How a Philly-made snow shovel landed on QVC, Home Depot and Amazon

Downingtown-based inventor Howie Rosenshine had his very own Miracle Mop moment.

See, the creator of the Shovelution, a NextFab-built ergonomic snow shovel heralded as “Best New Tool” by Popular Mechanics, struck a licensing deal with Edison, N.J.-based outdoor tool makers Snow Joe. 

“After the piece ran on Technical.ly, a reader introduced me to Snow Joe,” Rosenshine said in an email. “They ended up licensing and producing an all-in-one version of the Shovelution.”

The licensed item debuted on QVC TV in December and sold a pretty decent 50,000 units, a big leap from the original product which made it to 2,000 units sold. Details from the licensing deal weren’t made available, but Rosenshine says he’ll be getting the first round of royalties next quarter.

Ka-ching.

The item has also been made available on Amazon, Home Depot and Walmart. You can also spot the item in Lowes Canada stores where, likely, it’s getting more use than here in Philly where the snow season has been pretty light. (So far.)

The Shovelution looks much like your average shovel except for the spring-loaded second handle. It can also be attached to any shovel and adjusted for every user. Rosenshine, a retired software engineer formerly with Sun Microsystems, designed the product to alleviate the strain put on your lower back and allow you to utilize your upper body instead.

Rosenshine credited makerspace NextFab with helping out in the prototyping process. He gave us the lowdown on it.

“The primary machining tool that I use is the Bridgeport vertical mill. Of course, I use things like the industrial band saws and metal grinders too,” Rosenshine wrote to Technical.ly.  “I do a lot of 3D printing, using both the commercial-grade 3D printers (Stratasys) and the consumer-grade 3D printers (Bukito). And I use the Solidworks and Photoshop workstations as well.”

Here’s the Snow Joe Shovelution in action:

What with Snow Storm Stella set to blast the Northeast for a couple of days, you may wanna get one one — like right now.