The
Swimfin story started almost twenty years ago. In the late 1980s
Kevin Moseley was a self employed swimming instructor. Just for fun,
he took a couple of old foam swimming floats and made a fin that
could be tied on to his back. At the end of lessons with a group of
kids he would put on the fin for a few minutes of play-time to
reward the children for their efforts during the session. The kids
always enjoyed this time: Kevin would chase the kids around the
shallow end of the pool, giving some practical use for the swimming
skills the kids had been working on namely, not getting caught by
the 'shark' in the water.
That first prototype SwimFin was the only one of its kind for
many years. By chance, Kevin heard that the BBC television show
'Dragon's Den' was looking for participants and so, just out of
curiosity, he applied. Kevin, and his new product idea, sailed
through the application process, and before he knew it, he was
invited to the London studios of the BBC and found himself telling
these potential investors, the 'Dragons' about SwimFin. In a
few short weeks he had prepared a business plan and a 'defence' of
his SwimFin idea strong enough to withstand any attack. It
wasn't until Kevin had done this that he realised what a good thing
he had. Certain Dragons agreed and offered to invest in SwimFin.
This was briefly shown on television, however, as Kevin chose to
reject their 50% equity request, the Dragons liked SwimFin so
much that they wanted a big piece of the pie, Kevin said a polite
'no thank you' and looked elsewhere. After several meetings with
other potential investors who all wanted a 50% stake, Kevin decided
to self fund the project himself.
Since then its been an hectic time for Kev Moseley and SwimFin.
The product has been redesigned and improved. Before it could be
mass produced, SwimFin had to be rigorously tested to ensure
it conforms to world-wide safety standards. Patent protection around
the world had to be secured, and the trademark registered. But all
the hard work is about to come to fruition.
SwimFin will be
available to purchase online very soon.
Watch
this space!