Company Jar with a Twist Website www.jarwithatwist.com | Availability TBA | |
Invented by Michael Bissette
Stephen Smith
Spencer Vaughn
Sean Echevarria | ||
Jar with a Twist (also stylized Jar-with-a-Twist and Jar~with~a~Twist) is a patent-pending peanut butter jar. It has a rotating bottom which functions similar to a deodorant stick to bring the contents of the jar up towards the top for easier access.
Contents
History and design
The creators of the jar, Michael Bissette, Stephen Smith, Spencer Vaughn, and Sean Echevarria, developed the concept for the jar during a senior design project while at North Carolina State University. Their original plan was to create a squeegee knife that never got dirty below the handle, but soon realized that the primary problem was in retrieving peanut butter from nearly empty containers. Their concept was feasibility-tested using PVC pipe and a makeshift plug, and then prototyped utilizing the university's 3D printers; the team exhausted many prototypes and spent thousands of dollars in the process. A patent was filed for the finished concept in June 2013. The university newspaper, Technician, described the finished product:
The finished Jar with a Twist design will have a tamper-proof seal on both the top and the bottom of the jar. When you twist the jar’s bottom, no residue will be left behind from the product in side. That’s because the inner-piece and the cylinder meet to form an air- and-watertight seal—the same basic design principle used in the pistons of a car’s engine.
The finished product will be entirely injection molded using PET plastic. The company claims that the shelf life of its contents, once opened, will match that of a normal peanut butter jar at 3 to 6 months.
The team is planning on introducing the jar into the peanut butter market and then expanding their design to jelly, salsa, and mayonnaise containers. Each jar is expected to cost $0.13 to manufacture, which is three cents more than the manufacturing cost of a typical peanut butter jar. One cent of each unit's manufacturing cost will be a licensing fee for the Jar with a Twist company.
Press coverage
Jar with a Twist was covered in North Carolina State's Technician article on August 22, 2013. It was on The Huffington Post website, which claimed it was "a brilliant idea". Gizmodo published a story about the jar with the title "The Peanut Butter Jar Has Been Perfected". Nadine DeNinno of the International Business Times said the product's invention was "a stroke of genius". The jar has also been featured on ABC News, Foodbeast, the Winnipeg Free Press, Slate, and the Daily Mail.