Local company first to market new laptop bag
Tipp City family designs luggage that allows computer to go through airport checkpoints in pack.
Friday, August 15, 2008
Using the pool table in the basement of their Tipp City home, Ginny and Ben Bosma box up orders of the Aerovation Checkpoint Friendly Laptop Bag. One of the bags is sitting on a make-shift display they made to photograph the product.TIPP CITY — A local entrepreneur who runs his business out of his basement beat the luggage industry to the market with the first checkpoint-friendly laptop bag.
Ben Bosma, co-owner of Aerovation Products, said he responded to a March Travel Security Administration (TSA) notice with a solution to the problem laptops were causing at airport security checkpoints. Travelers have to take laptops out of their bags so TSA can have an unobstructed view.
Aerovation's solution is a hinged bag with two compartments, held together by the handles.
"The idea being the X-rays will go through this side of the bag where the laptop is and all these other articles over here won't interfere with what's going on, on the laptop side," Bosma said.
Aerovation started manufacturing bags in April and selling them in June. Bags are available online at www.aerovation.com, but the company's inventory is tentatively sold out until Aug. 25.
Briggs & Riley, a travel luggage company, said their version of the checkpoint bag would be in stores today, Aug. 15, and Targus, a laptop case company, said bags would be available in October.
TSA won't officially approve any company's bag or write design specifications, but the administration did work with manufacturers, testing prototypes and offering guidelines of what the design couldn't have, such as zippers over laptop compartments.
"We mutually engaged in conversation based on feedback from travelers looking for faster ways to get through checkpoints," said TSA spokesperson Elio Montenegro.
Aervoation was first to the market because instead of waiting to hear if their bag was satisfactory from TSA, Ben and son Chris Bosma tested their design at Dayton International Airport and at a lab with X-ray equipment. Confident, they began manufacturing.
Aerovation has three manufacturers in China and filed for a patent in March.
In fact, Aerovation had bags ready before TSA expected and they notified security agents. TSA planned to communicate externally about the bags today, said Montenegro.
These bags could speed up lines for a majority of the 60 percent of travelers from the business community who carry laptops, according to Dayton International Airport statistics.
"Anything to keep the lines moving is the best thing for the airport," said Dayton International Airport spokeswoman Linda Hughes.
Bosma said Aerovation is a hobby and he started out making pilot friendly hats, expanding to pilot accessories. He monitors the government contracting world online and said the laptop bags showed up as a miscellaneous requirement, catching his eye.
Contact this reporter at clevingston@
DaytonDailyNews.com.
