"If you Kikbo a lot it actually improves your fitness and really brings up your foot-eye coordination," Hart said. "At Dartmouth I played chess. Now I can play soccer better because of Kikbo."
The Kikbo Kick Shuttlecock can be bounced or kicked with the foot, and features six colored feathers inserted into a group of discs and a base, according to the product's website.
The current Kikbo model was launched on Aug. 13 and is currently sold in 61 stores in the United States and Canada, Hart said.
"Before anything, Kikbo is fun," Hart said. "You kick and it falls a little slower than a soccer ball or hacky sack because of its design."
Kikbo's athletic benefits of improving foot-eye coordination makes the toy especially popular at soccer stores and soccer tournaments, Hart said.
"Moms and dads are really psyched about them because it's a cheap way to improve their children's soccer game."
The product became available at College Supplies on Main Street on Oct. 24, according to store manager Nicky Walker.
"I think they should retail very well as they have similar premise to the hacky sack but are much easier to use and more fun," Walker said.
A pilot version of the Kikbo, called Kikbo 1.0, was sold in stores throughout New York and Connecticut in late 2010, Hart said. After selling 1,000 products during this period, Hart decided to bring the Kikbo to stores nationwide.
"It went really well and all stores reordered repeatedly, so I thought we should do this nationally on a big scale but needed to improve the product," Hart said. "I felt like we needed a more durable, portable Kikbo and in doing that, Kikbo the company submitted a patent that is awaiting approval."
Hart said his mother gave him the idea for creating a product similar to a hacky sack.
"She saw something similar [to the Kikbo] when she saw two guys in Chinatown playing with a beat up version of a shuttlecock," Hart said. "She pointed me in that direction when I told her I wanted to start my own business after graduation."
Hart, who double majored in economics and mathematics, completed an independent project under mathematics professor Peter Doyle, who advised Hart on how to write programs to solve games like Sudoku or KenKen, according to Doyle.
"Now [Hart is] using Python [Programming Language] as a way to harvest addresses from whitepages.com of stores that might want to carry his product, so this project paid off in a round-about way," Doyle said.
Although Doyle said Hart did not put as much effort into the mathematics courses as he put into other interests such as chess, Doyle described Hart as a "brilliant" student.
"I had the feeling if he devoted himself to something, he could really kick ass, and I still expect great things from him," Doyle said. "I don't think this will be the last thing we'll hear from Molson, and I don't think this will be the last thing he does." Hart said he would not pursue developing other products until he is satisfied with the Kikbo.
"I have tons of ideas but it's so much easier to come up with an idea than to actually execute it," Hart said. "So before I start anything else, Kikbo needs to be seen through."
In addition to profiting from the product, Hart ideally wants everyone to be familiar with Kikbo and its benefits, he said.
"Our goal is for everyone in the world to know Kikbo, to know how to use it, how fun it is and how much it helps you to use it," Hart said.
