About ProtoSolo

ProtoSolo began with a Lenovo Legion Go and a problem.

At the time, much of our work centered around automotive projects. The Legion Go had become an unusually capable tool—small enough to take anywhere, but powerful enough for ECU tuning, 3D scanning, analyzing mobile audio systems and competently running any other software that came along with those projects.

There was just one problem: using it as a truly portable workstation wasn't nearly as convenient as it could have been.

The accessory I wanted didn't exist.

So I designed it.

That project became the original ProtoSolo Type Cover for the Legion Go—and ultimately the starting point for what ProtoSolo is today.

LONG BEFORE PROTOSOLO, THERE WAS A PATTERN.

I've been taking things apart to understand how they work for about as long as I can remember. As a kid, that meant things like LA Lights shoes and Nike Pumps. By my teens, it had progressed to building and modifying PCs, experimenting with overclocking and water cooling, and making the parts I couldn't buy—or couldn't afford.

I didn't have a machine shop. I had whatever tools I could get access to and a willingness to figure out how to make them do things they probably weren't intended to do. More than one expensive Unibit gave its life as I attempted to use a drill press to machine aluminum water blocks.

Later, the projects got bigger. Cars became a major part of my life, and the same approach followed: engine swaps, transmission rebuilds, bodywork, making specialized tools when I needed them, and finding ways to keep the classic cars I loved on the road.

At first, making my own solutions was often an economic necessity. I had ideas, but not always the money, equipment or resources to execute them the conventional way.

Over time, something changed.

I began doing it by choice.

Making exactly what I needed often produced a better result than adapting something that was merely close enough. It usually required far more time, but it also meant understanding the problem, controlling the compromises and ending up with a solution built around the actual need.

And somewhere along the way, solving the problem became the interesting part.

I've always enjoyed taking something that almost works the way I want it to and asking:

How could this be better?

Sometimes the answer is simple. Sometimes it means measuring, scanning, modeling, printing prototype after prototype, changing something by half a millimeter and doing it all again.

Attention to detail matters to me—not because every product needs to be complicated, but because the small decisions are often what separate something that simply works from something that feels like it was designed for the job.

That mindset eventually became ProtoSolo.

Designed for real people, not just product categories.

We have more products available to us than ever before. But we're still individuals.

The way you use your hardware may be completely different from the way somebody else uses theirs. Your workspace is different. Your priorities are different. And sometimes the closest available solution still requires a compromise.

ProtoSolo exists, in part, to minimize that compromise.

Our products begin with real hardware and real use cases. They're designed, prototyped, tested and refined around the devices they're intended for.

And when an existing ProtoSolo product isn't quite the solution you need, that's where Custom Projects begins.

You don't need to know how to design it.
You just need to know what you wish were possible.