About two years ago, Emma Scheer was diagnosed with autism. Without realizing it, she often found herself scratching her arm until it bled and biting the insides of her cheeks. She described these habits as her “little ouchies.”
Her husband, Craig Butrick, is a design engineer and problem solver. Using his 3D printer in their dining room on Prospect Avenue in downtown Cleveland, Butrick finetuned the first Little Ouchie Grippie design within a week.
“The idea behind it is just squeeze as hard as you can,” he explained. “It hurts, but it doesn’t do any real damage to the body.” The squeezing leaves some impressions on the skin that fade within seconds.
Anyone can use Little Ouchies, but they are especially helpful for people experiencing nervous system dysregulation, which can lead to stress, shutdowns, meltdowns and sensory overwhelm. Self-stimulation, referred to as stimming, provides helpful sensory feedback, predictability and a sense of control.
“For the nervous system, it’s literally like scratching an itch,” said Butrick.
Common stimming behaviors range from twirling hair around your fingers, tapping and pacing to potentially harmful habits called pain-stimming, such as biting your fingernails, picking your skin, or headbanging.
Scheer loved her husband’s invention and told him to put it on TikTok shop to see what happens.
They posted their first TikTok video in July 2024, and in November, one of their posts gained 8 million views and more than 300,000 likes. TikTok virality helped promote their products and drive $1.75 million in revenue in their first calendar year. According to Butrick, 60% to 70% of their orders are made through the TikTok Shop. The rest is through their website.
Driven by mission and purpose
In building the business, Butrick ignored much of the advice he received from friends and family about what was needed in this industry. Instead of investing in injection molding, which would allow them to manufacture at lower cost and higher volume, Little Ouchies are still 3D-printed to order.
Their “print farm” in the Hanna Building in Playhouse Square has more than 80 3D printers, and they create, pack and ship thousands of Little Ouchies each week.
The company’s core competitive advantage is its ability to adapt to customer feedback and move ideas to market at extraordinary speed. In the case of their “Mini Grippie,” the product went from concept to listed for sale on the TikTok shop in just four hours.
Butrick is driven primarily by mission and purpose. The company pays a minimum wage of $25 an hour. “If I can’t operate a business paying people a living wage, I do not deserve to have a business,” he said.
Additionally, their supply chain is about 60% to 65% American. “We know that people are getting paid living wages top to bottom,” he added.
Butrick argues that, by sidelining profitability, they created a more loyal customer base that buys from them again and again. “Had we operated under maximizing short-term profitability, we’d be gone by now because you can always get them cheaper from other places, and we’re not going to be able to stop that,” he said.
Little Ouchies doesn’t sell on Amazon, but if you look up “pain stimming,” you’ll find over 100 nearly identical products costing as little as $3.50. Several 3D printing websites have reverse-engineered their designs and posted them for free, Butrick said.
Butrick said their pricing is higher because they offer higher-quality products, pay a living wage, and invest in the Cleveland community. However, if pricing is a hurdle, they encourage viewers to choose the cheaper option. “If it comes down to you either pay our pricing and not have the tool you need, it’s cruel to say ‘don’t get it,’” he explained.
Butrick takes pride in not fitting into the traditional business world. “I look at the world today and I see businesses, and business leaders that we’re supposed to look up to and what success is, and I’m almost disgusted by it,” he said.
In November, Butrick filed a lawsuit against the company’s former vice president and two other former employees, alleging theft of equipment, misappropriation of funds and unauthorized access to company accounts. Those employees have not responded to the allegations in court or in news stories.
The case is ongoing, though a temporary restraining order has returned Little Ouchies’ property and restored access to their online accounts. According to Butrick, they are still going back and forth with TikTok’s customer service to regain full access to their account.
Work rooted in lived experience
Butrick’s mission is deeply personal. In addition to his wife’s autism diagnosis, he has his own struggles with PTSD from his time serving in the U.S. Navy, as well as experiences with suicidal ideation.
He said Little Ouchies has been especially helpful for people with PTSD, helping users stay grounded. The company has donated thousands of Little Ouchies to the Louis Stokes Cleveland Veterans Affairs Medical Center, where veterans navigating trauma and recovery can use them.
One piece of feedback, in particular, stayed with him: someone told Butrick that Little Ouchies helped them regulate suicidal thoughts. “To have somebody be like, ‘You saved me,’ that hits,” he said.
As the company has grown, so has Butrick’s understanding of what the work can mean. While Little Ouchies began as a discreet way to pain-stim, it has evolved into a broader effort to normalize and destigmatize mental health tools, especially for men. He sees fear, untreated trauma, and silence as drivers of toxic behavior, and he believes that addressing PTSD and generational trauma can have ripple effects far beyond the individual.
When Butrick returned from military service, he experienced homelessness. Through Little Ouchies, he has been able to donate money to the Lutheran Metropolitan Ministry Men’s Shelter, where he also volunteers every Friday in the computer lab, helping residents with resumes, job applications and housing searches.
Expanding mental health technology
Butrick is also expanding Little Ouchies into the digital space by developing a privacy-first journaling app.
Unlike most wellness apps, the journaling platform collects no personal data. Users can create a username and password, but the app does not require an email address, does not back up entries to the cloud, and does not store information on external servers. Everything stays on the device, protected by the user’s password.
The app’s core functionality will be free to use. Butrick plans to monetize through optional cosmetic upgrades, such as stickers and visual skins.
Looking longer term, Butrick said he will continue pursuing his mission and believes his path will carve itself. From pain-stim fidget tools to app development and more, he wants to continue making the world friendlier to those with mental health struggles.
Butrick loves his job. He loves the design process, 3D printing, and developing new technology to support people. “I would move heaven and earth for the people I love,” he said. “To design a piece of plastic is nothing.”
