Bouncing Success

Christchurch engineer Dr Keith Alexander’s Springfree Trampoline has won the “Children’s Product of the Year” in the largest United States consumer product survey, the Product of the Year Awards. Voted top children’s product by 100,000 American families, Alexander’s trampoline sells through Walmart and global sales of 150,000 trampolines were forecast for this year. The springless innovation has been commercially available since 2003, but only went into the US in 2007 and sales and marketing manager Josh Hill said it had taken some time to gain traction. Hill said the US was a safety-conscious market and insurance companies specifically excluded trampolines from policies but were making amendments to allow the Springfree model. “For a product like a trampoline, which is seen as being dangerous, to be seen as a top contender is a big thing.” Alexander, deputy head of mechanical engineering at Canterbury University, devised the Springfree trampoline, which he said was his second or third attempt. “The initial prototype, an inflatable thing which you blow up with a vacuum cleaner, wasn’t bouncy at all.”