SOOT
An Acoustic Kickstand for the Kindle Fire
www.SOOT.me

Back in mid-2011 Mani Razaghi and I decided to team up and combine our skills to create a simple product that we could launch on Kickstarter. The thought was to create a line of accessory products that would extend the functionality of our existing consumer electronics devices, and I think we captured the essence of that through our debut product: the SOOT Acoustic Kickstand for the Kindle Fire.

The Fire is the first true competitor to the iPad ecosystem with its entry level price point, beautiful industrial design, ultra-portable form factor, and the entire Amazon media collection at your fingertips. With the excitement and buzz that’s been built up around the Fire’s success, we thought this would be a great platform to start with.

The problem with many of these devices that are launching with slim, sexy and sleek form factors is that designers are needing to cram everything into tiny spaces. This leads to things like speakers pointing away from the user. (The iPad is the perfect example of this.) The Fire’s speakers aren’t AS bad, but they’re still pointing in the wrong direction — especially if you’re sharing media with another person.

Our idea is to create a chamber that channels the sound forward toward the user instead of away. We’ve also designed a slot into the back of the chamber that you can slide a credit card into to prop up the device.
The SOOT Acoustic Kickstand plays well with most existing book-flap cases out there, so there’s no need to remove the chamber when you’re looking for protection on the go. Simply remove the card, tuck it between the chamber and the Fire, and you’re good to go.

Our early prototypes were hand-painted SLAs.