A boring math class proved to be the mother of invention for design mogul Ben Kaufman. “I was trying to listen to my iPod Shuffle without my teacher realizing that I wasn’t listening to her,” he says. “That was my first problem. The solution was a lanyard headphone that concealed the wires associated with the iPod Shuffle.”

Kaufman’s exercise in ingenious subversion set the Long Island teenager on a path that leads Tuesday to a starring role in Sundance Channel’s new reality-based TV series.

Quirky, the show, focuses on Quirky, the company, Kaufman’s “social product-development” outfit that takes user-submitted designs and turns them into market-ready merchandise.

“Quirky was based on my realization of how hard it is to find a manufacturer, get financing (and) know all the disciplines like industrial design, mechanical engineering, prototyping, merchandising, retail logistics,” Kaufman, 24, told Wired.com by phone. “All these things need to come together just to push one little product out into the real world. Basically, if you have the right idea, we’ll do all the heavy lifting to make the idea you have in your head see the light of day.”

Quirky’s DIY-meets-pro dynamic takes center stage in Tuesday’s debut episode, which is underscored by an intriguing theme: A good idea from an inspired amateur is one thing. A compelling final product is something else entirely.

In one example of Quirky’s design process, community “influencers” favor Pennsylvania housewife Andrea Zabinski’s kitchenware idea that would combine straining, cooking and serving all in one bowl. Quirky staffers sketch out five design concepts, narrow the field to three finalists and solicit online feedback from the Quirky community.

But Kaufman remains unimpressed with the results. “I’m significantly underwhelmed,” he says before sending head designer Gaz Brown and his team back to the drawing board.

“With design, there’s always an easy way out, right?” Kaufman says. “There’s a way to check all the boxes but then there’s the right way, which is often the harder way.”

Quirky’s pilot episode also showcases Jake Zien’s clever solution to power-cord overload. His Pivot Power power cord did not require much conceptual tweaking, but the broke, Rhode Island School of Design student had no resources to bring his invention to market.

Quirky pros prototyped the piece with a 3-D printer, set up manufacturing in China and revised the specs in order to satisfy safety guidelines. By the episode’s end, a beaming Zien stands in a warehouse surrounded by boxes of his ready-to-ship product.

Kaufman says it was no big deal to turn daily operations into fodder for a reality series, since the company has 24/7 webcams on the premises and the employees are accustomed to “full transparency.”

Lacking neurotic temper tantrums or self-obsessed theatrics, Quirky instead finds its friction in the design process itself as filtered through Kaufman’s crowdsourced incubator platform.

“I don’t subscribe to the crowdsourcing idea that community is smarter than experts, or that experts are smarter than community,” he says. “There needs to be room at the table for both parties.”

Quirky debuts Tuesday at 10 p.m./9 p.m. Central on Sundance Channel.

Images courtesy Sundance Channel.