Plymouth Man Invents All-in-one Cooler and Chair
Plymouth resident Joe Higgins spent six years tinkering, tweaking and developing prototypes for the Kul Stool cooler chair before it went to market.
“A lot of trial and error, you know, trying things,” Higgins told CCX News. “You have those ‘aha’ moments, where [you’re] like, ‘oh wow, this is actually going to work.'”
Higgins was inspired by a simple but rugged piece of industrial design: the five gallon pail.
A father, he kept a bucket of baseballs around when helping out at his kid’s baseball practice. And one day, when he got invited out onto a boat, he wasn’t able to find a cooler.
So, he dumped out the baseballs from the pail and used it as a combo seat and cooler.
Plymouth-based developer Joe Higgins has developed a combination cooler, chair and backpack. His first production run has sold out.
It worked well, and he decided to explore ways to make the bucket-seat more comfortable and user-friendly. He wasn’t able to find much on the existing market.
“I started to look for a similar product and there wasn’t anything out there,” he said. “And I eventually just started to make my own. Got the five gallon bucket, started to put insulation around it.”
He eventually designed the current incarnation of the Kul Stool. A center bucket is surrounded by insulation and durable nylon with pockets. The roughly 9-pound cooler also has a rotating, cushioned top, a removable back rest, and backpack-style carrying straps.
“It’s got a 30-can capacity, can hold ice for four days,” Higgins said. “So you have some pretty good insulation on there. You’ve got these bigger pockets.”
Higgins started selling the patent-pending Kul Stool at sports shows and found them popular with the hunting and fishing crowd.
In fact, his first production run of 300 coolers has sold out and he’s waiting on a fresh order from the manufacturer.
“The next order’s going to be about double what that first order was, so I’m hoping to get some momentum from that,” he said.
The first run of coolers sold for $100 each. Newer versions, which will have more features, will likely cost around $125-150.
Soon, the Kul Stool may end up on store shelves.
“[I’m] starting to get some interest from retailers, so I’d like to be in some more retail shops coming up in this next year,” Higgins said.
