What sparked the idea for ShredLights and helped launch the company

What started with a small, simple headlight for skateboards has turned into something even bigger. ShredLights now makes durable, modular lighting for a range of transport and electric vehicles along with accessories that improve both the safety and experience of the rider. The growth of their product line and their business is nothing short of amazing. Along they way, they’ve used KeyShot to create their product imagery and for the launch of their newest light, the SL-1000. Here, we learn more about how they use KeyShot.

What sparked the idea for ShredLights and helped launch the company?
ShredLights was founded in 2013 to create headlights for skateboards. Over the next few years, we developed a quick release mounting system and extremely durable lights to bring our first product to market in 2016. We utilized 3D printing to rapid prototype our designs before moving into tooling. In 2016, the growth of electric skateboards helped us grow sales and get more everyday users of our products.

What’s unique about the design process or approach to a product at ShredLights?
ShredLights are the most versatile lights in the world that utilize our patented S-LOCK mounting system. This allows users to quickly and easily swap the same lights between any bikes, helmets, skateboards, scooters, and much more. We are always coming up with new mounts and new ways to use ShredLights.

Where in your process is KeyShot used?
We mainly used KeyShot to help with product launches. Being a startup, we don’t have time to wait for the finished product to start creating marketing assets for product packaging and our website. KeyShot allows us to create all of the product imagery far in advance. This means we can get the product ready to launch while we are waiting for tooling and production and start selling the product as soon as the first units are ready.

What products has KeyShot been used for?
We utilized KeyShot to launch our newest light, the SL-1000. KeyShot was incredibly useful for showing exploded views and highlighting all of the features of our new product. Customer feedback to the launch video and new product was overwhelmingly positive and many people commented on how much they liked the renderings in our launch video.

Overall, how has KeyShot helped save time, money and/or improve quality?
KeyShot has improved the quality of our product videos and website by allowing us to show customers key features in a professional way. It has eliminated our need for high quality (and expensive) studio photography that we were previously doing. KeyShot has also allowed us to bring products to market faster than ever before.

What advice would you give to others interested in launching a business or new product?
Always be talking to your customers. The main priority of any business is to solve their customer’s problems in a valuable way. It’s important to understand how customer’s needs may change over time and you must be listening closely or they will find a new solution to their new problems.