Nomad Travel Blankets
Client: Ellie Fun Day
The Challenge: Design and market a blanket that will keep kids warm and clean, inspire wonder while they travel on their many adventures.
Outcome: Launched on Indiegogo to sell $25,000 for initial market tests and eventually 250 stores globally, with unpaid press in Travel & Leisure and Huffington Post.
The Process: Many of us have traveled and wondered if the blankets that airlines provided for us are even sanitized before use. The Wall Street Journal discovered that airplane blankets mostly only cleaned their blankets every five to 30 days. Even after testing sealed blankets, yeast, mold and high bacteria were found on these blankets.
With this design challenge we set out to design a blanket that both parents and children would love to carry around. When we first interviewed parents we took them through a survey of their process of travel and what they would pack for their children. The general finding was that snacks, a water bottle, and an activity for the child were standard. Some carried stuffed toys, pillows, and blankets for longer travels all into a bag.
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We then hypothesized and prototyped a blanket that folded into a pillow to see if children wanted to carry it in the form of a backpack. Small 3”x 3” hand-sewn miniature versions were created to prototype functionality and animals that we thought children would like. Then we made larger versions out of various materials like polyester and cotton for the children to test.
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We had children wear and play with these prototypes to see how they would function. Upon our user tests, we discovered that many parents already had backpacks that their children would already be carrying and didn’t want them to carry a separate bag, they wanted something that was durable, yet soft and non-staticky, and warm yet not too hot for an airplane’s fluctuating temperatures.
On the supply chain side, our largest challenges were to source local organic cotton fabric and to ensure that the blankets the artisans made were at an acceptable quality limit. With very little initial knowledge about the organic cotton textile supply chain, we dove headfirst in finding the key players in the ecosystem and found a collective of farmers that were committed to growing organic and fair-trade cotton. From there we were able to source the final textile to our specifications. Due to the large initial investment of fabric, we needed to design a larger collection beyond the first baby blankets that we developed. This base fabric served as a basis for our subsequent collections.
We then iterated on another version of blankets that were made out of an organic cotton flannel which addressed the warm, breathable, washable desires. We added a carry-loop that they could hook onto a back-pack, stroller or coat hook for easy transportation and storage.
Our Raccoon Nomad Travel Blanket
To test the prototype we launched an Indiegogo campaign and named the product The Nomad Travel Blankets. Then we created three animals based on a vote by children and their parents and named them after travel explorers. We structured a tiered campaign with perks ranging from travel journals, posters, custom travel blankets, and even a trip to India to visit the artisans that made the blankets.
With our social impact story and relevant designs, we secured key collaborations with Restoration Hardware, ABC Carpet & Home, Barneys NYC, (Hyperlinks) and Anthropologie. This resulted in sales in the 6-digits in a single season as we gained traction in the marketplace. Unpaid celebrity purchases came from Jessica Alba, Kirsten Dunst, Kate Hudson, and many more social media influencers.
Raised $25k on Indiegogo
This campaign garnered $25k in initial sales, press mentions in Huffington Post and Travel & Leisure. Our work has been featured on hugely popular Instagram Influencers, like Eva Chen (1.8M Followers) and LauraIz (554k).
Ellie Fun Day has now gotten numerous requests to make adult-sized versions and is seeing a repeat buying history of these blankets as gifts.
“Ellie Fun Day is design-focused and committed to using all their products to empower the poor.”
Fay Johnson from THE HUFFINGTON POST
TEAM
Creative Director : Sarah LinGraphic Designer : Hannah PhamPhotography : Calvina PhotographyFilm Editor & Script : Sarah Lin & Kenneth Merrill