Prototypes

June 2019 - Concept and Initial Drawing

I was reading 5 Lessons, again, and kept staring at the image (below) at the back of the book showing where Hogan put his feet and the ball. I had a lesson about 8 years ago where the instructor pulled out a photocopy of the image when I asked where I put my feet and where I put the ball! He just pointed at it and said, "there, and there."

I figured, there had to be a tool out there that shows you how to do this, it is after all, a 60 year old concept. Turns out, there are very few portable, adjustable stance and alignment tools out there (let alone with the focus on Hogan's stance) with the most prominent being a stick!

I then spent time evaluating the image from the book, dissecting the image to determine width, angles and how to replicate it in a physical model. Performed a lot of research on stance width guidance from modern day instruction (both shoulder and hip joint width) and on the impact of angle of attack on club face at impact to set open and closed degrees.

Next step was getting the idea down on paper. I used PowerPoint to diagram out what I was seeing in the image. I am a lefty so about 90% of you might not make sense of the first drawing.

Once I had the concept, I moved over to Visio to diagram out what a product might look like at scale and switched it to the right hand perspective so I could share it with others. This is a slightly later version with the two piece trail foot bar setup.

July 2019 - First 3D Printed Prototype

I bought a 3D printer to print out connection parts to insert plastic tubes to form the first physical representation of Stance Caddy.

In this first pass, you had to move the back foot bar up and down based on the club to create the angles. There was also a printed marker that slid over the tube on top of back foot bar to adjust to your shoulder width (the white part just above my trail foot) to show how far apart to set feet. Front foot quarter turn bar was super long and determined later not even necessary since in later versions the markings on the bar for the foot, the leading edge of the front bar, and the logo were all designed to represent the 22.5 degree foot flare.

September 2019 - Modified Prototype

Next version was not easily adjustable and cut from plexiglass I bought from Ace Hardware. I was still able to collapse it but was pretty long. I was working out how wide the widest stance might be to continue to shorten the total length when collapsed to maximize the number of golfers that could use it while keeping shipping costs in check.

This is the first physical version with the angled trail foot bar that you did not have to adjust for each club.

January 2020 - First Adjustable Prototype

Next step was to create an adjustable prototype. Went to TAP Plastics to get strips of plastic cut for me.

I made the trail foot bar two pieces rather than one. This allowed me to create a sliding point to measure shoulder width and could drill holes into it, was using wingnuts to adjust (pain in the bum to demo to friends and family). You can see that the new top back bar is moved down from the top of the ball bar. This reduced the length of the trail foot angled bar as you are not having to cover as much space and made room too for the angles which were impacting the space needed for the shorter wedge foot placement to work.

May 2020 - First Design Firm Created Design

After reviewing many alternate design concepts, working with Priority Designs, we kept the original design for the first prototype and it was amazing to see!

We got rid of the lead foot angled piece and replace it with an angled cut on the lead bar, the logo itself was also designed at the same angle to provide visual guidance along with the foot mark being angled. This also removed a connection joint and extra material. We also made some adjustments like making the distance from your front heel to the ball a club head length (3" - also equal to 2 ball widths) rather than the one ball width we started with. This is from countless modern day instructors recommending this as a guideline.

We added the slider to the top trail bar and shoulder measuring point on the bottom of the middle ball bar so you can use the product itself to set the shoulder width. This patented measuring method makes a huge difference in usability!

December 2021 - Final Prototype

Final version we reduced the length of the top measuring bar to support what is at a minimum the 95th percentile of stance widths if not more. This reduced material and created a size that would meet the requirements for the most cost effective shipping for Amazon and USPS. This is the version we brought to the 2022 PGA Show and took home the Most Innovative Concept Award!