The engineers at MSU’s Cyclotron building don’t get a three week vacation during the holidays; they’re always working - and thinking.
Steve Bricker is no exception.
Bricker graduated from MSU in 1981 and has been an engineer in the Cyclotron lab ever since. Aside from his work on campus, Bricker has also invented and patented what he calls the Halo cup.
“I’ve been fussing with this idea for the past six years,” he said. “After raising three boys you kind of get used to spills because kids are impulsive, they do things very fast.”
Enter the Halo cup.
“After years and years of cleaning up spills I began to ask myself,” Bricker said, “Why is it that every cup on the planet has the little end on the bottom and the big end at the top?”
Within twenty minutes of this revelation, he formulated a crude sketch of the idea he would come to call the Halo cup.
“This was just an idea to get the big end of the cup on the bottom for support and still be able to stack them neatly in a cupboard,” he said.
Being an engineer, the next step for him was to create a press that could manufacture these cups, and he did.
This was just the beginning for Bricker. However, nearly six years later, he continues to struggle with the cruel task of marketing his invention. Between creating, patenting and marketing the cups, Bricker has spent about $20,000.
“I’ve learned the hard way that it’s really, really tough to break through into the consumer market when you’re nobody,” he said. “Manufacturing and producing the cup was pretty straight forward for me, but this marketing is a whole other ball game.”
Bricker set up shop online to promote his product at www.halocup.com, but sales were slow. He had some success selling the cups to his coworkers so he recently brought his product to area merchants like the Student Book Store, 421 Grand River avenue, Ned’s Bookstore, 135 Grand River avenue, and the Spartan Spirit shop in the Union.
Nicole Sartor, a family and community services senior and a supervisor at Ned’s Bookstore, said they haven’t sold a single one.
“I don’t think anyone knows what they are,” Sartor said. “It’s a really neat invention, I hope we start selling some of them.”
Business has been a little better for the Halo cups at the Student Book Store, where the cups sell for $1.95.
Leslie Marlatt, manager of the green and white section at SBS, said they’ve had the product in stock for a couple of months, but sales have just recently picked up.
“The Halo cups have been doing very well lately,” Marlatt said. “I think they’re a great idea, very neat, practical and ideal for little kids.”
Bricker said he has invested so much time and money into his produce that he will not just let it die.
“With the number of things that I’ve tried for marketing this idea, I could write a book of 500 ways to not get your product marketed,” he said. “But we press on and never give up.”
