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We make stingray resistant booties! Stingray stings are painful and can be dangerous, and the fear of getting stung can take the enjoyment out of the beach. We’
by pinkmuffinere 3y ago
We make stingray resistant booties! Stingray stings are painful and can be dangerous, and the fear of getting stung can take the enjoyment out of the beach. We’ve mainly targeted surfers so far, but they could be useful for any beach-goer.
Definitely been dealing with the fact that “hardware is hard”. We had a design we were fairly happy with about two years ago, but have been struggling to get it manufactured since then. We’re making progress, but it’s always slow.
Our website is www.mydragonskin.com
- yardie 3y agoSteve Irwin's death[0] has never not been on my mind anytime a stingray gets near me. I'm like "hey little fella, I'm going to slowly back away to avoid both of us freaking out and one of us may end up dead." Best of luck with your startup! [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Irwin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Irwin
- xenospn 3y agoHow often do you find yourself near a stingray?
- pinkmuffinere 3y agoThanks! Just for posterity: Steve Irwin’s death was really very unusual. Stingrays can be scary, but deaths directly due to stingray stings are pretty rare. Contaminated wounds are more common and can lead to serious issues, but even that is not normal. We’ve met multiple people who’ve gotten 10+ stings, but I only know one person who had serious issues due to contamination.
- kulahan 3y agoIs there any interest in your company on making the same thing for pets, or at least dogs? My pops takes his dog surfing most days, and there are lots and lots of urchins around. The extra safety would be nice.
- pinkmuffinere 3y agoWe have a few ideas for follow-on products, but haven’t been able to put much time into them yet. I’ll add this to the list though, and we’ll look into it eventually!
- wxce 3y agoAssuming that a wet-suit does not help with such bites, would it be feasible to make a full-body suit from the same material? I'm a layman (or worse) in this area, and I was wondering if somethings similar could be made for shark bites. After Googling, I found someone claiming that they have. How hard would would it be to "combine these two"? (Both of the above may be stupid questions)
- pinkmuffinere 3y agoThese are great questions! Shaping something for the whole body would be difficult, because most puncture resistant materials aren’t very stretchy. You’d have to have the perfect shape for a specific person. It probably is possible, but likely to take a lot of work and be rather uncomfortable. Doing some quick googling, I find sharkstop.co, which makes wetsuits to protect against shark attacks. They say the “placement of Shark Stop panels … have been strategically chosen to significantly reduce the amount of blood lost during a shark bite incident…” It sounds like they’re carefully choosing the location to make trade offs between protection and wearability, which I suspect is the right approach. We do the same thing with our booties, and only have stingray resistant material covering some percentage of the bootie.
- blitz_skull 3y agoWhere does one need to live to have this problem? I’ve been to the Gulf of Mexico countless times and I’ve literally never seen a stingray. I’m guessing they’re not native there?
- rossover 3y agoI live in Gulf Breeze FL on the Gulf of Mexico and see stingrays daily.
- pinkmuffinere 3y agoThere should be stingrays in the Gulf of Mexico, but you might not have seen them for a couple of reasons: - They generally blend in well with the ocean floor - Some species bury themselves to hide when they feel threatened, others swim away - They prefer warm, shallow, sandy beaches — if you’re at a beach with lots of rocks/seaweed, they might not be there