James (Jimmy) Kernan (class of 2010), a recent Saint Stephen’s alumnus, has proven his creativity and skill for innovation and design to the world with a successful new invention, the QBracelet.  This is no ordinary bracelet, although it may seem like one.  If you’re running low on iPhone battery while on-the-go, this bracelet can be used as a charger.  Kernan’s brand new company, Qdesigns, manufactures this bracelet and plans on creating more useful and stylistic products in the future.

“Q Designs is a consumer technology company that creates beautiful, world-class technology-centric products. Seamlessly integrating technology with an unmistakable iconic design, Q Designs products are stylish, effortless and extraordinarily useful.”

This is the mission statement of the company cofounded by partners Jimmy Kernan and Alessandro Libani.  When Kernan came up with the idea of a wearable iPhone charger, he contacted one of his college friends, a fashion and design major, to help him carry out his vision.   The two of them have worked together for over a year on perfecting a beautiful, simplistic solution to an everyday problem. Their shared skills in technology and design have made them leading experts in the field of wearable technology.

The QBracelet, the company’s first in a series of prospective products, comes in four different colors and three different sizes.  It is water-resistant and provides an iPhone with 60% of a full charge each time the bracelet is charged.  Charging time is the same as the average wall socket. The clasp of the bracelet is made up of two separate connectors: one that charges the iPhone and one that charges the bracelet.  A QBracelet will normally be sold at $99 each, but they are currently selling for pre-order from the Q Designs site at only $79, with free shipping.

Jimmy originally got the idea for the QBracelet during one of his vacations in Italy.  He had plans to meet with a friend when he got on the wrong bus in the pouring rain and his phone died.  He had no directions or any way to call his friend.  This “disaster” lead him to come up with the idea for the QBracelet.  It occurred to him that this must happen to people all the time, but, still, he said, a dead battery is still preferred over the alternative, which is the portable batteries that are annoying to carry around.

Jimmy’s biggest role model is the late Steve Jobs.  “Steve and I share a similar passion for the integration of technology and design, and he did it better than anyone before him. He saw the world differently than his peers and acted on it,” Kernan said.  Kernan has had a fascination with Job’s brilliance in the technological realm ever since the launch of the iPhone.  He has followed his work and drawn inspiration from it throughout Job’s professional career and has finally created something from it.

As for the style inspiration for the bracelet, Libani said in an interview with The Daily Lot, that its effortless design was inspired by the mod (modernist) movement of the 1960’s.  “We wanted to make something a British teenager would wear: It’s sleek, minimal, modern.”  It was also very important to the co-founders that the bracelet didn’t look like a piece of technology.  “We didn’t want one LED, we didn’t want one button,” Kernan said during the same interview. “I want somebody to wear it and if a random person saw it on your wrist, maybe they’d notice it was different, but they wouldn’t notice it was a piece of technology.”  Unlike other wearable technology designs, the QBracelet was made for both men and women, so as not to deny half of the population of this genius technology.

During his time at Saint Stephen’s, Jimmy often found himself in trouble. “If anyone in the class was going to pull a prank, it would be him that I would catch,”  said Mrs. Price, who taught Kernan in 10th and 11th grade.  But she also said “It’s not a surprise that he would be successful.”  Price added that although many people frown on the “goofballs,” who show the least serious academic side in school, to say that they won’t amount to anything “is the farthest from the truth.”  She also believed that Jimmy was the type of person who didn’t realize his full potential until after he was out of high school.  Jimmy’s creativity evolved when he left high school from small pranks to rapidly growing companies.

Starting a company is no small feat.  Kernan had to overcome a series of obstacles before doing so.  He had people tell him it wasn’t possible, or that the work was not for him.  Manufacturers told him that the curved battery he needed for the bracelet would not be possible to produce; jewelry experts told him that the desired coating materials they wanted for the bracelets were not possible because of the materials they were using; and design and engineering experts told them it wasn’t possible to get the size and weight they wanted for the charging capacity they were aiming for. “Through hard work and perseverance, we’re proud to say we proved them all wrong. The learning curve was steep, and required us to constantly reiterate our designs, materials and prototyping methods,” Jimmy said during an interview with Coolhunting.

Jimmy’s daily life has changed dramatically since starting Q Designs.  He says he now works 24/7 365 days a year, but could not be happier.  “The work I do at Q Designs isn’t work at all, because it’s something I truly love,” said Jimmy.  Most days, Jimmy begins work at 8am by creating a work plan for that day.  He then spends the next hour or so answering work-related emails.  The rest of the day is generally spent attending meetings or working through the list of tasks he has set out for himself to complete each day.  Jimmy’s favorite days are those when he is working on the design and engineering of the products.

Kernan aspires to continue building truly innovative products such as the QBracelet “that help deliver extraordinary experiences to their customers.”  He has a few possible inventions in mind that also combine beauty and convenience to carry to all the needs and desires of his future customers.  Kernan is not limiting his company to solely innovations in wearable technology, but instead hopes to expand into other fields of technology as well.

Fashion and technology websites had all good things to say about the QBracelet.  Kat Herriman from W Magazine labeled it “a wearable antidote,” and described it as “a hybrid between a Nike Fuel Band and a classic bangle.”  Alec Banks from Highsnobiety agreed the bracelet is “lightweight, elegant and crafted from the highest quality materials.”  Kernan and Libani have both been interviewed by a number of these magazines and online newspapers.  Kernan was recently given a video interview on The Wall Street Journal where he discussed the design of the bracelet as well as the starting of Q Designs.

Q Designs is growing rapidly and plans on sending out its first shipment of QBracelets in Spring 2015.  The company is just beginning to hire extra workers and is actively looking for investors to meet “overwhelming demand.”  Because of its unprecedented expertise in the integration of fashion and technology, Q Designs will have a major foot in the door of the wearable tech industry which is expected to be worth $50 billion by 2020.

So if this young trouble maker could start a company, does that mean anyone can?  Students at Saint Stephen’s are all trying to make it big in the world and Jimmy believes that “anyone has the ability to be an entrepreneur.  If you’re going to start a company you certainly need to have a particular set of qualities, but those can be learned and adopted.”  Everyone has the ability to do anything they set their minds to, but this person was able to turn his vision into a reality.