Hi guys, I am the inventor of the Spiral Eye side threading needle. Your conversation is very interesting to me. It is from a very different view point than what I usually hear. My needle is new, but I have been selling them for over two years, on line, in some stores and at state fairs and events. There is a huge market for them. A needle is the most ubiquious of tool in the world. It is used in surgery, to mending, crafts, to fishing. The design I came up with has a very precarious geometry to keep the thread inside and not snag the material you are sewing. The technology to make it did not exist fifty years ago. I also have just been written up in a newspaper in Denmark and my website sales have gone through the roof. Maybe the Danes sew more than the Americans.