The Results Of My Year-Long Physical Product Experiment

jere 12 years ago |

>After a lot of back and forth with a few different factories, I managed to find one that could do what I wanted.

This is glossed over, yet I have no idea how I would even start contacting factories.

thruflo 12 years ago | |

Makersrow.com custommade.com fabhub.com

jere 12 years ago | | |

Interesting links. The first is for American factories only, which is neat, but I'd be surprised if this case was made in America. I'm familiar with the second link, but I don't believe it's related to factories/mass production. The third link is being squatted on.

thruflo 12 years ago | | |

Ah yes sorry, meant fabhub.io. Ironic to get the address wrong as its my site. Belated disclaimer.

For outsourcing, alibaba.com and mfg.com are the big ones. Starting onshore / digital may be good for short run & prototyping. Trade mags and manufacturer associations have local directories.

createmyaccount 12 years ago | |

Or how to even find them. I think this would typically be easier in the US than in Europe.

hengheng 12 years ago |

> We’re almost at the stage now where we will never have to even see another iPhone case.

"We successfully made the transition from being an ad agency with attached warehouse and fulfillment center to being solely an ad agency."

So you never had anything to do with the physical product anyway, no development or manufacturing or anything. Naturally you had to streamline your business process to reflect this, but it's not what I'd call a "Physical Product Experiment".

pclark 12 years ago |

I own a Peel case. It's really great, in fact it's the only case I have ever been satisfied with using.

tedmiston 12 years ago | |

Any you chance you have the "white" model? I'm having a hard time telling from the pictures how translucent it is.

HeyLaughingBoy 12 years ago |

Awesome read. BTW, both UPS and USPS (don't know about FedEx, etc) will pickup packages on demand. Of course, if you live in an apartment, this does mean you have to be home at the time.

rbritton 12 years ago | |

Last time I did that with FedEx there was a charge for it ($10 I believe). I don't believe that's changed.

HeyLaughingBoy 12 years ago | | |

UPS also charges, but IIRC it's less if you have an account with them. Pickup is free with USPS.

tedmiston 12 years ago | | |

Not sure whether it's changed, but USPS pickup was only free a few years ago when you shipped Priority or higher.

I'm surprised how much time was spent writing addresses by hand. Paypal Multi-Order Shipping and cheap adhesive shipping labels, which can be found on eBay, take a lot of pain out of that process.

marban 12 years ago |

Any insights where the factories are located and how they found the manufacturing partner?

pdog 12 years ago | |

Your best bet is to find a "Gold" supplier on Alibaba.com.

Pxtl 12 years ago |

That "exit intent popup" had better not be a big modal thing or else I hate you.

tedmiston 12 years ago | |

It's better than alert()

pdog 12 years ago |

Exit offers for Shopify are powered by Sticky[1].

[1]: http://www.addsticky.com/

createmyaccount 12 years ago | |

Any idea about their rates? Honestly, this seems pretty easy to set up yourself.

pdog 12 years ago | | |

$10.00 / month

wehadfun 12 years ago |

So this is the same guy that bought the Las Vegas apartment and rents it on Airbnb?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6655492

colinbartlett 12 years ago |

I'd love to buy several of these. Would you consider accepting Bitcoin? I'm always looking for ways to spend it and I see you're on Shopify which should make it very, very easy.

nedwin 12 years ago |

Have you considered outsourcing your shipping to a third party logistics company? Slightly added cost but takes away a bunch of the pain as well.

createmyaccount 12 years ago |

Great post. Mind sharing the company that did the packaging and shipping for you? (Or any alternatives)