When Rich’s family, including his two cats, moved to their new Brooklyn apartment, one thing stood out for him: the ugly litterbox. In their typically “cosy” New York City apartment, the thing seemed to be visible from every possible vantage point. No matter where he looked, there it was, a cheap beige plastic box in the middle of their carefully chosen new furniture. He began to be a little obsessed with its hideousness. Weary of his endless complaining, his wife suggested a more constructive activity: “Why don’t you just redesign it?”

The next day, Rich enthusiastically presented this to Brett, who was immediately on board. He had only one reservation. “It’s hard to imagine a more demanding client than a cat.” Indeed, Mika and Sashi, Rich’s Siberian forest cats, would provide perfectly finicky test subjects.

Before long their downtown studio was filled with litter boxes of every shape and size. They spent their days researching and sketching, carving foamcore and closely observing kitty behavior. To make the product more environmentally friendly they researched different materials to find a replacement for wasteful disposable liners. For the base they chose high quality ABS plastic that would hold stylish high-gloss colors for a modern aesthetic. After two years of research, design, prototype building and watching a whole lot of cats jump, scratch, and do their business, they think the ModKat has got it just right.

While in Asia we discovered a plastic device that was toylike which worked 60% of the time to install shoecovers. I brought 400 back to the States and had positive response with no reorders for booties.. I pondered for quite some time and came up with a steel mechanism to release the booties 100% of the time and after two or three incarnations came to where we are today which is a proven solid product that works well and can stand the attack of many many shoes.