On April 3, 1973, Motorola employee Martin Cooper placed the first mobile phone call. It wasn't even known as a "cell phone" back then.
Cell phones, of course, are ubiquitous today. There are an estimated 300 million cell phones currently in use in the U.S. alone. All told, there's more than five billion of them in the world right now.
You have to think David Barnett, a former philosophy professor at the University of Colorado, had an inkling where the relationship we have with mobile phones was going. In 2012 he started tinkering with a design that would become the PopSocket, a phone accessory he unveiled to the public in 2014.
PopSockets are collapsible grips/stands that attach to the backs of phones, making the phone easier to hold in one hand for taking selfies or for scrolling through social media feeds. Since 2014, sales of PopSockets have skyrocketed (reportedly 35 million in 2017 and then 60 million in 2018). They are far and away the most popular phone grip on the market and the company has built relationships with Swarovski, Marvel, the NBA, Burt's Bees and OtterBox (to name just a few).
And now, SOG has entered the picture.
New for 2021, in a collaborative effort, comes the PopGrip Multi-Tool that features a small, detachable flat multi-tool tucked into a custom designed PopGrip. A small SOG multi-tool is secured into the back of the PopGrip with TwistMag™, a built-in magnetic twist system, and features a bottle opener, mini pry bar, and ¼” and 4 mm hex bit drivers, allowing users to solve common problems that might crop up throughout the day.
How did two such diverse companies as PopSocket and SOG even come to cross paths?
It started with PopSocket looking to SOG with help in establishing some cred with a group of consumers they hadn't directly appealed to before.
"PopSocket sells very well with a younger crowd that skews more female," said Chris Cashbaugh, SOG's Senior Director of Product Strategy. "So PopSockets was looking for a way to expand into the exact kind of demographic that makes up a bunch of our end users."
Alternatively, SOG was eager to work together, said Cashbaugh, because the biggest fans of PopSockets are not necessarily a demographic that a knife company has captured well.
With the goal of expanding the reach of both brands, Cashbaugh and the SOG product team trotted out a few different ideas and designs before landing on a multi-tool that fits inside a standard-sized PopSocket.
The PopGrip Multi-Tool, said Cashbaugh, is a collaborative product that meets the expectations placed on it during the development stage by both brands.
"We make knives and multi-tools for people who want to embrace the preparedness mindset," said Cashbaugh. "People who bring their phones everywhere, which is all of us at this point, should have an option of bringing something else useful along with them. It doesn't matter their age or gender – people want to be ready to take on the day."
Is the PopSocket/SOG collab going to expand deeper in the future? "We have some ideas," said Cashbaugh. "A goal we have at SOG is to provide people with added capabilities. This initial effort certainly does that, so we will explore where that takes us."
