Hippe schoen genomineerd voor prijs

“Ufff… zwaar, toch?” my upstairs neighbor pityingly asks as I dragged two heavy bags of groceries, with more in my backpack, my mail tucked under my arm, and my keys in my teeth, up the stairs to my flat. “Ugh-ugh-um” was all I managed to mumble in reply. I accept your sympathy but a helping hand would have been better! This wasn’t the first time this particular neighbor has run into me on the stairs with heavy bags of fresh produce weighing me down. In fact, many neighbors have seen me dragging stuff upstairs into my flat, and they all offer the same pitying looks.
Back home, I unpack my groceries: the juice packets go down next to the other packets of juice and drinks stashed near my fridge, the strawberry-filled chocolate bars go into my general chocolate stash, the cherry jam fits very snuggly between the apricot and strawberry jam in my refrigerator door, the Voordeelverpakking of chicken breasts to be divided into portions and stored away with the pork and beef packages in my freezer. Wait a minute, is there something wrong with this picture?
Rewind a couple of weeks and I’m shopping in Ikea with a male friend of mine. On my list there are three items: one small dining table and two dining chairs. In my shopping cart? Dozens of items that certainly don’t resemble any of the aforementioned things: candles, cutlery, light fixtures, mirrors, frames, candle-holders, Tupperware, house plants, pots for house plants, plates for the house-plant-pots…. Ok, I just moved into an empty flat and I need all that stuff to, you know, fill it up a bit. So I get my table, chairs and all that goodness in my shopping cart. And my friend? He gets a cactus. And that cactus is probably enough to satisfy his shopping wants for the rest of the year. 
Which leads to some philosophical musings: why is it that most girls enjoy shopping and tend to hoard stuff by the pile into their homes, while most guys think of shopping as a bi-annual necessity, preferring to do it online and with their eyes closed? My friend offers an interesting hypothesis: it’s because women were traditionally gatherers: picking fruit and storing as much as they could in their homes for the children, while men were traditionally hunters: grabbing a last-minute piece of meat for dinner. The following image springs into my mind: my friend in a leopard-skin toga with a spear, ‘hunting’ for a piece of steak at Albert Heijn, and then triumphantly beating his chest with his fists and roaring his victory over the Voordeelverpakking. The image makes me giggle. Now that would be funny!
Then I imagine myself, some 10,000 years ago, wearing a graceful linen robe, fresh flowers in my hair, peacefully gathering berries, choosing only the ripest and sweetest, one by one. Yep, things would pretty much be the same way they are now: ‘If I knock down that branch over there, I will get two peaches instead of just one! (Twee halen een betalen!) ‘These apples are past their season: the ripe ones are one the ground and easiest to get to’ (End-of-season sales!) ‘And If I pick the entire branch instead of each berry individually, I will save a lot of time’ (Voordeelverpakking!)
No wonder ladies like to go shopping with their girlfriends: it’s way easier to bend that branch or reach the top of the tree when there’s two, three or ten of you working on the task. But following that logic, shouldn’t guys also be cornering their ties and poaching on their socks collectively? And have you ever seen a guy who likes to go shopping ‘with his boyfriends’? I certainly haven’t! Hence, there must be a gap somewhere in this logic. However, one thing’s for sure: there are plenty of guys who prefer to avoid shopping collectively.

Olga Motsyk, from Ukraine, is a BSc aerospace engineering student

Twee van de genomineerden zijn Sanne en Mirik Castro van Simgas. Met hun bij YesDelft gevestigde bedrijf bedachten ze een biogassysteem voor ontwikkelingslanden. De oud-IO-studenten Christiaan Maats en Dirk-Jan Oudshoorn ontwikkelden met hun bedrijf OAT Shoes schoenen die niet alleen hip en comfortabel zijn, maar ook nog ‘groen’ worden geproduceerd.

Ontwikkelen
Aan de innovatiecompetitie zijn vier geldprijzen verbonden. De eerste prijs is 50 duizend euro, de tweede prijs 37.500 euro en de derde prijs is 25.000 euro. Daarnaast is er een aanmoedigingsprijs van 10 duizend euro voor jonge ondernemers. De geldprijzen zijn bedoeld om de bekroonde ideeën verder te ontwikkelen.

Capuchonvest
Andere ideeën die een nominatie kregen waren onder meer een capuchonvest voor jongeren met een autistische stoornis en een steekmachine die automatisch rijpe asperges oogst.

De uitreiking is op 18 november. De Herman Wijffels Innovatieprijs is ingesteld om ondernemende mensen met concrete ideeën voor duurzame innovaties te stimuleren. Er waren 443 inschrijvingen.