When Hollister resident Greg Reed first came up with his big idea, “Hootie and the Blowfish” only wanted to be with you and “Friends” wasn’t yet a television phenomenon.
Reed, a hospital engineer at Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in Santa Clara, was witnessing people congregate outside of the hospital for Fourth of July celebrations in the summer of 1994 when an idea struck him.
“I observed them all carrying things,” he said in an interview with the Free Lance. “That’s when the light bulb went off.”
What about a lightweight cart that could be used to haul a families’ personal belongings for such occasions as picnics or family outings? The seed for “Convert-A-Cart” was born.
“I started working it,” he said.
Nearly 20 years later, after the idea sat for a long time in his desk drawer as a rough sketch, he decided to look at it again after watching late-night infomercials.
“I took it out and revisited the whole thing,” he said.
At first, the idea revolved around a simple utility vehicle that could transport items at the beach or other places, but then something else occurred to him.
“One day, while laying on the couch, when I saw my cart turned upside down, it looked like a table,” he said. “I wondered if you could turn a cart into a table.”
He said he “Googled” to see if something similar already had been invented and found nothing. He then hired a patent attorney to help him do a patent search to make sure nobody had owned rights for the idea.
“So, there was nothing out there. There was similar things that were portable tables, and there were things similar, but nothing that turns a cart into a table,” he said.
He submitted his idea to the United States Patent Office in January 2008.
“They were so backlogged, it sat on the U.S. Patent Office’s desk for a year,” he said, before the agency even started the review process.
Then, in December 2010, his patent was approved.
“Once that was secured, I ran an ad on Craigslist looking for model builders/prototype builders,” he said.
A man from San Diego named Matthew Goodsell answered the ad, and it turns out he was visiting his sister in Hollister in the summer of 2010. He and Greg got to work on the prototype in Greg’s garage on Peridot Court in west Hollister.
The idea for the cart is simple enough. The cart, either with four wheels or two wheels, can be taken apart and turned upside down to become a table, after which the wheels become chairs on which to sit.
The 57-year-old engineer created a quarter-scale prototype model made out of acrylic that could be taken to business meetings.
He said he eventually wants to purchase molded plastic similar to what coolers are made of.
“It’s strong. It’s lightweight. It’s durable,” he said.
For now, the prototypes are made with Marine-grade plywood, which makes the cart durable but heavy, he said.
“I know I can cut the weight in half,” he said. “This is no way going to be the final product.”
For now, Reed, who has lived in Hollister since 1996, hopes to find an investor or somebody that will buy his patent.
Reed said that between fees to secure the patent, attorney fees and supplies to build the prototypes, he has invested about $20,000 in his invention.
He said he figured he might as well give it a shot.
“You know what? Am I just going to die with that thing sitting in a drawer?” he said about his sketches.
He said he envisions a cottage industry where beaches rent out the carts for the day to families visiting on vacation.
He said he has taken the prototype to the beach at Moss Landing to try it out.
“People stopped and wanted to know where to order one,” he said.
Somebody asked him what he called it, and Reed told the man he had considered calling it “Beach Buddy” or “Beach Wagon.”
The man suggested “Convert-A-Cart” – and the name stuck.
