Utah fathers create projects to build relationships

(SonicDad.com)


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OGDEN — In an effort to increase the time families spend together, three Utah fathers created a company that allows users to build toys and gadgets in an affordable, do-it-yourself project.

Abe Shreve of Ogden said he had always been interested in starting his own business and he felt that he and his neighbor, Ritchie Kinmont, had the necessary, compatible skills to be successful. Shreve said he also reached out to his friend, Jake Hoopes to design a website for their business and in 2011, SonicDad was born.

Kinmont’s young son, Matthew, died from a rare illness during the beginning phases of building the company and Shreve said Matthew became an inspiration for many of the products they created.

“Even now, he is still the director of the creativity in our company,” Shreve said. “Every project is kind of ‘Matthew tested.’

SonicDad serves as an online tutorial service with detailed instructions and videos of how to build gadgets with materials found around the house or at low cost, Shreve said. Some of the projects include “How to make a crossbow from popsicle sticks” and “How to make a paper airplane launcher.” Several of the YouTube tutorials recently received over a million views.

Shreve said all three men had seen a problem in the world of people not spending enough time with those they care about. He said SonicDad was an attempt to fix that.


We had a single mom from Australia who wrote in and sent us a picture of a crossbow, which is one of the projects that we did. And she said, 'Thanks for giving a single mom with three boys an entire Saturday where they paid attention to me.' That's so powerful.

–Abe Shreve


“At the core of the message is spending time together,” he said. “Our mission statement is ‘Building relationships one cool project at a time.’ We believe the world needs this. We believe this will make families stronger. We believe this will increase closeness in the relationships that matter.”

SonicDad currently offers 61 projects with 106 video tutorials. Shreve said that users can sign up for the service and get instructions for the first 12 projects for free. After that, a paid subscription service offers multiple access tiers. Some of the projects only take 30 minutes to build while others can take six hours or longer.

Shreve said the company currently has had 215,446 projects downloaded.

All three men have full-time jobs and Shreve said everything for SonicDad is done after regular work hours. He said they love the fulfillment they get from seeing other people gain good relationships with their children or family.

“We get really amazing stories,” he said. “For us, that is as much why we do it as anything else. We had a single mom from Australia who wrote in and sent us a picture of a crossbow, which is one of the projects that we did. And she said, ‘Thanks for giving a single mom with three boys an entire Saturday where they paid attention to me.’ That’s so powerful.”

A recent DTAC commercial also illustrates the initiative to replace technology with quality family time. The commercial shows a man trying to calm a soothing baby while asking his wife for advice via video chat.

He eventually sets his cell phone down and picks up the baby. The slogan? “Technology will never replace love.”

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Faith Heaton Jolley

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