Remember the “Orp”? The quirky creation of local product/industrial design firm FUSE has just completed a successful Kickstarter campaign. We heard from Orp’s creator and FUSE owner Toren Orzek that they’ve raised over $96,000, easily surpassing their goal of $90,000 with five days still to go.
The Orp was inspired by the tragic right-hook collisions that took the lives of Tracey Sparling and Brett Jarolimek back in 2007. As designers and engineers often do, Toren and the crew at his central eastside studio went to work to create a loud bicycle horn that could be heard inside the cabin of a car. The 96 decibel horn is also a bright LED light and it’s much smaller than other loud bicycle horns on the market. When we wrote about the Orp back in December, it had a sound that resembled a fire alarm. After hearing feedback that a more vehicle-like sound would be better, FUSE changed the sound to sound more like the “beep-beep” of a moped.
Since our story, the Orp has been covered by dozens of major media outlets including TechCrunch, The Oregonian, Wired Magazine, Cool Hunting, KGW-TV, and more. The product has 1,236 backers, the majority of whom have pledged enough to be the first in line to receive an Orp horn (retail will be $49.95). The money raised with allow Toren and FUSE to commercialize the Orp, purchase tooling, and bring the product to the market.
On Monday, Toren shared an update and note of thanks with his backers that included this graphic:
And here’s a look at the guts of an Orp. It’s a very nifty product!
Congratulations Toren and the FUSE team! It’s great to see this type of bike product innovation happening in Portland and we look forward to more great things from the FUSE shop in the future.