Stay-home dad's adaptation has wheels

CRAIG SIMCOX/Dominion Post

FAMILY ENTERPRISE: Jenny McIver, Richard Latham and son Noah on the Wishbone Bike which sells for $299 and has been snapped up by retailers.

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Richard Latham is probably the only toymaker to have turned down an order from New York toy retailer FAO Schwartz.

But the designer of the Wishbone Bike is now gearing up to make good on that, having transported his burgeoning business out of a 20th floor bathroom to a garage in Island Bay, Wellington.

Wishbone Design's "ultimate pre-bike" is the result of a bout of ingenuity born out of Mr Latham's spare time as a stay-home dad living in New York, where partner Jenny McIver was working at the United Nations.

He came up with an innovative and sustainable improvement on a German-designed "running bike", and with a fulltime business keeping the repatriated family busy.

Without pedals, the bike gives kids a running start at bicycle riding to develop balance and confidence. The design, which converts from a tricycle to a mid-sized two-wheeler to a larger two-wheeler, can replace myriad "cheap" bikes that a family might buy, Ms McIver said.

"You get this as soon as you walk and you have fun till you are five, and we think of it as a hand-me-down product."

Built from sustainable materials and road-tested by four-year-old Noah, the concept prototype was produced in the New York apartment, where Mr Latham set up a soundproofed workshop in a two-by-two-metre bathroom, smuggling raw materials past the building supervisor.

"The sander went on the basin, and when I was using the tablesaw, the bandsaw went in the bath."

Now using a production company in Rongotai, Wellington, and assembling the bikes in their garage, the couple plan to start manufacturing in Asia soon.

Retailing at $299, the bikes were snapped up by 17 retailers in 10 days. At that point Mr Latham, who builds the bikes himself, said: "Stop, that's enough."

Even turning out 25 a week with help from his father-in-law, they were unable to keep up with demand and the manufacturing deal cannot come soon enough.

Wishbone Design has patented the bike, which is to be shown at international toy fairs next year, in three countries, and is working on other, eco-conscious, products.

And somewhere, Mr Latham said, they still have FAO Schwartz's number.