PODCAST EPISODE: Measuring World-Class Athletes: How Justin Leonard Became an Inventor
being an entrepreneur has many benefits. for example, you can start off by selling sports performance equipment out of a storage shed, as I did, and in just a few years become a large-scale distributor. over the next few minutes I'm going to show you how I became an
inventor. in 1998, when I started my journey as an entrepreneur, it was not initially clear what could be achieved. entrepreneurship opens up a lot of opportunities, possibilities. entrepreneurship is limitless. often, the only limit is your imagination and creativity is the antidote to economic constraints. it just takes longer to reach the goal. there were a lot of success stories that happened along the way. and I would say almost all of them were unexpected because entrepreneurship kind of takes you on a path that is nonlinear. meaning, you recognize that success will be achieved at some point. your hard work will eventually pay off. but it's not always clear how or when. because there can be a lot of twists and turns and luck is almost always involved. in 2008, there was was a large athlete management agency that facilitated all aspects of the Under Armour combine, and they had purchased sporting goods from my company website. that organization was IMG Academy. a combine is just another name for a sports training camp. but through the course of purchasing equipment, the team at IMG reached out and asked if I knew anyone who sold a device that could measure wingspan. for those who may not be familiar, wingspan, also known as arm span or reach is simply a measurement from fingertip to fingertip with the arms outstretched to the sides. at the highest level of sport, physical measurements are pretty standard and those measurements are used to predict athleticism. if two athletes were to jump for a loose ball, knowing their height and maybe how high they can jump is simply not enough to predict which person is more likely to end up with the ball. we would need to know other factors like wingspan and even hand size. but the problem IMG encountered had to do with assessing wingspan for more than 200 of the top high school age football prospects in the nation. whatever method they were using took too long and I believe they wanted a device that could streamline and reduce testing times. now, because I was a sports equipment retailer, I had a lot of connections with other suppliers, including ones that specifically sold medical testing supplies. so I contacted them to see if they sold anything that could measure wingspan. nothing. I then searched the internet. nothing. I even did international searches. nothing. it was around this time that I transformed into an engineer and became an [Music] inventor. I thought to myself, if one of the most prominent companies in the world needed this device, then other organizations like high schools, colleges, professional sports leagues, and even the medical industry would probably see value in it. next, I hired a patent attorney who performed a more sophisticated prior art search. this is where they scour both national and international databases to determine if anything similar was already in existence. it was confirmed that there had been no such device on the market anywhere in the world, and I was was clear to pursue a patent and begin manufacturing the device. the first thing I did was come up with a basic sketch of what I thought the device should look like. since I was a fitness expert by trade, I first envisioned using technology that I was already familiar with. the original concept was essentially a vertical weight bench where the subject would lean up against the pad. they would then extend their arms outward and a reading would be taken. but the original design had flaws and it was going to be heavy and bulky, which was going to affect the cost of shipping. and considering the device's sole purpose was for wingspan measurement, I felt it would have been difficult to justify the cost. to get around this issue, I was most likely going to have to redesign
everything. over the next several months, I created probably three or four prototypes. I eventually sought the help of mechanical engineers to move the project along quicker, but they became too expensive. so I went back to the drawing board. I was able to add value by developing a method of affixing the wingspan measuring device onto other testing equipment. I was also able to add value by incorporating a height rod. but not just any height rod: one that could assess virtually anyone from 2 ft tall all the way up to 8 ft tall. I figured out a way to do it. at the same time, the device needed to measure wingspan up to 9 ft wide. I did a ton of research on everything from the longest basketball wingspan to the tallest person to ever live. I also researched various testing methods that were used in prior scientific studies where arm span or wingspan was assessed. I knew as a health scientist that any peer-reviewed study was going to have a methods section which would tell me everything. how were they measuring wingspan? were they using purchased devices? were they using makeshift devices? what techniques did they use? the answers to these questions helped to further guide me. for this device my attorney and I originally filed a utility patent. utility just means that the invention is novel or new. but the US patent and trademark office alerted us to existing patents that they believed could achieve similar results as my device. neither device looked or functioned quite like mine and none of the patents specifically included claims referencing arm span or wingspan measurement. nothing close. prior to 2011, there were two legal concepts surrounding inventions: first-to-file and first-to-invent. under the old system, first-to-invent granted the patent to the person who both one, conceived the idea and two, turned the idea into a working model or prototype. the rule eventually changed to first-to-file, which meant that a patent would only be granted based on who filed it first. my issue was I had been working on the device intermittently since 2008, 2009, but didn't officially file a patent application until 2016. ultimately, my attorney and I decided it would be too costly to get the US patent and trademark office to change their minds. translation: this was more than 15K in patent and legal fees down the drain. that money was gone
forever. when you become an inventor, you will probably encounter a number of setbacks. I went through quite a few. after the failed attempt at a utility patent, I then filed a design patent application. a design patent covers only the visual aspects or features of an existing product. in the end it took me nearly 7 years to finally bring the product to market. cost was the biggest barrier. but I got it done. earlier I mentioned that the catalyst for my invention was an inquiry from Under Armour or IMG Academy, which means they were technically my first customer. my second customer was the organization that facilitated the Nike football camp. from the start, I was aware that my invention would only be of use to larger, more prominent organizations. and despite its limited utility, a device like this automatically put you in the room with the big dogs, which could create create further opportunities down the road. and that is how I became an inventor. over the next few weeks, I will introduce both a YouTube series and eventually a complete course that breaks down all of the critical phases of inventing a product from idea to market. lastly, if you enjoyed this presentation and you want to see more high value content LeonardInnovation.com is the place for free entrepreneur resources like the 90-day online launch guide, free online courses, and more. to learn how to start or grow your business, visit LeonardInnovation.com today. also, the audio version of Leonard Innovation is available through any major podcast service like Pandora, Amazon music, audible, Google, Apple, and Spotify. and if you found this information helpful, please share it with a friend. thanks again for tuning in
