INTRODUCING

Clek foonf

WORLD'S FIRST REACT™ ENERGY ABSORPTION TECHNOLOGY

MULTIPLE INNOVATION & DESIGN AWARDS

ACCELERATED DEVELOPMENT SCHEDULE

RIGID LATCH DESIGN FOR EASY INSTALLATION

CREATING A SAFER, MORE STYLISH CHILD CAR SEAT

The Clek child car seat brand was initially conceived inside a small division of Magna, one of North America’s largest automotive parts suppliers. Led by Chris Lumley, Clek worked with their counterparts in Magna’s seating/interiors division for their industrial design, engineering and manufacturing expertise to produce two different child booster seats.

Ultimately, Clek’s desire to grow their business outpaced Magna’s ambition so Chris Lumley and his wife Jennifer purchased the brand, tooling and inventory from Magna. In 2010 they took Clek private and started anew with a team of 3. Now back in start-up mode, Clek needed a lean product development partner to help design & manufacture their first product as a newly formed start-up.

Prior to taking Clek private, Chris had worked with Ray Minato (Founder of Inertia) and his team while still at Magna. Chris connected with Inertia’s entrepreneurial spirit, expertise and can-do approach, which made the decision to work with Inertia an easy one. Partnering with Inertia at this early stage, meant the team at Clek got the instant benefits of a diverse, professional team without incurring the overhead costs and lengthy ramp up times associated with building one internally.

The first goal was building an industry leading convertible child car seat, ultimately called the foonf. Clek’s vision for the foonf was to differentiate themselves from the competition by offering an ultra stylish seat that offered revolutionary safety technology.

BEST IN CLASS ENERGY ABSORPTION TECHNOLOGY

Inertia’s product development team, in close collaboration with Clek, designed an entirely new impact energy absorption system that outperformed its competitors in crash testing.

In addition to the energy absorption system, Inertia was the first in North America to incorporate a rigid latch installation system which made it super easy for parents to install the seat in their cars.

Beyond developing all the safety tech, Inertia worked with Clek to ensure the foonfs style and function would integrate seamlessly with the high design standards of luxury car interiors.

The end result is an award winning child car seat with revolutionary safety technology, innovative convenience features and superior style.

SPEED TO MARKET: ACCELERATED PROTOTYPING & ENGINEERING

A key component of Clek’s success, came from Inertia’s ability to expertly guide the technology development, team management, and systems development from concept stage right through to manufacturing the product. Starting with a small team of 4, Inertia first focussed on developing the core impact energy absorption technology. Inertia then scaled up to about 10 people at the peak and then back down to a team of 2-3 people after the foonf was launched into production.

Timelines were extraordinarily tight, so Inertia employed true concurrent engineering, prototyping and testing practices – choreographing a 3 shift product design team (2 in Toronto and 1 in China) during the production engineering phase.

These agile methods allowed Clek to get the foonf to market in about 28 months – about 3 months faster than conventional product development methods – which for a highly regulated safety system, was no small feat.

Inertia’s partnership with Clek continues to this day. Since the foonf, Inertia’s product development team has collaborated with Clek to design and manufacture the Fllo car seat and is currently working on a new child car seat for launch in Fall 2018.

Clek has grown by almost 10x since its post-Magna start-up days and Inertia is proud to be one of Clek’s key strategic product development partners.

What our clients are saying

  • Working with Ray and his team at Inertia has been a game changer for AMJ.

    Bruce Bowser, President & CEO, AMJ Campbell

  • They perform miracles with their turnaround times, especially on prototypes.

    Yuri Dobrovolsky Vice-President, Technical Director, Newcon Optik

  • The Inertia team gets it, they are good at having empathy and putting themselves in the shoes of the product user. Inertia always exceeds expectations in terms of communication, setting expectations, and the way the team conducts themselves.

    CEO, Ingenyewity (founders of yewtwist)

  • The Inertia team is exceptionally good at communication – it is their clear differentiator.  Their team is very hands on and flexible.  They really care and go above and beyond to make sure things are done right.

    Tino Alavie, President & CEO, Qvella

  • The team at Inertia is honest, straightforward and their drive to work collaboratively really stood out for us.  They are also meticulous and do what they say they will do.  If we were to attempt this kind of product development in house it would have taken us 5 times longer.

    David Harding, CEO, RAZ Designs

  • At Inertia, you immediately know that you are working with people who care about your product and your success. I especially respect the way they handle challenging situations. Inertia has far exceeded my expectations for professionalism and care.

    Ali Ghafour, Founder & CEO, 20/20 Armour

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