About

Teen Inventor

MagnaFingers was invented by 13-year old Daniel "Owen" Cowan after he spilled fish hooks on his carpet and wanted a better way to pick them up.  He had long enjoyed experimenting with magnets, but realized that they were inadequate for the job. He would still have to pull the pointy fish hooks off of the magnet. 

First, he used a clam shell to separate the magnet from the fish hooks. He could lift the magnet and the hooks would drop.

He pieced together some odds and ends from around his room -- a clothespin, a few popsicle sticks, a circle cut out from a cardboard plate, a ring of plastic from a department store clothes hanger, and (of course) a magnet -- and hot glued them together. 

His family found more uses for the tool, but his mom complained about pins attracting to the sides of the magnet.  He ran up to his room and solved this problem by creating a cover.

Excited about the now perfect tool, Owen's mom, Christine, investigated and discovered that there was nothing else like it on the market.  At age 15, he was awarded a patent.

New to the business, Christine wanted to test MagnaFingers with customers. She started 3D printing them to sell at local markets.  They proved to be popular!  Business picked up before we were able to line up manufacturing, so we increased production to sixteen 3D printers.  The dining room became a 3D-print factory and the whole house hummed with the sound of the machines printing!

We finally lined up manufacturing, staying in the USA, for improved product consistency.  It's been an amazing learning process, thanks to all of our wonderful customers and distributors!

Contact Us

Christine Cowan - Owner/Manager

Christine@MagnaFingers.com

Portrait photo of Owen by Kapri Durtschi, White Moose Photography