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“People are always looking for creative new ways to drink. That’s when we came up with the Pump Action Shotgun Tool.” — Kevin Yeganeh
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Guzzling an entire can of beer at once has a long tradition among UBC engineering students. For the uninitiated, it’s called “shotgunning.”
Kevin Yeganeh, Yohan Cho and Cole Robertson know the tradition well. One day, it sparked an idea — why not use a pump action shotgun-type device to shotgun beer?
“People are always looking for creative new ways to drink,” explained Yeganeh. “That’s when we came up with the Pump Action Shotgun Tool.”
It’s simple, but brilliant, if you’re into shotgunning.
“You load your can, pump it by pressing the pump action mechanism, rotate it around and there’s a nozzle on the sleeve so you can consume your beverage directly,” said Yeganeh.
“We were the guinea pigs. It definitely took a lot of testing. We spent two to three months designing it and testing it. We even ran a limited release, where we had a limited set of customers that got to use it first.”
In a normal time, the idea might have never gotten off the drawing board. But during the COVID-19 pandemic, the friends found they had a lot of time on their hands. So they started a company to try to inject “an aspect of creativity into the alcohol industry.”
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Their first product is the Pump Action Shotgun Tool.
“Our first prototype was literally a PVC pipe and some nuts and bolts, and people were already excited about it, asking us to design one,” said Yeganeh.
“So we spent a few months designing it, ran a Kickstarter (campaign to raise money), set up our injection moulding facilities and fulfilment centres and launched our online store in late November.”
It’s been a hit, selling 4,000 units across North America in six months, at about $30 a pop.
“There are parts produced in Canada, and we have a facility (producing the device) in Asia,” he said. “And then everything is sent to the States, which is where our fulfilment centre is. The fulfilment centre does our packaging and sends it out.”
Some engineers would balk at the perception that engineering students drink a lot, but Yeganeh and co. embrace it — they even called their company Drunken Engineers.
“We do enjoy our fair share of drinks,” he admits.
“(But) drinks taste better when you’ve earned it — we’re a big believer in putting in the work so you can have a drink at the end of the day.”
The engineering students all recently graduated, and soon will be looking for jobs. But they’re going to keep up their company — they’re designing other drinking devices, like a shotgunning gadget for five people.
“The idea behind that one is it’s more of a race,” he said.
This might alarm organizations opposed to alcohol abuse, but Yeganeh said they haven’t had any negative feedback yet.
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“We really like to promote safe drinking,” he said.
“There’s a whole belligerent stigma that’s associated with the drinking industry. We think we’re different than that. There’s a big difference between drinking and drinking to be belligerent, and we don’t promote that at all.”
jmackie@postmedia.com
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