Inventor headed for QVC's bright lights, big time

INVENTING

The job of an inventor, as is the case in most creative fields, is a lonely one. But sometimes all that solitude pays off.

It has for Brian Fried, 36, of Melville. The founder and president of the Suffolk County Inventors & Entrepreneurs Club will have two inventions featured this spring on the QVC shopping channel.

They are his Pull Ties - which seal tight freshness for bagged goods, replacing twist-ties, plastic ties and chip clips - and Eggstra-Space - a space-saving egg storage tray.

For Fried and his company, Think Up Designs, in Melville, a spot on QVC is an entree to the greater retail world - an inventor's dream.

"I realize that I've been an inventor since I was a teenager," Fried said. "But I also realized that the things I was coming up with made sense when I got married."

As president of the inventors group, Fried said, he has been trying to make the life of the inventor a little less lonely.

"The most important thing about inventing is reaching out" to others, he said. "One of the biggest fears inventors have is not having anybody to tell their ideas to."