Failure to launch

Ok. So here we are… it’s March, and….I’m not writing about some wonderful promotion, or our surprisingly overwhelming sales, or a luke warm review in a gadget mag or even a picture of Amy Winehouse lying in a gutter with a Quiver in her hand….. no. I’m staring at an email from our manufacturers giving yet another reason as to why I’m not going to get much sleep tonight.

We’ve been on the ‘home straight’ for what feels like an eternity and each time we’re almost at the line another little hurdle appears in the way.

Final tool? well, after a few tweaks

So where are we? Well our final production tools were ‘completed’ in January. However as is always the case they required tweaking… and tweaking, and some more air cylinders… .and some polishing… and…… tweakity tweak two months are gone.

So this week we are finally expecting to see our first production samples.. but then we thought that last week, and the previous, and the previous.

It’s funny because we thought our Asian outsourcing might have proven a bit of a lottery but it’s proven to be anything but. Our RO.50 re-usable bottle was made in China. I sent the design, they made the tools. We got some samples, made a few changes and that was that. Job done. It’s sitting ready to roll into full production, and the same applies with our injection moulders.

RO.50 - Ready and raring to go

We keep having to stop ourselves from saying – well why can’t it be that easy with the rest of the project. The blow moulding of the bottle went swimmingly, but blow moulding a bottle isn’t exactly breaking new boundaries. It’s been done billions of times before. The laminate foam moulding, combined with the aerogel pattern, injection moulded parts, magnets, leaf springs…. well it’s all a bit tricky and it’s never really been done before so it’s understandable that things are proving difficult. You just never quite bargain on how difficult and time consuming product development can be.

I used to agree with the mantra of take the time and money you think will be required for a new development project…. well take the doubled money and double it again, as for the time…well triple the doubled figure and the clock is still ticking – you do the math(s).

So you know we’re still fighting. We’re not kicking back with our feet up and a Gin in our hand (well maybe we are on the latter front)… We’re desperate to get the AeroPoint.50 launched and it will happen soon! It’ll be worth the wait and don’t worry you’ll know when we do. We’re gonna shout about it.

Quiver nuggets

Our various tweeting to the twitiverse out there has led us to some interesting connections. One of the most intruguing connections has turned out to be Lara, a ‘mommy blogger’. It wasn’t until we started chatting that I realised how many ‘mommies’ there are out there blogging away… it seems what we all thought is true – they lock the kids up during the day and kick back on the sofa with the laptop and Jeremy Kyle/Oprah on the telly..

Anyway. Lara was kind enough to offer us a guest spot on her blog as she opened up to men for the first time. The occasion? MANuary. So I wrote her some nonsense about being a scottish chap and a designer… and I threw in some pictures of monkeys in kilts for good measure.    

 You can view the post here.

Goodbye

I am sad to say it but after a few short months as part of the Quiver team, I am off! Recently engaged, my arm has been twisted and I am relocating to Bristol, England.

Working with the Quiver team has been a fantastic experience and I will miss everyone a great deal. Watching Keiran and Stephen breath life into an idea, taking it from concept to production has been both unique and inspiring  and I have no idea what I’ll do without my fill of Karen and Kayleigh’s stories, singing and general madness! I have enjoyed being a part of it, even if only for a moment.

My life will definitely be a little less colourful without everyone.

So, big hugs, goodbye and all the best.

Lots of love,

Emma

PS  I have my eyes on a bright yellow Quiver and hope that one will be on the way to me as soon as you get it in! xxxxxxxxxxxxx

Blog is rank – second to one

Well, we’ll be honest. It took us a while to come round to this world of the blogosphere…. it’s all a bit weird but we knew it was a cracking way to get word out about the product and get lots of feedback from all you lovely people on what we’re doing right and what we’re doing horribly wrong… but it seems to be working.

You’ve all told us lots and it seems google agrees. We’re number 2! OK it’s not quite as catchy as the old ‘We’re number 1′ chant, but when you’re second only to Wikipedia on a google search (for Quiver) you know you’re doing something right. We’re not exactly sure what it is that we’re doing right, but we’ll keep doing it…. what ever it  is.

Quivering at the silver ranking

Just to keep you all updated, we’ve not been sitting back with our feet up. This product production gig aint easy. We’ve been slaving away and we’re nearly there. All the production tools are now complete. All that remains is some final tweaking and getting the guys practised at putting the thing together and we’re there at the golden production ready gate ready to run through it.

Happy Halloween

The Quiver team were honored to be invited to the Nation1 Halloween bash last Friday night. The party, which doubled as the first night out the Quiver team, was a huge success! Kayleigh, Karen, Stephen, Kieran and I got dressed up like the legends we are and partied until the early hours!

Left to Right:Stephen, Emma, Kieran, Karen and Kayleigh

The theme was Advertising Legends and there are loads of other fantastic outfits to view on theNation 1 website here.

#Twitterpicture

Today’s Metro featured an article about Johanna Basford’s fabulous idea #twitterpicture. Johanna, an illustrator, has invited Tweeters to provide her with ideas which she will then hand draw inside a massive sphere. She is including any and every idea as long as it is not too rude!

Naturally, as soon as I arrived in the office this morning, I sent her a tweet asking her to include a Quiver underneath a Quiver tree!! Within about half an hour, Johanna had posted an update of her work and guess what, it included the Quiver!! Fantastic.  You can check it out here – http://tweetphoto.com/zscoats7
Anyone can get involved, just join twitter, follow Johanna then send her idea before 5pm toady or tomorrow!!

I can’t wait to see what the final piece turns out like!!

Super Sized Esky

I think I have found an invention almost as clever as the Quiver! If you need to cool a bit more than a 500ml bottle, this Aussie esky could keep an entire fridge full cool!

It probably costs a little more than a Quiver though!!

Testing Testing

A few weeks ago I was sceptical about the benefits of using Twitter as a successful marketing tool. However, a few twitter chats later and I am on my way to being converted. Most recently, I was contacted, via twitter, by @GirlsOutdoors who have shown an interest in reviewing the Quiver. It’s exciting stuff and I must say that I can’t think of a much better location to review a bottle insulator than Tasmania at Christmas time! It’ll be nice and hot!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/tassiesim/ / CC BY-NC 2.0

Tasmania

Website is Online

The Quiver Store website is online! The  stylish website created by Nation1 tells you everything you need to know about Quiver. You will find out how to use it, about the technology behind it, you can view it in your favourite colour or vote for your favourite design of the future.

The shop’s not there just yet but I’ll let you know as soon as it’s up and running, so you can get your hands on a limited edition launch product.

I’d also like to say a huge big thank you to Scottish Enterprise for their continuous support. Without them, we wouldn’t have made it this far.

Hope you love the website.

www.quiverstore.com

Quiver sports

A Quiver is a flexible piece of gear that can be used in many different situations and can be worn in all sorts of ways.

When running, you can strap it to your hand. The Quiver is as light as a feather and the slick design means it fits the contours of hands perfectly. If using the Quiver reusable bottle, the Quiver RO.50, it’s easy to flip open the top and drink away to your heart’s content!

When climbing, you can attach the Quiver to a climbing harness so it stays out of the way as you climb but so it’s still easy to access so you can hydrate whenever you like.

If camping in Scotland, in September, it’s possible to use the Quiver to keep tea nice and toasty. I use the strap diagonally across my body so that I can wander around the campsite talking to friends, in style! I could do with an Emma size Quiver to keep me warm at night though!

When hiking, simply attach the Quiver to a backpack, with a carabiner. If someone else is carrying the lunch, just switch to the handy strap!

When canoeing, put the Quiver into a dry box with  lunch. If the Quiver falls into the water, it floats, so you shouldn’t lose it. If it get wet, performance is not affected and it still insulates 100%.

There are all sorts of other ways to use the Quiver, those mentioned are a few of my favourite sports. If you can think of any other situations where a Quiver would be useful, I’d love to hear them.