Rethinking How You Tie Your Shoes

It's something everyone fumbles through learning how to do, a virtually ancient shoe securing process that most people don't give a second thought to.

"I hate tying shoes," unless your Chris Faith, an entrepreneur who looked at laces and thought...

"I mean you button up your pant and shirts, why not your shoes?" he asked.

Hence the creation of Shnap, a device that eliminates the need for tying knots.

"To put them on, button them like that," he demonstrated.

He stared a Kick Starter campaign to hopefully raise $9,000, but he's nearly doubled that with still a month left on the fundraising clock.

"That will cover the start-up cost to have the tooling made for injection molding Shnap, and it'll also cover the first batch of production," he said.

Yes, there are other products out there that do essentially the same thing, but to Chris...

"To me they look like you're wearing a tracking device or some kind of techy gadget," he said.

And speaking of techy, he built Shnap after years of coming to Fab Lab Tulsa, which is a haven for entrepreneurs.

"We see a large variety of businesses, everything from local guys, people that might be considered hobbyists making a product, all the way up to large companies doing a rapid prototype," said Fab Lab Director Nathan Pritchett.

As for Shnap, as small as it is now, Chris has big hopes.

"I want to see it on your shoes, and I want to see it on everybody else's shoes," he said.