A note from the Founder
Hi, I’m Tyler - Founder of Sanooke Toys and inventor of DODEX!
Ever since I was a kid, I’ve loved toys and building things. My siblings and I would build entire cities with all of our LEGOs. We would build marble runs that would reach all the way up to the ceiling that we would have to load by balancing on the back of the couch. We even had an entire model train setup in our basement that was constantly evolving for my entire childhood. I enjoyed building things so much during my childhood that I chose to become a professional builder, a.k.a. an engineer.
While working as a robotics researcher, I was constantly looking for inspiration for new robots that nobody had ever seen before. Where would I find myself looking for inspiration you ask? Well, it was mostly toys! There is something so intuitive about how to use toys to build, to inspire out of the box thinking, and really just make work more fun. Not only did this inspire my robotics research, it inadvertently led me to invent a toy myself!
While working on a robotics project during the course of last summer, I was designing and building prototype after prototype. These prototypes would live on my desk in the research lab. My lab soon became the hang out place for all the other students and researchers. As fun as I am to be around (😉), they weren’t there for me, they were hanging around for the prototypes. Eventually, these same people asked if they could buy some of them off of me to put on their own desk (crazy, right?!). Sadly, since research money paid for the prototypes I couldn’t sell them, but that was when the idea for the toy company - Sanooke - and our first product - DODEX - were born!
These are just a few pictures of our early DODEX prototypes!
That was nearly a year ago now. Since then we have done a tremendous amount of work not only creating the toy company, but developing the DODEX into a safe and fun toy for adults to enjoy in their own way. There is still a lot more work to do, but we are excited to hit the ground running this summer and bring DODEX to home-offices, desks, and the hands of everyone, everywhere!
Sign up for updates on our progress throughout the summer as we work towards the launch of our toy products!
Tyler Hummer, Sanooke Founder
