Based on its low starting price and placement with Ford’s pickup repertoire, you might not expect a whole lot of clever ideas within the Maverick’s interior. But there are thoughtful storage solutions abound in Ford’s smallest truck, in unexpected places like around the infotainment screen and even within the bed.
One of the coolest ideas Ford has implemented, however, is one it calls the Ford Integrated Tether System. A cute acronym, though crucial to note far from the best this industry has seen. Maybe next time, Ford.
Anyway, FITS is an elaborate name for what, by all appearances, really just looks like a hook. There’s one of these hooks built into the back of the center console in the Maverick, facing rear-seat passengers and located right underneath the AC outlet and USB ports. It’s what plugs into that hook and what Ford is planning to do with it going forward that makes FITS so special.
Ford says it will manufacture a number of accessories — including cupholders, storage and trash bins, cord organizers, and grocery hooks — that clip right into the FITS slot for even more customizable storage within the car. Maverick buyers will be able to get these with an “available accessories package” to be offered with the truck.
That said, it’s 2021, and modern technology gives us — or, at least, those who can afford the privilege — the ability to 3D print whatever the hell we want. And so Ford is planning to go open source with FITS, freely sharing the slot geometry so that anyone can 3D print what they like for their own bespoke accessories.
When not clipped, FITS accessories can apparently be stashed in “multiple slots under the rear seats.” Ford doesn’t make it clear if these are additional FITS hooks or what, but at least they present somewhere for the pieces to go when not in use. That’s handy, because having an armful of irregular-shaped plastic doodads with no place to store them would pretty much guarantee they’d wind up in a bag somewhere deep in a garage, promptly lost and never seen again.
It’s interesting Ford has chosen the Maverick to launch this idea, rather than one or both of the Broncos. If it takes off, hopefully the company will work to integrate the hooks in its other trucks and SUVs, and perhaps add another somewhere in the front of the Maverick’s interior as well. I suppose we’ll know if it’s a success depending on whether a cottage industry of 3D-printed doodads flourishes on Etsy in a year’s time.