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WRAP BUDDIES | World's Simplest Gift Wrap Assistant

Created by Bret Wortman

Lightweight, simple setup, easy storage. Kitchen and craft room uses too! Get up off the floor and make wrapping fun again!

Latest Updates from Our Project:

And the winner is...
almost 7 years ago – Fri, Apr 28, 2017 at 02:45:45 PM

Thank you all for your participation in the Wrap Buddies Color Poll 2017.

It was a close battle between two leading contenders, but one sneaked ahead. When we factored in the importance of having that second color, then the lead widened enough for us to declare a winner.

I know you're in suspense, absolutely agonizing over what color's going to get the nod.

So without further ado, the winner is a more mauvy shade of pinky russet.

Seriously, though, welcome to the family, Royal. You're the color champion, making our final colors for production Pine, Cranberry, and Royal.

Have a wonderful weekend, and watch for our survey early next week!

Bret and the Wrap Buddies Team

I Hate Speed Bumps
almost 7 years ago – Wed, Apr 26, 2017 at 10:35:41 PM

Why is it that every time I send out a wonderful, happy, upbeat update, I get hit with disappointment the next day?

Okay, it's not that frequent, actually, but the timing certainly isn't great.

A Smaller Rainbow

So what happened is this: Our factory just informed me that the MOQ (Minimum Order Quantity) for a particular color is 1000 units. We have about 1000 to make total to fulfill our backer orders, plus another batch of retail samples and that gets me to about 3 colors.

I'm sad, too. I had planned for at least 4 colors moving forward, so this is a blow to me as well as to you.

It's also a kick to my ego because I did not think to ask about this. I guess I figured it was an easy process to change out one set of colored plastic pellets for another, but it turns out they have to wash down the machinery between batches to prevent any hint of color contamination. Thus the 1000 unit MOQ. It has to be worth their time to load everything up.

I get it.

But I'm still bummed.

So here's what I'd like to do:

Poll Time!

I know without a doubt that Pine and Cranberry will be moving forward. Aqua, Royal and Midnight scored well in our last poll as well, but circumstances were different then. This time, we'll be picking the one additional color on offer.

All the possible colors
All the possible colors

Please head on over to http://wrapbuddies.co/color-survey and give us your vote.

What if my color doesn't win?

If your color doesn't make the cut and you don't like any of the remaining choices, we will refund your pledge. No worries. This isn't your fault, and you shouldn't be penalized for it. We hope you find the usefulness of Wrap Buddies overweighs any disappointment in color restrictions, but we get it. The heart wants what it wants. Send us an email at [email protected] with a subject of "Color Refund" and we'll get you sorted out.

But for now, just give us your vote and we'll get back to you soon. The sooner you vote, the sooner we can resolve this and get our surveys out.

You all are awesome and we don't deserve you. But we're thankful you're on this journey with us!

Bret and the Wrap Buddies Team

Coming soon: Surveys!
almost 7 years ago – Tue, Apr 25, 2017 at 07:38:41 PM

Good news: It's Survey time!

Watch your Inbox

 

In the next few weeks, we'll be sending out surveys from BackerKit. This is how you'll provide us your shipping address and color preferences. There's also the opportunity for you to order additional Wrap Buddies sets for those of you who've told me you wish you'd pledged at a higher level.

The surveys should go out around the first of May and they'll lock down on September 15 so that we can print shipping labels, but please do us a favor and make your color selections & add on additional units as early as possible so we don't end up short on the color you want. Not all colors will be going forward into retail sales, so if you've really got a passion for a particular color, definitely fill this out as soon as you get it.

Note that we are leaning strongly toward producing these with a non-glossy finish. The bottom row of images below show the red and green versions with glossy finishes, so if you want to weigh in with your opinion, please send us a comment! 

We anticipate shipping in early October.

Final Design

Feast your eyes on the final version of Wrap Buddies. These renderings haven't been produced, but the digital models have gone to our manufacturing partner for analysis and they've blessed them, so this is what you can expect. The branding will likely change a bit, but the functional design is locked down now.

Key features include having a tape dispenser on each side now so that you can wrap from your left or your right as you prefer, or two of you can wrap at the same time on opposite sides of a table.

Again, these are renderings from our design team, and we'll post images after we get our initial samples back from the factory!

In the meantime, please enjoy these and let us know how you think they look!

 

 

Sneak Peek
about 7 years ago – Tue, Mar 28, 2017 at 02:10:26 PM

Just a quick note to let you know that we've posted some images of the hinge redesign on our facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/wrapbuddiesco/. Hop on over and take a look. The overall design is still pretty much intact, we've just altered the spring/hinge/pin arrangement a bit.

Cheers!

Spring is here!
about 7 years ago – Wed, Mar 22, 2017 at 06:18:39 PM

Yay -- though it doesn't feel like in much of the US right now, spring has arrived. Or the calendar says so, at least. Here in Virginia, our trees and shrubs are showing signs of sprouting, so that can only mean one thing -- allergy season is about to kick in with a vengeance.

And the subject of spring brings us to the point of today's backer update:

Springs, springs, and more springs

We've been working since January on trying to find a combination of factors that will allow us to use the existing design, but we've had to throw in the towel. After trying dozens of different springs of varying thickness, coil size, arm size, and so on, we've had to determine that there's just no way to beat physics. And there's no way to make the springs strong enough to do the job and small enough to fit into the design as we had wanted.

So we're going back to the drawing board to figure out how to use springs more like those our functional prototypes used (which we cannibalized from chip clips) but which need to be affixed differently. We'll likely go back to using a pin through the center to trap the spring in place while simultaneously attaching the arm to the main body and providing the pivot around which everything will work.

We're also redesigning the second buddy to be a mirror of the first, so whether you want the paper on your left or your right, there will be a tape dispenser within easy reach. You can even put tape in both and wrap from both sides of the table simultaneously.

What we are losing by doing this is the ribbon keeper. There were a number of issues surrounding the ribbon (spool size being the key one: ribbon spools are a lot larger than tape spools, so we'd have had to make that second buddy look a lot bigger than the first. And while we're all about function first, looks do matter. We're not giving up on ribbon; we're just putting it off for a while. When we solve it, you backers will be the first to know.

So our design team is revising the product design and we've started talking with packaging designers as well.

Enjoy the spring weather if you've got it, and for our friends below the equator, happy autumn!

Bret and the Wrap Buddies Team