Spor Chargers Come to Life

After hundreds of iterations, prototypes, phases of market testing, and a successful Kickstarter campaign that crowdsourced more than $100,000 in startup capital, Spor chargers are nearing distribution.

David Hunt ’14 and Jason Browne ’14 are currently in China overseeing the production of the first batch of Spors – solar-power harnessing chargers that power devices such as phones and tablets. They founded Spor Chargers last year while completing their undergraduate degrees in finance at Drexel LeBow.

“Our product is simple, it is highly durable and adaptable under environmental situations, and gives life to products and even to other Spors through daisy chaining” (the ability to charge one Spor charger with another), says Hunt.

Spor chargers — some of which feature customizable shells made using a 3D printer — do more than give mobile devices power. They make clean energy more accessible and affordable for the world. Spor chargers aren’t just solar chargeable; they can also be powered through indoor lighting as well as by connecting to USB ports and electrical outlets.

“People are demanding more from their mobile devices without having the battery to support it,” Hunt says. “We also realize that the current energy mix is saturated with non-renewables. To change that, we’ve created a product that consumers can use and an ecosystem that can scale up into larger energy applications.”

Browne, who had the original idea for Spor, is more forceful in his messaging.

“We still generate almost 50 percent of our electricity from coal,” he says. “For perspective, every time you plug your phone into the outlet, you are powering it 50 percent from coal. That’s crazy. Why are we using such a dirty, industrial process to power devices that use only a few watts of power?”

Editor’s Note: Though the company’s Kickstarter campaign has ended, you can still order a Spor through the company’s website.