Finally, a Way to Help You Get a Grip

There’s a new product on the market to help people get a handle on heavy bags. Called Helping Handles, the gizmos slide through grocery bags, dry cleaning hangers, in-line skates and more to provide a single padded handle and eliminate hand soreness.

“The idea came to me when I was at the gym, looking across at Ralphs market. I noticed people struggling with all their bags and thought, ‘If they just had one soft handle it would be so much easier,’ ” says Marvin Blaine of Sherman Oaks. He played around with a piece of nylon for a few hours and voila! The Helping Handle was born. Today, his product costs $5.95, is available in several colors and clips onto a key ring.

In 1998, Blaine won the Inventors Workshop International Great Idea Contest in Santa Barbara. But it was not his first invention. Blaine holds patents for a teething ring that massages children’s gums, a bubble bath that changes the color of bath water and “Extreme Abs,” an abdominal exerciser. “I have had product ideas since I was a child. My drawers were just filled with them. So about two years ago I decided to do something about it.”

But with all these great ideas, he hasn’t yet made a fortune.

“I’m still waiting. I told my little cat, Bissah, ‘We are going to have a house on the beach soon!’ ”

Call (818) 995-7776 for information.