Great News! We're ahead of schedule! We will ship MyBuckleMate in time for the holidays!
See MyMuckleMate featured on Cars.com's Kicking Tires - the blog for car buyers. http://blogs.cars.com/kickingtires/2013/10/mybucklemate-makes-seat-belts-a-snap-for-kids.html
Loudoun Times Mirror: Ashburn Couple Snaps Idea into Place http://www.loudountimes.com/news/article/ashburn_couple_snaps_idea_into_place
MyBuckleMate: A sleek, plastic housing that
keeps back seat buckles propped up and easy to reach so you can buckle up one-handed, whether
you’re 6 years old or 60!
What is MyBuckleMate?
MyBucklemate locks into
place around floppy back seat buckle bases and keeps them propped up and easy to
reach, so buckling up with one hand is a snap. It fits around single buckle bases, and two MyBuckleMates
can be installed right next to each other to keep adjacent buckle bases propped
up for easy access. If you have a car, SUV or truck with back seat buckles that flop around or fall into seat pockets, MyBuckleMate makes buckling up in the back seat as easy as it is to do in the driver's seat. Rather than dig for your buckle base with one hand and reach for the strap with your other, you can simply pull your seat belt strap across your body and click the buckle into place with just one hand. Even our 5-year old can do it!
MyBuckleMate benefits
-
Helps kids buckle up in
the back seat by themselves
-
Helps adults with
limited mobility and Arthritis
-
Fits in tight spaces and
between booster seats
-
Works in vehicles that don’t have rigid buckle bases that stay propped upright on their own
-
You can fold your car
seats down without removing MyBuckleMate
-
It won’t interfere with
your vehicle’s buckling mechanism.
It locks into place around the fabric shaft that anchors the back-seat
buckle base to your vehicle - it doesn’t obstruct the buckle’s release button or where the buckle latchplate clicks into place.
Why is buckling up in
the back seat so difficult?
Back seat buckles are hard for little and big hands to grasp and click into place. Most aren't made like driver-seat buckles. If you've driven a car with floppy buckles, you know: The buckles flop around. They fall into seat pockets. And when you add booster seats to the mix, you practically need three hands to buckle up. We think it should be just as easy to buckle up in the back seat as it is to do in the driver's seat - whether you're 6 years old or 60.
MyBuckleMate story
One day my husband came home with our three kids and asked, “What’s the deal? Why can’t they buckle themselves?” I'd been climbing into the back seats of our cars and in and over our kids and their friends just to help them buckle up for years, and I'd always taken it for granted. That day, I realized there had to be a way to make floppy buckles easy for kids and adults to use. That's how MyBuckleMate was conceived.
We started by sketching out our initial design ideas on paper, refined them using CAD freeware, then partnered with a Wisconsin-based product design and plastics manufacturer to build and refine several prototypes. After vetting and road-testing these with potential customers, we now have a final production model ready to be manufactured in the US and shipped within 8 weeks of the close of our campaign. MyBuckleMate is patent pending and an original design - nothing like it exists on the market today.
Which cars will MyBuckleMate work in?
If your car's rear seats have floppy buckles like those shown in the photos above, MyBuckleMate will likely work in your car. We've tested it out in many cars, but with hundreds of vehicle makes and models on the road, we haven't tried it in all of them yet, and we'll be adding new ones to the list every week. Below are the cars and trucks we know it works well in (if you have one to add, please email us - we appreciate the feedback)! All makes listed here are 2013 models unless otherwise noted.
Acura: TL, RL (2012 and prior years), MDX (2nd row middle buckle), RLX (2nd row middle buckle)
Cadillac: Escalade
Chevy: Suburban, Tahoe, Impala
Chrysler: Town & Country (3rd row)
Dodge: Grand Caravan (3rd row), Laramie, Ram, Durango SUV (2nd row middle buckle)
Ford: Flex (2nd row floppy buckle), F-150, Fiesta
GMC: Terrain, Yukon
Honda: Accord, Civic, Pilot, Odyssey (third row)
Hyundai: Azera, Elantra, Sonata, Tucson, Santa Fe
Jeep: Patriot, Wrangler, Grand Cherokee (2012 and earlier)
Kia: Cadenza
Mazda: CX-9