Collaboratively developed in one week by quirky's community

New York, NY, August 11, 2009 -- Today marks the official release of the DigiDude - a community designed, funky, portable camera tripod and keychain with attitude.

Simply screw off your dude’s head and pull out his retractable legs for the perfect on-the-go camera mount. DigiDudes are easily attached to your keychain or camera bag...so say goodbye to shaky hands, blurry pictures, cumbersome tripods, and unnecessary camera gear. The DigiDude will mount most point and shoot cameras, flipcams, and more. If it fits in your pocket it will fit on your DigiDude.

The Quirky Community added some personality to the Dudes. Choose from one of the five: Pinky Scorsese, Snot Buster, iChomp, G-bling-Money-Son, and BoltBot, each with their own style and attitude.

All DigiDudes come fully equipped with retractable and bendable legs for adjustable camera height & grip as well as a key ring for easy portability.

The DigiDudes tripod lineup - G-Bling-Money-Son, Snot Buster, Mr. Pinky Scorsese, 1iChomp and BoltBot (left to right). Photo provided by Quirky.

DigiDude is the eighth product designed and developed by the quirky community since quirky’s launch on June 2nd. 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 of the DigiDude and it is now available for sale at quirky’s online store for $19.99.

You might remember the Split Stick, a double-sided USB drive, that hit the pre-sale threshold just five days after launch. "We think the DigiDude will do it in four!" adds Ben Kaufman, founder of quirky.

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.

Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W300 digital camera mounted on Mr. Pinky Scorsese tripod. Photo provided by Quirky.

Every week users post ideas on quirky to be rated by the quirky community. The community surveys the submissions during the 7-day evaluation period and selects one product to move forward to 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 at 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.

Another view of Quirky's DigiDudes keychain tripod lineup. Photo provided by Quirky.