Life After Reality TV for One “American Inventor” - Air Force and Army Enlist his Product

Los Angeles, CA- The world was first introduced to the one-man, one-scoop, one-bag sandbagging device known as the SackMaster on Simon Cowell’s hit TV show, American Inventor in the spring of 2006. It’s the brainchild of Mark Martinez who invented it out of necessity while working as a handyman.

“My home is in Chino, California in a low-lying area prone to flooding. Some of the handyman jobs I would do included helping people in preventing flood water from damaging their homes,” Mark says.

Mark auditioned for the show and the SackMaster was selected out of thirty thousand entries to be featured. During his time on the show he developed friendships with the other contestants as they were cloistered in an apartment complex in Marina Del Ray and had plenty of time to get to know one another. Mark says they often discussed each other’s inventions and speculated about whose had the best shot at winning.

“A lot of the other contestants believed I had a good chance of winning since my product was one of the few that could potentially save property and lives,” Mark says. Nevertheless, he was eventually eliminated and sent home.

In an airport, shortly after wrapping American Inventor, Mark was stopped by a group of soldiers who recognized him from the show. The soldiers begged Mark to get the SackMaster to the Army due to the fact that overseas, in Iraq, there is tremendous need for sandbags and to meet that need the soldiers would often be put on back-breaking sandbag detail for hours on end.

Mark realized then that there were two areas in which his invention would be most helpful in saving property and lives: within the armed forces and amongst emergency preparedness officials.

Given the recent disasters in New Orleans and Florida, Mark was anxious to help. He set about organizing a tour of both areas so he could make donations of the SackMaster to emergency preparedness officials.

Mark has also received orders from an Army base in Ft. Rucker, Alabama and an Air Force base in Travis, California. He says that both military installations requested the Sackmaster in a “sand” color instead of traditional camouflage.



Mark considers himself lucky. There are many stories of life after reality TV that are negative. The difference, Mark thinks, “is that fame and winning were not my priorities. My main objective was to let the people of America know that the SackMaster is out there.”

Mark is still doing handyman jobs, but he says, “I am now working twice as hard on the SackMaster. The television show has really put the word out that there is a faster and more efficient way to fill sandbags. It’s an important step to saving property and lives at home and overseas.”

To learn more visit www.sackmaster2000.com.

Media Contact:
David Muise
Full Spectrum Media
david@4fsm.com
(954) 239-9733 ext.1006