Improve air quality with the power of activated bamboo charcoal. Eco-friendly, long-lasting odor eliminator cubes for your space.
This post is for backers only. Please visit Kickstarter.com and log in to read.
This post is for backers only. Please visit Kickstarter.com and log in to read.
Hey Backers,
Good-bye 2019, hello 2020! We hope everyone is having a great New Year so far!
Here is where we are at...
In our last backer update we shared some packaging designs with you and we received some feedback on it. We agree with those of you who have mentioned that the plastic we were going to use was not very Eco-friendly. You're right! So two weeks ago we reached out and secured a new Eco-friendly packaging manufacturer and they recommended Kraft packaging. Kraft packaging is a lot more Eco-friendly than the plastic so we went ahead and went with the upgrade. The manufacturing of the packaging is almost done and they will be sent to our primary factory where BLOKS will be placed and sealed.
Here is mock-up/artwork of how the packaging is going to look...
The new zipper feature is really awesome! As mentioned previously, it will allow you to help with the reduction of waste by purchasing charcoal refills instead of purchasing completely new replacement BLOKS. But that's not the only benefit... the new zipper allowed us to stuff in an additional "refill" giving your BLOKS a total of 400 grams instead of the 300 grams of bamboo charcoal! Yup, we are giving everyone 100 more grams for free. Although this costs more in shipping and materials, we think it is a nice little upgrade for the New Year!
Our manufacturing partners are going to be on holiday break from January 16th to February 8th. They are confident the BLOKS should be done before they leave. Given approx. 7 to 10 days to arrive to our office, and as mentioned in our last update we are still shooting for end of this month ETA.
Thank you again for your support and continued patience. We will be posting again when we are ready to begin the shipping phase.
Thank you!
ACTIVE BAMBÜ
Hey Backers,
Just checking in to let everyone know what we have been up to. First, a few weeks ago as our factory was well underway with production, we came up with this really cool new idea! We actually considered making a BLOKS 2.0 version and perhaps launch it as its own project sometime later in the future, but the more we thought about it the more we wanted to make it happen for you now!
We want our backers to have the latest so when we come up with a way to improve the product or an idea for a new feature that we think is beneficial, we will make an executive decision to temporarily pause manufacturing to pursue it, and that's what we did.
This new feature upgrade, although a slight increase in material and labor costs we believe it is worth the extra investment for improved long term usability of BLOKS. We are confident that you will not be disappointed in the upgrade, but we do ask that you please be patient with us as we need to push back our delivery timeline.
We decided to add a small hidden zipper to the bottom of the BLOKS. But why?
There are two benefits...
First, it reduces waste over time. As you know, after 2 years of recharging BLOKS in the sunlight each month you will need to cut open the BLOKS to empty out the charcoal inside, but then the outer shell could not be reused. The new zipper allows you to reuse the outer shell which ultimately reduces waste.
But wait, wouldn't I be left with just an empty shell?
Technically, yes. But that's where benefit #2 comes in...
Now that there is a zipper, you will have the option of "refills" in the future. The ultimate goal is providing an affordable refill solution that essentially costs less than purchasing a whole new replacement cube. You will be able to unzip, remove, and replace the charcoal inside at your convenience. Once we have more information on how this will work we will share it with you in another backer update.
Note: Whether or not we finalize a refill solution now or later, we plan to ship BLOKS with the new zipper as soon as they are available. The refills are currently being worked on independently from BLOKS.
We have been working with an outside packaging factory as well as a graphics designer to help us. This is also taking a bit longer than expected but we feel that having a great retail packaging design for BLOKS is equally as important as BLOKS functionality. Here are some mock designs which we hope to finalize on soon...
Once we finalize the front, we will move on to the back verbiage. Mass production of the bags takes 2 weeks once artwork is finalized.
We are not going to be able to deliver before Christmas as we had hoped. We are moving our shipping timeline to late January 2020. We apologize that we could not get it all done sooner. We hope that you find the new feature worth the wait and we thank you again for your support and continued patience. As soon as we have more news to share, we will post another backer update.
Thank you!
ACTIVE BAMBÜ
Hey Backers,
Great news! Our BackerKit page setup is complete and we have just sent out a small batch of invitations (a smoke test!). We've sent only a handful of backers because we want to make sure everything is running smoothly before sending them out to everyone. Some of you may have already received the invitation by email but if you haven't yet, please give us a 24 hours to officially launch it. In the event that it has been more than 48 hours since this backer update and you still haven't received an email, please follow the instructions below:
1. Visit https://bloks.backerkit.com
2. Enter in your Kickstarter email address
3. BackerKit will email you your special link to the survey
4. Browse our Add-Ons (e.g. additonal BLOKS cubes and BLOKS Deodorizing Shoe Inserts) at special Kickstarter rates. Any items that you Pre-Order will ship together with your BLOKS reward when we move into the shipping phase. We do not charge any additional shipping for Add-Ons.
5. Be sure to enter in your shipping address so we know where to send your reward!
In order to get an accurate count of how many extra BLOKS to produce we are asking that you complete your survey and payment as soon as possible.
Please send us a message through Kickstarter if you are having trouble with completing your survey.
Smelly shoes, sneakers, or heels? We've added the option to purchase BLOKS Shoe & Sneaker Inserts. Similar to BLOKS Cubes, but designed to insert into your shoes, sneakers, and/or heels to adsorb moisture and odor. Be sure to check them out on BackerKit at special bulk pricing.
And as always we will keep you posted with manufacturing news in a future backer update.
Thanks again for making BLOKS a success!
ACTIVE BAMBÜ