Inventor creates shoe that blows bubbles
Inventor Lynn (Mercier) Root

is a 1981 graduate of Rumford High School.
By Terry Karkos
Staff Writer

RUMFORD – In 1939’s Wizard of Oz, Judy Garland clicked the heels of her ruby slippers three times to magically return to Kansas.

Then, in 1965, long before the age of cell phones, Don Adams fielded phone calls on CONTROL Agent Maxwell Smart’s telephone shoe, listening to the heel ear piece.

Now a Rumford inventor has put her best foot forward to join those famous shoes by dancing out a line of bubble-emitting sneakers.

Lynn (Mercier) Root, 40, who graduated from Rumford High School in 1981, hopes children across America will soon be striding everywhere in her patented Bubble Shoe.

“I just think that this would be fun footwear for the whole family,” said Root, who now lives in Flagler Beach, Fla., and summers in Rumford. “Everybody loves bubbles. Children love bubbles.”

In fact, Root has promised the first manufactured pair of Bubble Shoes to her 18-month-old daughter, Scenic, who “is a little shoe freak and loves to blow bubbles.”

The offbeat shoes work on the air system principal, and, unlike light-up shoes, do not require batteries.

Tucked inside the heel of a Bubble Shoe is a bubble-generating component comprised of a one-way air valve and a one-way nozzle valve.

“The shoe has an opening where you pour the bubble solution into a self-contained holder. Then, as you walk, pressure causes the bubbles to come out of the shoe,” Root said.

The air valve closes during a compression step, forcing the bubble solution to exit through the nozzle at the back of the heel. This also allows air to enter the bubble generator reservoir before the next step.

Bubble duration depends on the size of the heel. Although designed to capture the attention of others, the sneakers come with an on-off switch to control the functioning of the bubble-generating component, Root added.

Initially, the effervescent footwear will be manufactured in sizes for children aged one to nine, selling for between $20 and $35. Later, it will be manufactured and marketed for adults.

For Root, a radiation therapist who works with cancer patients at Florida Hospital in Ormand Beach, Fla., the Bubble Shoe is her first invention.

“I had a couple of dreams about it and came up with it in December 1999 and here it is in 2003. I’m hoping to release it everywhere once we get the advertising out there. I guarantee they will be on the markets, because it’s a positive thing. I think everybody’s going to grab a pair,” Root said Thursday morning.

In December 1999, Root applied for a patent and received it in March 2000.

After receiving her patent, momentum to turn the dream into reality took a back seat to work, life with husband, Preston, a radio announcer for Motor Racing Network, and the birth of their baby, Scenic.

In 2002, Root hired America’s largest inventor service company, Invention Submission Corp. of Pittsburgh, who submitted her idea to industry.

In December 2002, the Roots attended an ISC marketing seminar in Orlando, then ISC’s Invention/New Product Exposition trade show and inventors conference in Pittsburgh last month.

There, Lynn Root’s Bubble Shoe invention garnered a bronze medal in the Novelty/Specialty Gifts category, generating plenty of excited buzz among adults, she added.

“That trade show got me going in the right direction of avenues to explore and make this bubble shoe happen. We have people calling us already to order the shoes,” said Root, who is currently working on manufacturing and licensing agreements.

Root’s original design for the Bubble Shoe was submitted to ISC’s Orlando, Fla., office and is currently available for licensing and sale to manufacturers or marketers, said ISC public relations specialist Jennifer Mullen.

For marketing information about Root’s Bubble Shoe, contact ISC’s sister company Intromark at 800-851-6030. For more information about ISC and INPEX, call Mullen at 800-424-2089, Ext. 4154 or visit www.isc-online.com.

tkarkos@sunjournal.com

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