A local contractor’s invention is set for a Kickstarter campaign next month, with plans for a late-summer product launch.

The invention, called the TailGator, is a modular truck bed extension system that can be customized to support a raft of carrying needs. Retired contractor Van Jackson filed a patent on the product in December 2010 after thinking about it for 20 years, according to a news release.  

Now, thanks to help from Wilmington’s Elite Innovations LLC, a design, prototyping and engineering provider, Jackson’s idea has wheels.

“Van is a typical older American guy,” Elite Innovations CEO Andrew Williams said Monday. “He worked for 30 years and needed to haul things. He patented the product but had done nothing with it, then he came to us.”
 
Elite Innovations tweaked Jackson’s design to make it more broadly useful and less expensive to manufacture. It added accessories for do-it-yourself home improvers, contractors and outdoor hobbyists, but stayed within the patent confines, Williams said. It then worked with Sage Island on branding.

Williams said the crowdfunding campaign will start June 2 and continue through July. Anyone who contributes $225 or more will be able to purchase a TailGator at a 30 percent discount from MSRP.

The crowdfunding goal is $40,000, enough money to allow TailGator to produce its first round of inventory and start filling orders. Elite Innovations has a two-pronged marketing and sales effort in place: One will focus on online sales to consumers, while a second will conduct in-person business-to-business sales.

Williams estimates the market for its modular truck bed extender is $2.7 billion, based on after-market pickup truck sales of related products.

By August, if all goes as planned, TailGator will begin taking and filling orders, Williams said.

All TailGator operations except manufacturing will take place in Wilmington. Despite his efforts to find an affordable U.S. manufacturer, Williams said the labor-intensive production process has to be outsourced to China.