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Forget, for a moment, what you’ve heard about a housing correction.
Tucker models Shark Fin Gear’s iFIN Harness with attached iFIN, the first in the world to integrate a harness and GPS tracking system. The male German Shepherd rescue, 3 years old, is the company’s research and development specialist (Courtesy Jack Armstrong)
Tucker models Shark Fin Gear’s iFIN Harness with attached iFIN, the first in the world to integrate a harness and GPS tracking system. The male German Shepherd rescue, 3 years old, is the company’s research and development specialist (Courtesy Jack Armstrong)
Ahwatukee resident Jack Armstrong last week realized his long-time goal of opening a plant for his unique line of innovative products for dogs and cats and their owners.
Armstrong opened his Shark Fin Gear Company’s production facility and headquarters in Tempe after several months of setting up the production space, office, and showroom to prepare for increasing sales and hiring of necessary personnel.
“Taking a page from the pandemic playbook, SFGC will have all management and marketing personal work remotely to reduce the overhead cost and to provide a better lifestyle for it’s employees,” Armstrong said. “Those who do need to work on site will find it’s an inviting atmosphere that is pet friendly.”
At the ribbon-cutting, Armstrong introduced his latest invention – the
iFIN Harness with attached iFIN GPS tracking system.
“This is the first GPS system in the world to be integrated into a harness,” he said. “This is so important because many dog and cat owners have found that their animals are safest with a harness on as opposed to a collar.
“Some owners use both,” he added, “so it is essential that a tracking system can be applied to a collar and a harness. And the iFIN™ is interchangeable between the harness and Shark Fin Collar.”
The ceremony was attended by Tempe Chamber of Commerce members, the founders of the company and their families, production and engineering staff, a member of the advisory panel, and many local dog lovers.
Armstrong also announced that Shark Fin Gear Company is launching an equity crowd funding campaign on the wefunder.com platform to raise the capital he needs to help finalize production needs and scale up growth. Information about the investment opportunity is on the investor tab at sharkfingear.com.
Shark Fin Gear is a start-up that had been operating under the name QR Pets for several years until Armstrong in December 2020 decided to give the company a new brand identity.
“The core mission remains the same: bringing great innovative products to the market that are made in the USA,” he said.
His product line includes traditional and the patent-protected GPS-equipped collars, the new harnesses, leashes and specially made treats, chews, antlers and bones.
His leashes and collars are designed for cats and dogs of all sizes.
“Our mission is to develop, promote and distribute gear that help animals live productive healthy lives,” he said. “This mission is primarily focused on dogs and cats in the foreseeable future.”
Armstrong and his wife Sky started designing the GPS-equipped collars in 2018 and secured a patent two years later.
They began their journey when he realized that not much had changed in the design of collars in four decades. Nylon collars were the big innovation along with tracking and fitness wearables.
So, he says on his website, he decided to develop stylish collars that also had the electronics integrated into the collar so the electronics were hidden.
“The main problem with this idea is there isn’t a place to safely and comfortably locate the electronics in an ordinary line,” he said.
Shark Fin Gear collars take a radical departure from the housing for most GPS systems, which have their electronics enclosed in a hollow plastic case.
“This is a good design for humans, but not for animals” Armstrong says on his website. “Animals will bite, chew and swallow things they get a hold of. If a dog would bite into one of these hollow cases, it may get shocked by the battery. Or worse, it breaks open the case and swallows the lithium battery. That could be fatal.”
Amrstrong said his method of encapsulating the electronics in Kevlar prevents those kinds of tragedies.
“If it could be swallowed, it is completely encapsulated by resin, therefore, wouldn’t break down in the stomach,” he said. “Bottom line, besides being virtually indestructible and waterproof, it is the safest way to incorporate electronic systems in the animal world.”
The Kevlar layers perform several vital functions, he said.
“If the system were to crack or break, the Kevlar holds it all together,” he says. “It’s like the film in your windshield that keeps the glass together if it breaks. It also extends out of the body of the resin to provide a method of attachment for hardware.
“This allows us to use snaps or other hardware to attach to collars, harnesses and other wearables. It can also be sewed or attached with adhesives.”
But Armstrong also said it wasn’t just important to have safe, hidden electronics: People wanted “the cool factor,” too.
So he began designing his own line, selling them at pop-up stores and street festivals, where he said the response was “overwhelmingly positive.”
“It took over two years of trial and error to find the right formula of resin, the right brand, the right procedures, the right mold, and the company to make the molds,” he said.
“And then came testing to see about the transmission of signals, comfort on a dog, waterproofing, and many fails on finding good components and suppliers. It was all worth it. Our concept is now a reality.”
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