There are ~1.5 million bicycles stolen every year in the US, and ~3 million in the EU, with less than 3% recovered. Approximately 20% cyclists that experience a gut-wrenching theft never ride again, that’s ~900,000 cyclists every year that have to get back to their cars, further contributing to traffic congestion and air pollution. We hope we can make an impact and bring products to the market that can actually stop thieves in their tracks, and empower current and future cyclists.
There is an estimated $350 million in losses every year, that is 3 bikes stolen every minute, and that's in the United States alone. We are trying to make an impact on the $21 billion global ultra-security bicycle, motorcycle, scooter, and moped lock market. Specifically the 54% of cyclists and motorcyclists that are already familiar with and use a U-Lock as their preferred method of security.
The original SKUNKLOCK is the first ever bicycle, motorcycle, scooter, and moped lock to "fight back" against thieves using noxious, vomit inducing chemicals. While other lock makers are focused on making locks bigger or stronger, or adding electronic gimmicks, while ignoring the existence of portable angle grinders, we realize that most conventional locks on the market can be cut with an angle grinder in 30 seconds or less.
For our second lock, the CARBON lock, our goal was to explore options to produce a lock that could resist angle grinders, rebar cutters and bolt cutters, all practical known means of bike theft, and do so with a product that's still affordable.
The original lock has proven very effective in practice. Both co-founders and friends, have been securing their bikes for many years now using the original SKUNKLOCK, in the same high theft environment where all of their previous bikes were stolen when using conventional locks, and no theft has yet occurred. In that same time frame (and some friends only gained the confidence to lock their bikes on the streets, after obtaining a SKUNKLOCK), we'd previously had 4 bikes stolen using top of the line conventional locks. The deterrent factor really works, as very few attempts have been made, but some locks have been cut, and as expected, the thieves didn't complete the cut and left the scene. We'd rather replace the lock, than the bike!
Despite the original locks proven effectiveness (as reported by many of our customers), we unfortunately face difficulties in terms of selling the original lock in certain countries. Each country (not standardized throughout the EU) has very different laws with regards to selling products that contain active ingredients (such as batteries, spray cans and our original lock). The ongoing difficult effort to expand the list of countries we can sell the lock in, is what motivated us to come up with another lock solution that is also very effective at preventing theft, while being totally inert and hence have no sales restrictions.
