Diono knows belt-tightening

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is a companion story to a larger feature about Diono. See that story here.

Russ and Steve Berger invented the Mighty-Tite ratcheting belt tightener after watching a 20/20 report that revealed 89 percent of all child car seats were unsafe because they werent secured properly. The seats were too hard to secure tightly, and many parenting experts wondered whether a loose car seat was any better than having no seat at all.

The father-and-son team combined their manufacturing background and their knowledge of engineering to come up with the Mighty-Tite. They persuaded Brad Keller to leave his job at a transportation company and help them grow what became Sunshine Kids Juvenile Products.

In 2002, they added Super Mat, which conforms to any vehicle seat to protect upholstery from indentations caused by car seats, and followed that with the Radian Car Seat, the first steel-reinforced folding car seat, in 2005. The new seat made travel and storage more convenient.

In 2007, Diono debuted its Monterey booster seat, the first height- and width-adjustable child booster seat that adapts as a child grows, accommodating a person up to 63 inches tall and weighing 120 pounds. Through the recession, the firm continued to grow, aided by an American law that makes infant and child car seats mandatory and by parents who continued to invest in accessories such as mirrors that allow a driver to see kids in the backseat.

The Bergers remain tangentially involved In Diono. Russ still does product development from his home on the East Coast, and Steve is trustee for the trust that controls Diono.