In late 2015, hoverboards briefly enjoyed a cultural moment as the must-have item of the holiday season. Except there was a problem: Not only did they attract a douche-tastic crowd of vapers and fuckboys, the lithium batteries exploded thanks to cheap, low-quality Chinese manufacturers, earning bans from the TSA and starting fires in homes.
Despite the negative press, a few savvy tech visionaries were cautiously optimistic about the marketplace for rideables. One product caught the attention of Mark Cuban, who saw an open lane for a company called Radical Transport, which just launched the Radical Moov on Kickstarter. Unlike the clunky, junky hoverboards from two years ago, Radical Transport promises a quality product made in the USA. INC Magazine has an interview with Cubes about why he wanted in:
Mark Cuban (Investor at Radical Transport): I thought the original boards were junk. That a board with style and a feel like a snowboard, originally designed and constructed in the USA, would crush it.
John White: What makes Moov different from other failed boards in the past?EJ Williams (Engineer/Co-founder at Radical Transport): We don’t deny that hoverboards got a bad rep over the last year. There are many reasons for those issues, but it really boils down to the fact that no individual company was producing hoverboards.
They were all being produced in “mom and pop” shops in china, having different stickers slapped on them, and being sold to America with absolutely no responsible quality control or even liability back to a single company.
We’ve developed the MOOV over the last year and a half with meticulous attention to detail and testing. We are also undergoing the highest level of certification you can achieve for a hoverboard: UL2272.
But in terms of the market, we definitely don’t think hoverboards were a fad. They were the first popular product in a brand new market called “rideables.” This would include any light electric vehicle that you can pick up. Or portable mobility device as another way to say it.
As well, we are aware people will be comparing us to the traditional hoverboards already on the market. But really, you need to be comparing us to other premium, American-made rideables. This includes products like Onewheel, boosted boards, and Urb-E.
The rideable market is growing. There’s no denying that.
In other words, the Moov is the Ferrari of all hoverboards. The fact you can carve and turn on the MOOV has to make Marty McFly a happy camper. The price point for this high end transporter ain’t cheap — Pledges start at $1099 on Kickstarter.
Meanwhile, it’s already raised $25,000 toward a $50,000 goal.
