The HiddenHook Story
HiddenHook, like many great inventions, was born out of necessity. It was the brainchild of Andy Kogut, a successful carpenter from Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Andy was constantly filling his pickup truck with work gear and supplies for the animals on his small farm. One day, while unloading hay bales with his father-in-law, they debated who should climb in to get the last bales at the front of the bed. Andy knew in that moment that there had to be a better way.
Like most pickup truck owners, Andy typically had something rolling around in back of the truck to pull items out. In his case, it was his son's hockey stick. But that would get lost in the front with the items he wanted to retrieve, or it would get misplaced (like during hockey practice!), or it didn't properly "grab" the items he wanted. So in creating HiddenHook, Andy knew there were a few criteria that had to be met:
- The product had to store securely when not in use and not be prone to theft.
- The product had to be useful for "grabbing" most items that he was likely to carry.
- The product had to be strong enough to retrieve the types of items typically carried in a truck bed - hay bales and propane tanks, in addition to simple shopping bags.
- The product had to be light enough to be easily handled by the average person.
- The product had to be easily adjustable to different lengths for different sized truck beds.
With all this in mind, after an afternoon in his garage, the first HiddenHook prototype was in hand. He installed it in his own truck and had friends and relatives test it and give feedback. He took all of the comments and lessons and kept improving the design over a two year period.
Finally, he knew he had it right, and received his first patent! Debuting the product at the 2016 SEMA show in Las Vegas, Andy hoped to get some affirmation from buyers that the product was everything he believed. He wasn't disappointed. Feedback was overwhelming, and Tailhook was off and running.
Now, we're excited to bring it to you! We know that you'll love it, and will wonder how you managed without it for so long!
Andy meets the legend, Richard Petty @ SEMA 2016
