We need your help! Focus Designs has applied for the Chase Mission Main Street Grant. This grant awards $150,000 to 20 worthy small businesses.

Help us get there by visiting the site below and voting for us. We only need 250 votes to be placed in front of the judges. Feel free to click the link below or the image to the left.

Thank you so much in advance!

https://www.missionmainstreetgrants.com/business/detail/58009

The post Vote For Us! first appeared on Self-Balancing Unicycle | Focus Designs, Inc..

Our customers connected with us at places such as the Golden Gate Park, Pier 39, and in and around the city. The SBU caught the eyes of many passer byes and we offered test rides well into dusk. When offering test rides, we asked riders to fill out a contact sheet and add their email address. As expected, many test riders faked their email address; however, one guy asked if he could give us his real email address after enjoying the SBU for a solid 25 minutes.

On Tuesday we walked around pier 39, where we saw the street magician Bob Besmehn perform. We loved his balancing acts, one of which included balancing on a 3 wheeled unicycle. We figured this was the perfect opportunity to introduce ourselves, so we connected with Bob after his performance.

We attended the San Francisco New Tech Meetup, where attendees flocked to our product and asked to hear more. Not only were they fascinated by our unique product, but we ourselves were blown away by the caliber of products and services, such as HashtagSell and Waze, that are being developed.

Thursday was by far one of our biggest days as we visited the San Francisco Motorcycle Club, the second oldest motorcycle club in the US. The club members were extremely welcoming and funny, making us feel right at home despite riding a product that has only one wheel.

Monday was a short, but important day. We met with Gabe Slate, a tech reporter from KRON TV (a local SF news channel). Our SBU was a feature on Monday’s broadcast and can be seen on youtube (we’ve linked it at the bottom for your convenience). We spent maybe an hour on the Embarcadero with Gabe and fans, showcasing the SBU and teaching new riders.

Our trip was very successful and we can’t wait to add new retailers to our dealer page in the next coming days!

The post Self Balancing Unicycle in San Francisco first appeared on Self-Balancing Unicycle | Focus Designs, Inc..

The SBU’s unique design leads a lot of questions, the most common of which is, “for what purpose does it exist?” To some, the SBU is nothing more than a novelty product, while to others, it’s a meaningful commuting companion. Today’s blog post is dedicated to understanding where the SBU fits in your life, what the term “commuting companion” means, and how the SBU can better your busy life.

As an SBU owner knows, a lot of people ask the question, “What is that?” Apart from being a self-balancing unicycle, the SBU is classified as a light electric vehicle, along with eBikes, electric scooters, and Segways. Being considered a “light electric vehicle” in the U.S. has a lot of benefits, including the fact there’s no need for a special permit or license to ride it on the road.* Light electric vehicle owners rejoice over this as there are no additional ownership or registration costs. Most light electric vehicles are allowed to be driven on the road and in bike lanes, although light electric vehicles classified as “personal mobility devices” can be driven on the sidewalk. While Focus Designs classifies the SBU as a personal mobility device, we strongly recommend owners check their local laws before riding on the sidewalk.

Now that we’ve addressed where the SBU can be ridden, let’s dive into the question, “why would I use it?” My typical Saturday errands involve going to the grocery store, the bank, the post office, the local coffee shop, and the dry cleaners. While all these errands are well within walking distance of my house, walking to each place would take two hours out of my Saturday, minimum. While I do enjoy the health benefits associated with walking, I generally take the car out of convenience. But driving my car to withdraw money, drop off shirts, check my PO Box, and pick up some coffee for tonight’s party seems a little overkill considering my purchases can fit in a backpack. As a result, I feel like I’m wasting gas, contributing pollution, and personally, I’d rather be outside enjoying the fresh air.

As an SBU owner, I find the SBU to be ideal for my Saturday errands.  The SBU travels at 12.5mph, which is four times faster than the average walking pace. This means I can easily accomplish all those errands in 30 minutes or less. In this  scenario, the SBU not only saved gas and time, but eliminated that guilty  feeling associated with driving my car for all those small errands.

Not only does the SBU make your Saturday errands more enjoyable, but it can also make your work commute a lot more fun. Commuters that utilize public transportation find themselves either driving to a park and ride, or walking long distances to the bus or train station. The SBU features up to a ten mile range, which is more than adequate to get you to not only that park and ride, but also to every transfer station in between. With the SBU taking the place of your car in your work commute, you can stop worrying about gas costs and the possibility of someone breaking into your car. Furthermore, the SBU weighs only 27lbs, making it easy to carry onto the bus with you.

Sometimes we need to go into the city for things other than work, such as shopping. While I enjoy running errands in the city, I tend to get a little stressed with all the stop and go traffic and parallel parking involved. To eliminate this, I use the SBU and park my car in one location. From there, I take the SBU out of my trunk and ride it to all the stores I need to get to. Not only is the SBU nimble enough to navigate around pedestrians, but the foot pegs foldup to ensure the SBU doesn’t get caught on any clothing racks or store décor.

While our customers have come up with a number of uses for their SBU, including walking the dog, we believe our SBU’s portability and lightweight design makes it the ideal “commuting companion.” Whether you’re running errands near your house, commuting into the city by public transportation, or trying to get around the city, the SBU can greatly reduce your need for driving. This has the causal affect of saving you money and eliminating the stresses associated with driving. If you haven’t already, we highly recommend you pick an SBU and join the hundreds of current owners who are already experiencing these benefits!

*disclaimer – A motor’s wattage determines the “light electric vehicle” classification. For all intents and purposes, the SBU is classified as a light electric vehicle.

The post Your Busy Life and the SBU first appeared on Self-Balancing Unicycle | Focus Designs, Inc..

For today (and every day after), we wanted to take the fear out of a commitment with an SBU, so we have a new return policy that starts today! Now customers can easily purchase the SBU …even if they have commitment issues. We are so confident that you will fall in love with the SBU that if you don’t (fall in love) you can return it within 30 days.

The post Valentines Day with a new policy you will love first appeared on Self-Balancing Unicycle | Focus Designs, Inc..

We wanted to highlight the SBU’s portability and how it is used as a commuter companion.

The SBU allows you the freedom to move about with the use of NO controller, and completely HANDSFREE! This gives you the ability to roam about the urban jungle, or city, with ease. Weighing in at 27 pounds, traveling on public transportation, and even grabbing a cup of coffee is a piece of cake.

Check out the video that display the SBU in its natural habitat.

The post SBU | URBAN COMMUTER first appeared on Self-Balancing Unicycle | Focus Designs, Inc..

Hello fellow N3RDS!

I just wanted to simple take a moment and share about our recent trip to Europe in the past weeks. Our main goals of our trip was to visit our European Distributors, and other Dealers to set them up for success. For those of you that are already fans of the SBU, we want to share about an amazing door opening for our wonderful product to be for resale in Europe.

We’ve been putting countless hours day and night to make this happen. All the hard work has most certainly paid off. It is exciting to come along side some great people to carry the torch of getting our product more exposure. Most importantly, the opportunity of available inventory stock, in a shorter distance than the United States. Understanding that our product is much more effectively understood when the potential customer has the see/touch/feel experience, versus, viewing on a website, or watching a video.

Our plan in the very near future is to modify our “Dealer” page on our website to reflect the numerous locations of SBU availability. As for now, if you are in the Europe area; we now have a Distributor for you. Allow me to introduce you to Nympy. Here is a link to their website at –>www.nympy.com. Our friends at Nympy are doing wonderful already. They have been establishing a comprehensive Dealer network and are looking to expand it much more. Dealers in Germany, and Sweden are already operational.

Below you will see some photos that were taken in the beautiful countries of Spain, Germany, Denmark, and Sweden. To see more, check out our Facebook page –> Focus Designs Inc.

Alan Ecoff
Customer Relations Manager
alan@focusdesigns.com
360-3CYCLES
Follow us on Facebook: Focus Designs Inc – Home of the Self Balancing Unicycle
Follow us on Twitter: Focus Designs

Photos

The post Focus Designs | European Distribution first appeared on Self-Balancing Unicycle | Focus Designs, Inc..

It’s that time again to give you an update on the status of your purchased SBU! Many have you have been in contact with me personally, but I wanted to make sure that every N3RD out there was up to speed on the newest, latest, and greatest update possible.

While striving to uphold our commitment to our ultra high standards, partnered with our sleek design; the latest production run has come to a close. The shipment has been sent on a container handled with care to our office here in the Portland, Oregon area.

As soon as the shipment arrives, we will personally open every box, and quality check each SBU. It is very important to us to ensure the SBU is in perfect condition leaving our office, to arrive the valued customer ready to roll! The container should be arriving in a couple weeks, so please hang tight. Our product is worth the wait!

Thank you for your patience and understanding.

Best,

Alan Ecoff
Customer Relations Manager
alan@focusdesigns.com
360-3CYCLES
www.focusdesigns.com
Follow us on Facebook: Focus Designs Inc – Home of the Self Balancing Unicycle
Follow us on Twitter: Focus Designs

The post SBU | Production Update – August 2013 first appeared on Self-Balancing Unicycle | Focus Designs, Inc..

Reward: Get a n3rdy shirt for you and a friend!

<question>
What is the N3RDIEST thing you and a friend could do while riding an SBU?
</question>

<rules>
1. Share this photo + your response.

2. Tag your N3RDY friend.

3. Tag our fb page in your post.

– Ends Friday @ midnight (4/19)
– 10 most creative responses get shirts for winner + friend
– US only
</rules>

The post Full Frontal Nerdity Contest first appeared on Self-Balancing Unicycle | Focus Designs, Inc..

It has been some time since you all have received a formal “blog update” so, I figured it would be a good time to release some new updates. If you have been following Focus Designs on Facebook or Twitter, you would find a slew of new updates, but if you have not — I am here to tell you about what you may have missed.

Since the latest update, we have been working hard to finalize our latest production run. We did it! Personally traveled to our factory, and quality checked every unit. Of course, our factory rocked it. Exceeding our expectations and completing everything as planned.

For all of you SBU owners, and soon to be owners — I can not stress how valuable you are to us. We sincerely appreciate your willingness to dive into an amazing product, and for your patience to wait for the lead time. Thank You!

I want to assure you that we are working around the clock, literally — to produce one of the most innovative product on the E-Bike market. If I seem inattentive at times, I do sincerely apologize for that as well. We are a small company and [again] are working hard to complete your order. There is nothing more that we desire than to ship your SBU V3, and see you hitting the streets!

Alan Ecoff
Customer Relations Manager
alan@focusdesigns.com
phone: 360-3CYCLES
focusdesigns.com – Home of the Self Balancing Unicycle!
Follow us on Facebook: Focus Designs Inc – Home of the Self Balancing Unicycle
Follow us on Twitter: Focus Designs
 

The post SBU V3 | Production Update first appeared on Self-Balancing Unicycle | Focus Designs, Inc..

Last week I jumped in on Mr. H’s 4^th grade class to present my story and to inspire the virtues of entrepreneurialism. I was invited because they were engaged in a miniature “Shark Tank” as a lesson on business and having been on the TV show, “Shark Tank” myself I was a great guest speaker for them to have in. My presentation really focused on two important ideas – setting goals/paths and seeing challenges as opportunities.

We pumped up the kids before hand by riding the SBU around at recess. In about 30 seconds we had at least half of the playground swarming us as we demonstrated riding on the SBU and even doing a few tricks (just to show off). It reminded me of how much I loved recess. I almost jumped off of the SBU and challenged a kid (or two) to a round of tetherball!

As we entered the classroom and jumped into “story time” all 23 of these kids were engaged and excited about listening to my story and they had plenty of questions to prove their interest.  A few of my favorite questions/comments are listed below:

–  How much money does an entrepreneur/you make?

–  How did you determine your retail price?

–  Can you make a snowboard that has a motor to pull you up the hill? PS… I want 10% of that idea!

The kids also eagerly informed me of their very own business ideas and I was excited to see how many of them actually had cool ideas.  Some of the kids’ ideas needed a little more help but I was happy to suggest alternative ways of looking at their company/product that could help set them apart from their “competition” before they get in to the Shark Tank.

This was the youngest set of students that I have spoken in front of and yet the most inspiring. I know that many of those kids left school thinking how awesome it could be to passionately follow one of their ideas. I look forward to many more speaking engagements in the future and hope that other companies share in the honor of shaping and inspiring tomorrows future business leaders.

David Martschinske
Chief Operating Officer
dmart@focusdesigns.com
phone: 360-3CYCLES
focusdesigns.com – Home of the Self Balancing Unicycle!

The post Focus Designs in the Classroom first appeared on Self-Balancing Unicycle | Focus Designs, Inc..