Our Adventure Nappy Backpack | The Creation

I'm writing this article because I wanted to give you a glimpse of what was involved in the creation and the development of our Adventure Nappy Backpack.

I think that it's important to share with you the creation of our Adventure Nappy Backpack, so that you can see that every detail has been carefully considered and tested.

The final product is an amalgamation of about 10 leading nappy bags/ backpacks, so you can be sure that there is nothing else like it in the baby market today. 

Step 1; Why a nappy backpack?

When I first became a mum I took full advantage of making the most of 'Shouting Myself' a new nappy bag as every mum should do. I purchased a traditional tote style shoulder bag as I thought that was just what you did. I purchased a near top of the range bag spending close to $250 only to find out a few months in that it was actually not very practical for a mum who was trying to juggle it all. There was actually too many small pockets and I was loosing things. Not too mention getting a sore neck, back and shoulders from carrying it and my baby. 

With kids you need hands free and that is why I started thinking about designing our own nappy backpack. At this time I had no idea the enormity of the task that I was setting myself up for. I just knew that I didn't want other mums to go through the same experience that I had. I wanted them to be happy with their purchase first time round. As mums we do take a lot of time considering this purchase, so it needs to be right. 

Step 2; Why an Adventure Nappy Backpack?

You may ask why have I called it an Adventure Nappy Backpack? I knew that there must be other parents out there like me that wanted to challenge the status quo of the need to buy a beautiful looking nappy bag that was so pretty but impractical in its design. 

I wanted my nappy backpack to be the type of bag that could get dirty and last the distance no matter what baby or Mother Nature threw at it. I wanted to use the best water repellent materials to ensure that if it got wet on your adventure your bag contense would stay dry. Standing out in a busy market place is essential and I still believe that I have designed a bag that is like no other. This Nappy Backpack is built for Adventure on the outside and for baby on the inside with all the necessary features that a baby bag needs.

Step 3; Development of the design

Once I worked out that the traditional tote style bag did not fit my lifestyle. I started designing our own Nappy Backpack very late/early one night/morning when I was feeding Tanner. Mums often refer to this hour a 'Stupid O'clock' well that is what I call it any way. Sometimes my brain is on fire at this time and sometimes I am almost asleep feeding.

This particular night I started designing our backpack. I remember after I put Tanner back down I grabbed a notepad and pencil and started sketching (FYI I cant draw to save myself pair that with my 'Stupid O'Clock' thoughts and it was pretty lucky that this design got off the ground.) I remember when I got back into bed my brain was wired. I couldn't sleep and really wanted to talk to Nath about what I had just been sketching. But I didn't think that he would appreciate my ideas at this time of night/morning, so I waited until morning. 

Nath thought that it was a great idea and that we needed to look into it further. So, the next day I started putting something together that I could present to my manufacturer. To create the design that was in my head I needed to make a bag from scratch. And that is what I did.

Intense research was completed to look at what a nappy backpack needs and how I was going to make ours special. I ended up taking the best bits from about 10-15 nappy bags, nappy backpack and outdoor adventure bags to make an amalgamation that would become our own unique design. It needed to suit our lifestyle and be ready for any adventure.  

This process took about 9 months before I was happy with the first Nappy Backpack we were going to mass produce. I was sent 4-5 different samples until I was 100% stoked with every single feature on our Nappy Backpack. I know secretly the head designer who works with our manufacturer hates me, as I have become quite the perfectionist and he tells me that my design is very complicated (I now understand this after seeing the production photos, see below)

Each time I spoke with my manufacturing it was usually a 2-3 hours conversation at all hours of the day and night. We were discussing materials, buckles, clips, zips, fabrics, intricate stitching details, features and functionality. I am very grateful for my manufacturers time and seeing my vision and dream to create something truly unique.

I remember when I gave the final go ahead for our first run of 600 bags. I couldn't believe that all of this hard work was about to pay off. But at the same time I was bloody nervous to ensure that everything ran smoothly. 

Once we sold out of the first run of bags I started to redesign a few elements of our bag to reinforce and improve specific features. This process took a further 3 months and 2 samples until I was really happy. 

So, all up you could say that our Adventure Nappy Backpack has been the result of 12 months work. And I am so proud of what I (we) have achieved. But there was no way that we could have gotten to where the business is without our successfully funded Kickstarter Campaign. Here we raised almost $10,000 towards the first run of our nappy backpack.  

 

Puggle Baby Australia Adventure Nappy Backpack design

Me with the design drawings and prototypes

The original design took 9 months to design it is like our third child in a away. 

Step 4; Getting to production and the Kickstarter campaign

Well I can tell you that my hats are off to anyone who has ever done any type of crowd funding. It is not easy and is so much work for the possibility of not being funded. 

Our Kickstarter campaign was perhaps one of the most challenging things that Nath and I have ever done as a couple. I'll let you know that we have also travelled around the world and raised small humans but this really put a strain on our relationship.

You may ask how? Well, I will tell you. All crowd funding campaigns need an awesome video as that is what the people pledging want to see. They want to be captivated in about 60 seconds as to why they should 'Back' your campaign. We went through multiple scripts and ideas before we settled on the direction we wanted to go. This was perhaps the most frustrating part. As I insisted on just 'winging it' but each time it was my time to talk I kept stuffing up. So the frustration grew.

We also used a drone to get some awesome footage but when we though we had the perfect video we realised that the sun was overexposing the shot, so the video was useless. To set the scene a little more we needed to be down at the beach shooting our drone footage super early in the morning (make sure you check out the Kickstarter video to get a feel for what I am talking about) as you can't fly them when anyone is around. So to find out that our perfect footage (what we thought) was usable was frustrating.

Our next attempt lead to someone who shall remain nameless (Nathan) forgetting to push the ON button so the next lot of footage was not recorded. It was not until we got home to check our awesome footage that we realised this. In all fairness we probably should have check when we were on the beach. 

Our next attempt was much better as we had learnt from our mistakes and Nath was now pretty much a pro at flying the drone. It was then that Nath's real work begun putting together our video. Hats off to videographers its a tricky job. And if we had of had any money to pay someone to do it, we would have for sure. 

The pressure started to lift as the video was coming to life. I was in charge of the listing and writing up all necessary information. This process took time and once again the true perfectionist in me was revealed.

The morning of the launch came and I was super nervous. I was actually on school camp at the time (yes, forgot to mention I am a teacher by trade). I was trying my best not to look at my phone but luckily the other teacher that I was with fully supported my entrepreneurial mindset and was super excited for me.

I remember when we hit our target, I was so happy that our dream was finally coming true. And the really cool thing to note here is that, everyone who pledged for us believed in us and what we were doing. This is how we knew we were on the right track to designing an awesome product.

 

Production photos:

The production of our Adventure Nappy Backpack

Adventure Nappy Backpack

 Production photos of our Adventure Nappy Backpack. Each section needs to be individual sewn before it can come together as the Adventure Nappy Backpack.
 

  

Kickstarter Campaign Video;

The Ultimate Adventure Nappy Backpack

Click here to check out our Kickstarter campaign page

Funded on Kickstarter

Thank you for reading about The Creation of our Adventure Nappy Backpack. I hope that it helps you when you are making your decisions about purchasing an nappy backpack and you can appreciate all of the work that has gone into it. 

We are super stoked with our design and know that it is really going to help you get out on your next family adventure. 

 

Tiff xx