Weigh To Go, Luggage Tag With A Digital Scale, Hits Quirky’s Online Store

New York, NY, February 24, 2010 — Today marks the official release of Weigh To Go — a community-developed, travel accessory that solves some of your everyday travel antics. Weigh To Go houses a scale and luggage identification tag in one compact device. Tired of overweight baggage fees? With Weigh To Go, you can know before you stow!

To use Weigh To Go, simply press the power button and set your unit to pounds or kilograms. Press the tare button to set the scale to zero, grab the Weigh To Go body, and pull upward, lifting your suitcase gently off the ground. Wait five seconds, then slowly lower and rest the suitcase on the ground. Weigh To Go will clearly display your bag’s weight on its digital interface. To shut the unit off, press power button again or wait 45 seconds and it will power off automatically.

Weigh To Go’s slim interface is constructed of:

– A high gloss ABS plastic shell with a rubber bumper surrounding the exterior for protection while in transit.

– A durable steel carabiner with a built-in combination lock to prevent theft of the unit itself (not to lock your luggage). The combination can be reset by the user.

– Two velcro straps that wrap around the underside of the luggage handle to secure the unit down.

– A battery-powered scale for measuring weight.

Weigh To Go is the 29th product designed and developed by the Quirky community since Quirky’s launch on June 2, 2009. Quirky gives everyone the chance to get product ideas out of their heads and onto shelves. Each week, Quirky’s community collaborates to select and produce one new product idea. This week ends the development phase of Weigh To Go, and it is now available for pre-sale in Quirky’s online store for $33.00.

You might remember other successful Quirky products including the Split Stick, a double-sided USB drive; the DigiDude, a portable camera tripod and keychain; the Scratch-n-Scroll, a mousepad with a writing surface; and the PowerCurl , a cord wrap for Apple’s MagSafe power adapter.

Quirky engages participants to collaborate in every aspect of product creation — from ideation, design, naming, manufacturing, marketing, right on through to sales. Anyone can participate on Quirky.com either by submitting their own product idea for $99, or by voting, rating, and influencing other people’s product ideas. Cooler still, 30¢ of every dollar generated from the sale of a Quirky product goes back to these influencers.

Every week, users post ideas on Quirky to be rated by the Quirky community. The community surveys the submissions during a seven-day evaluation period and selects one product to move forward into product development. Quirky’s community then begins weighing in on everything from naming to logo selection to packaging through to prototype.

The final product becomes available for pre-sale in the Quirky online store (quirky.com/products). Once the product hits its pre-sale threshold, credit cards are charged, and the product goes into production and delivery. At this point, 30¢ of every dollar made from the sale of these products goes back to the community. “Community” in this case covers both the ideator as well as all people who voted, commented, and rated the project idea along the way.