Invented by one guy · in his garage · in North CarolinaRead our story
Born on a muggy afternoon, at the end of a long driveway.
Ready Eddie was designed in a garage by Chris Krebs — a researcher
who lives in North Carolina with his wife, his kids, and a handful of animals.
Solving problems is his job. It's also a hobby.
One hot, muggy day, Chris walked to the end of his driveway to check the
bin. Still full. That flicker of annoyance became an idea. He thought about his
older neighbors, and people who have long driveways that snake through the
woods. Surely other people would want to know if their bin is empty. He decided
this was a problem worth solving.
Back in the garage, the first prototype was born — a Frankenstein's monster
of scrap metal, screws, and wire. It was ugly enough to somehow be beautiful.
When he tested it the next day, it worked perfectly.
Energized, Chris taught himself how to design things in computer-aided
design (CAD) and started sending models to a friend with a 3D printer. The new
models looked right but failed in practice — breaking, not fitting, falling
off, working only half the time. The corner of Chris’s garage became a
graveyard of unsuccessful attempts. Each failure taught him something, and after
countless late nights and design overhauls, a version emerged that fit all bins
and was simple, durable, and reliable. That's the Ready Eddie you see today.
Ready Eddie was born from a sweltering afternoon and the stubborn belief
that there's almost always a better, simpler way.