After winning a contract at Walmart’s Open Call Event in June, a Starkville inventor will sell his door block product worldwide from a local factory with the ultimate goal of saving lives and creating jobs.
“This is a dream of mine because I’ve been inventing stuff ever since I was ten-years-old,” Bumper Door Block President and Inventor John Campbell said.
On June 13, Campbell was one of the approximately 450 inventors and business owners invited to Walmart’s home office in Bentonville, Arkansas for the Open Call Event.
Walmart announced its Open Call initiative in January 2013 in which the company would commit to buying $250 billion in products that support American jobs by 2023. Data from Boston Consulting Group estimate the initiative will create 1 million American jobs over the 10-year period.
“Walmart, their thinking is that, if the product is made overseas, when it gets to America and it gets in their stores, if people don’t have a job, how can they buy it off the shelf?” Campbell said. “So that’s genius to me as far as I’m concerned and it gives people like us, inventors and people who come up with innovative ideas and products, (a chance to) produce jobs.”
Campbell decided to enter the Open Call competition after speaking with a friend in May.
“A good friend of mine heard about this,” Campbell said. “I didn’t have a clue about the open call for Walmart.”
“So we followed up and sure enough we got selected to go to Bentonville, the headquarters there, and showcase our product before the buyers,” Campbell continued. “And give God the glory, our product was selected. And now our product is on walmart.com worldwide.”
Campbell began inventing his product, the Bumper Door Block, 15 years ago.
“I remember at 3 a.m., I’m working on another invention and I just gazed at the door for a couple of hours and it just came to me, ‘What can I do different about that door?’” Campbell remembers.
Campbell said he started with an invention for a door hinge.
“I invented a hinge on the door in which you can actually lock the hinge,” Campbell said. “I have a patent on it and I’m the first person to get a patent on a hinge since 1905.”
Campbell’s hinge idea would eventually lead to the invention of the bumper Door block once he began thinking about the deadbolt side of the door.
“From there, I came across the door to the deadbolt side, because you have less than a half an inch of wood ... to keep somebody from kicking the door in and a child can do that,” Campbell said. “So I started working from that point to come up with a better way of keeping the door from being kicked in on the deadbolt side.”
The original product was tested in Miami, Florida by the Federal Emergency Management Agency and is able to withstand Category 4 winds, yet Campbell continued working on the door block to make the installment quicker.
“We went through FEMA and we had it tested and, of course, it passed all tests,” Campbell said. “But it took an hour to install it and I had to take the door down, so I wasn’t satisfied with that even though it worked.”
Campbell’s new door block takes 15 seconds to install and takes even less time to remove and replace once installed.
“It's installed at the base of the door, (into the door), and takes 15 seconds to install it,” Campbell said. “It keeps winds from blowing it open and unwanted intruders and invasions of your home, property, churches, schools or whatever, it keeps them out.”
Campbell’s main motivation behind his invention was to save lives in the event of a hurricane or a shooting.
“You wouldn’t have to give teachers guns, you could just give them these,” Campbell said. “Think about the people in the schools who have been shot and killed. If this product saves one life, just one life, that’s important to me. But it’s going to save a great number of lives by installing this product in schools, churches, homes, businesses, etc.”
Campbell said locking a door is not enough to keep an intruder out in the event of an emergency.
“It’s not enough. A child can kick a door in,” Campbell said. “But with this, it’s like trying to push a wall down as a human being. It’s not happening.”
Campbell’s other motivation was to create jobs in Starkville.
“I’m very passionate about this because it’s going to save lives and create jobs, that’s my passion,” Campbell said.
The door block is currently being produced in a factory on highway 12. The product is made of 100 percent steel with a sale price of $35. Including Campbell, the Bumper Door Block factory has eight workers, but he hopes that number increases substantially.
“I mean, if we’re going to produce this product for the world, my goal is that we’re the number one employer in the Golden Triangle,” Campbell said. “I truly believe, in 12 months, we’ll be employing 1,000 people, and I can say that number because I have a mouth but I believe it in my heart.”
Campbell says his predictions are based on the violence and the number of doors in the world.
“Look at the world today. The shootings, the break-ins, the crime. That’s why it's going to happen,” Campbell said. “And if you count the number of doors in America and around the world, that’s why I think it’s going to happen.”
Bumper Door Block is also partnering with East Mississippi Community College’s Supplemental Nutrition to employ people in the community. The Bumper Door Block has been on sale for two weeks.
Campbell can be contacted at jc.doorblock@gmail.com or at 662-242-1250.