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News Release
Contact: Mark McGowan, NIU Office of Public Affairs
(815) 753-9472
March 17, 2004
Inventor of high-tech swim fins
to lecture at NIU School of Art
DeKalb — Bob Evans, inventor and manufacturer of “Forcefin,” perhaps the world’s most advanced and sophisticated swim/diving fins, will speak at 5 p.m. Thursday, March 25, at the Northern Illinois University School of Art.
Evans is president of Forcefin Inc., a design and manufacturing firm in Santa Barbara, Calif. An inventor/designer and self-made entrepreneur, Evans’ fin designs are part of the permanent collection at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
His free public lecture on “The Shape of Things to Come” will focus on creativity, bringing an idea to the marketplace and entrepreneurship. Evans also will discuss the marketing of a modern, high-performance product and the challenges and opportunities it offers to future business professionals.
He will speak in Room 100 of the Visual Arts Building on NIU’s DeKalb campus.
“Bob Evans is one of this country’s great innovative modern designers. He is the epitome of the creative/genius designer,” said NIU School of Art Professor Harry Wirth. “He is a self-taught designer, inventor and businessman whose designs are influencing the shape of large boat hulls and the water craft of the future.”
Wirth said the lecture will be of special interest to art students looking for ways to become more creative. It also will interest students and faculty in business and marketing who wish to see a special example of American ingenuity and entrepreneurship.
Evans’ fins are used by U.S. military special forces and their allies abroad, and will be used in Hollywood this year in a new movie featuring underwater activity. A holder of several dozen patents, Evans has been featured in several publications, including Newsweek, Time, USA Today, National Geographic, Popular Mechanics and Entrepreneur, as well as in television and radio broadcasts.
For more information, call Wirth at (815) 753-0298.
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