As a children’s soccer coach and triathlon runner, Syosset’s Tom Neale could not ignore a problem both he and his athletes faced—shoelaces that often came undone in the middle of training, or even worse, during competition. So, he decided to look for a solution.
“It actually started with a lot of trips to Home Depot,” says Neale, a former US Army Officer and Ranger. “The first prototype was bungee laces that I got from Joanne’s and rubber saucers from the plumbing department at Home Depot. And I literally just started playing and I stayed up all night, literally till five in the morning just playing with shoes and laces and these rubber discs.”
Fifteen designs and three prototypes later, DiscIts—custom-fitted no-tie shoelaces—were born.
DiscIts consist of bungee laces that replace the regular shoe laces in any type of shoe and the actual DiscIt device, which fastens them together permanently.
As a triathlon athlete, Neale says he had used existing brands of no-tie laces before, but they didn’t do the trick.
“When it’s three events—the swim, the bike, the run—you get off the bike and you need to get out on the running course quickly so you don’t want to waste time in transition tying shoelaces,” says Neale. “So there is a handful of what they call no-tie lace products out there in the triathlon running specialty market. While I tried several and I liked several I was never thrilled with any of them. They oftentimes had bulkiness to them, bouncing laces, fraying laces, so while they were somewhat effective they didn’t completely solve the issue.”
DiscIts are different from similar products in that they require a one-time installation process, so the same custom fit can be achieved with every wear.
“In the initial installation you do a custom fit,” says Neale. “Then you cut the laces and cap the laces. You do the traditional criss cross, but then the last two eyelets, instead of criss cross, you go up and down in a vertical fashion and those wind up giving you fastening loops.”
Those fastening loops can stay as is for a casual fit, or can be looped around the DiscIt device for a snug fit during play.
“When you want to train, run or play sports you put them into Game On mode and you get a tighter, competitive fit,” says Neale. “You can engage the no-tie laces in a matter of seconds.”
You can buy DiscIts on DiscIts.com and locally at a handful of retailers including Woodbury Sports and One Small Step in Woodbury. Neale has also done several public installations at local events like the Syosset Columbus Day Tournament.
“We went through close to 150 pairs of DiscIts shoelaces,” says Neale. “Because we were actually installing, we were able to put them on right then and there and it got to the point where entire teams were showing up to change out their shoe laces so it was exciting.”
Neale has also partnered up with national youth soccer organization SAY Soccer with leagues located in 34 states. He has even begun expanding the business through multiple retail locations in New Jersey and Virginia, and has plans for further expansion.
“I started out with kind of the specialty mom and pop stores,” says Neale. “But I’m starting to have conversations with retailers that have a broader reach and footprint and a larger number of locations.”
And while the product was designed with the athlete in mind, DiscIts are also becoming popular off the field. Neale’s daughters, ages 9 and 11, not only wear them for soccer, but even on the shoes they wear every day to school.
“I also have moms who go to the gym taking spin class and doing yoga because it’s easy on easy off,” says Neale. “And I have people just in the general market who just don’t like to deal with shoelaces and this is a great solution to that problem.”
DiscIts was recently voted a semi-finalist for The Grommet’s National Invention Competition. By popular vote, three out of the 15 semi-finalists in the competition will attend the final pitch contest which will take place in Fenway Park on March 20. Public voting is open through Feb. 28 at TheGrommet.com/product-pitch/id/76, where supporters can vote for their favorite product once a day.
The final product winner will win a $10,000 marketing campaign.
For more information on DiscIts, visit www.discits.com.
