News
BioMotion and Distracted Drivers
The idea behind ReflecToes is that our eyes are wired to detect motion and instantly recognize "biological motion" (familiar, human motion). So the best place to put reflective when running or cycling? Your legs!
There is an older man in my neighborhood that is super dedicated and I see him out jogging all the time...but he doesn't wear any reflective. So I don't see him until he is uncomfortably close and deep in my headlights.
Drivers need to see him from a long distance since more and more, drivers are glancing back and forth from their phone to the road. He wears florescent orange sometimes, but that doesn't work at night (needs UV light from the sun). If he had reflective on his legs the smallest amount of light from oncoming headlights would reflect back to the drivers eye *as motion* from over 1,000 yards away, giving even the distracted driver time to notice between phone glances.
ReflecToes a technical sports sock that that has more and brighter reflective than any out there and is wash durable by using a proprietary design and adhesive. As soon as we get our first batch of ReflecToes my neighborhood jogging grandpa is getting a pair!
How ReflecToes Was Born
ReflecToes Started When I Saw A Need And Had Experience With The Solution
From 2010-2015 I worked in product development for Avery Dennison in their Apparel Heat Transfer Labels group where I developed new reflective material or adhesive for small logos that brands like Nike or UA use. Part of that work left me with a lot of swooshes and brand logos that were reflective.
At the time I would run after work with my son and in the fall, it would get dark by the time I finished my run. I wanted to make sure cars saw me so I plastered these logos all over my existing running gear.
In the summer of 2016, I was running the online sales of our now family business (Oh, Susannah) and my wife, 4 year old and I were living in Montreal which is a very bike friendly city. We rode bikes every day and often came home in the dark. I felt so unprotected riding around cars, but noticed that even with all the city lights, it was really easy to notice the pedals that had reflectors on them or wheels that had a reflector in the spokes. I realized then how effective a large reflective area around the ankle would be and thought, why isn't this on your socks?
I knew that it would be challenging to be on a stretchy sock material, but with my extensive experience in product development for big sporting brands, I knew exactly where to begin to create a reflective sock that worked.
After several samples and finding the right partner factory, in 2017, I got a sample that worked and ReflecToes was born!
