SELF SANITISING DOOR HANDLE LOSES OUT

What the Sunday Independent calls a “revolutionary” new boot which promises to bring comfort to the ski slopes has beaten a number of quirky Irish inventions to win the James Dyson Award For Design. Brian Byrne, a 23-year-old National College Of Art And Design student from Dundrum, Co Dublin won the competition and the €2,000 prize with his Flip Ski Boot. The inventions which he beat included a “self-sanitising door handle”.
“I had skied all my life and I always had a problem with the ski boot,” Byrne was quoted as saying. “It was uncomfortable and impeded movement when walking on the mountains. With my flip ski boot you have more control and less pain and you can step out of them more easily and into a lighter boot for walking around.”
Many of this year’s entries for the Dyson Award focused on solutions to problems in the health sector – including the Eve childbirth furniture range designed to support a number of positions during  labour.
Byrne’s invention will now compete with entries from 17 other countries during the international stage of the competition which has a prize of €12,000 plus a further €12,000 for the design department of the winner’s college.