working on the Claw. He begins work as a postdoctoral genetics researcher at Harvard this fall.
Moeller had to put a Wall Street internship on hold when the pair advanced to L.A. He is beginning his second year at Harvard Business School and, with Forest, will push to grab the American marketplace with the Claw.
"ABC and Fremantle Media have a three-month option to license the product. We should know within the next couple of weeks or so if they are going to exercise that option. Either ABC and Fremantle are going to move forward with it or we're going to move forward with it," Moeller said, adding that the Claw could appear on store shelves as early as this holiday season.
Moeller and Forest said they weren't disappointed not to win $1 million and the "American Inventor" title.
"Winning was really making it to L.A., getting the exposure and getting the $50,000," Moeller said.
Forest said they were given an incredible opportunity to advance the Claw. "We took this thing from a clunky $1,000 engineering prototype to a $40 consumer product with a package, with a logo, with a marketing plan — in just a month."
They also agreed on who they think will win the $1 million prize.
"Based on America voting, I would say the fireman," said Forest, who was seconded by Moeller. "It's a classic American story. It tugs at the heartstrings."
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