Arts & Entertainment
Local Teens in Finals of $250,000 Invention Contest
Evan and Parker Frye are one of just five finalist teams in the Frito-Lay Dreamvention contest, and they need your help to win!
In the world of inventions, the metro Detroit area has a lot of boasts. The moving assembly line. Three-color traffic signals. Radio news. Techno. Two local young inventors are hoping to add another boast to the list: Sole Riders. “Not just a shoe.”
Sole Riders is just one of five inventions currently in the finals of the national Frito-Lay Variety Packs Dreamvention contest. Sole Riders shoes have 3D printed connectors built into the soles that easily allow one pair of shoes to connect to various attachments, like skis, roller skates, snowshoes, jumping springs, floor mops, lawn aerators, and more. The idea was developed by brothers Parker Frye (14) and Evan Frye (18) as a way to speed up long walks to and from school, with each attachment piece sufficiently compact to be carried in a backpack. The brothers quickly realized their universal shoe design had additional potential and began adding other attachment ideas to their list.
Young Parker is no stranger to innovation. He was a finalist in the Akron Polymer Academy National Rubber Band invention contest in 2015, and he won that contest in 2017. Parker hopes to go to the University of Michigan after high school, and then on to medical school. Evan Frye is a freshman at Eastern Michigan University studying Simulation, Animation, and Gaming. Evan, who has an autism diagnosis, assisted in developing ideas for attachments to the Sole Riders, and created graphics the family originally submitted to the contest in early 2018. He is also the official team captain.
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The winner of the Dreamvention contest will walk away with a $250,000 cash prize as well as a prototype to be used in later marketing and promotion. Evan and Parker are the only team in the finals from Michigan, and they need your help and support!
The winner will be determined by online voting at www.mydreamvention.com. To vote, you only need to enter a birthdate. If you do continue on to register with the site, you will be entered into a $1,000 sweepstakes. Voting is open until January 6, 2019, and you can vote every day, on every device/platform/browser you have. Please take a few seconds to help support Parker and Evan!
