“No I’m not a genius,” he says mirroring the modesty of Lance Armstrong after winning another Tour de France during a lengthy interview session over cups of coffee at JF Magic LLC. “I’m just creative.”
Sure, creative. Let the record show Lee Wainright is very creative. Now he needs a break. If he gets it, he’s going to be rich.
And then you’ll just think he’s eccentric.
Weird science
Possessing the enthusiasm of a child who’s received the latest Xbox video game on Christmas morning, Lee Wainright can’t sit still during our interview and it had nothing to do with coffee, but everything to do with the future.
But to understand the future, you need to recognize the past.
Lee Wainright, a tall, wiry man, is the classic science teacher caricature come to life. The former secondary science teacher began tinkering around with fiber optics and LED technologies during the mid 1980s, initially in the form of custom-designed clothing apparel as a gift to his young son. One in particular struck me like a hockey puck to the mouth: A beautiful designer jacket featuring the arena, ice and scoreboard of the home of the Toronto Maple Leafs. The LED lights dance in rhythm inside a tactfully designed hockey puck while still others move in tandem on the scoreboard above.
“This is one-of-a-kind,” Wainright notes. To make it more valuable, the jacket is adorned with the signatures of every member of the Maple Leaf roster.
He also can drop names that would be the envy of a gossip columnist. He’s designed clothing for top celebrities such as Britney Spears, Lauren Hutton, Isaac Hayes, Beyonce, Robin Williams and Missy Elliot.
But now there are different fish to fry, as the saying goes.
“Where we want to focus moving forward is truly utility-based use of light and that really is shifting,” said JF Magic CEO Fumiko Green.
This is a significant change for JF Magic and particularly the inventive Wainright, who has received more than one dozen patents over his three-decade career with several others under review, which cover products, processes, technologies and machinery. Their technology was originally developed for a niche consumer market using those aforementioned unique lighting effects for applications on flexible surfaces in apparels, posters, theme parks and banners.
“We want to expand from limited custom projects and the consumer fashion industry,” Green said.
JF Magic’s latest foray focuses on procuring American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 funds to establish a research and development facility and manufacturing site in the Lehigh Valley for the development and production of “Off-Grid” solar-powered Light-Emitting Products, utilizing proprietary, U.S.-built CNC fiber optic insertion machines.
“This is a great opportunity,” Wainright notes. “This project will open new markets for solar-power based products immediately by providing production capacity to manufacture products right here in the Lehigh Valley. We want to remove our dependency on off-shore manufacturing.”
“Basically our core competencies are designing and bringing to various markets products that efficiently and infectively incorporate new and existing technologies,” Green added.
And Green said LVEDC’s Office of Minority and Women-Owned Businesses was helpful at “getting us in touch with the right people” for JF Magic to reach the success they envision.
The OMWOB was created to advance the efforts of minority and women-owned businesses in the Lehigh Valley. OMWOB does not duplicate services provided by other institutions. That noted, OMWOB works collaboratively with several other partners such as the Allentown, Economic Development Corporation, Community Action Development Corporation, Executive Women Council of the Greater Lehigh Valley Chamber of Commerce, Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of the Lehigh Valley, Lehigh Valley Score, Minority Supplier Diversity Council of PA-NJ-DE, Rising Tide Community Loan Fund and the Tri-City African American Chamber of Commerce, to fulfill its mission.
Onward and upward
It’s that commitment to success that is leading JF Magic (which by the way the “JF” stands for “Just Flashy”) to enter the safety, medical and military markets.
“For example, we’re interested in entering the medical field with our Bio-Sensory embedded Fiber Optic display in fabrics,” Wainright explained. “We also have stealth display technologies for military applications that can be extremely useful in combat situations.”
Wainright also has the advantage of “Show and Tell” and proceeds to show off a firefighter’s jacket that displays the temperature on a sleeve.
While Wainright’s visuals are a solid selling point, perhaps his best business plan is reality itself.
In their application, JF Magic notes “Both domestic and global markets have become sensitive to the environmental impact of the world’s ever-increasing energy consumption.” The report continues “In the United States, we are beginning to recognize the relationship between energy independence and our own national and economic security, as evidenced by the recent stock market volatility caused in part by our heavy dependence on crude oil. Finding alternative energy sources to power general lighting products would be a giant step toward the goal of achieving energy independence because this segment has a significant impact on consumption in a wide range of industrial, commercial and consumer applications.”
How does JF Magic plan to implement that?
Their development of fiber optic-based technology is focused primarily on the larger surface area of distributed light and illumination using LED as a light source.
“This is important because maximum battery lifespan is achieved through the integration of IC software to drive LED light patterns and electric current consumption,” Wainright said. “The basis of our agenda is developing energy efficient light illumination at a fraction of the current consumption rates of traditional illumination devices.”
Another piece of good news that Wainright and Green tout is that the manufacturing know-how for these products currently is only located within the United States.
But JF Magic is acutely aware of the importance of obtaining the funding to make their dreams become a reality. The strongest of their several arguments could very well be the fact is that they have all “systems in place” right now.
“The key strength of this project is found in the ‘shovel readiness,’ as the saying goes, for the commercialization of products,” Wainright explained. “By that I mean some products are ready to be manufactured immediately with our own proprietary technologies.”
Factor in the savings angle, energy efficiency and environmental-friendly angles and JF Magic is taking a huge step toward making Lee Wainright and his company rich and successful. And some would consider that a sign of genius.
