ThriftBox #00001
One of the most exciting milestones in the process of launching a business is the point at which, for the first time, an idea on paper becomes something physical that you can touch and feel. It is the point at which everything becomes that little bit more real and you can feel pride in creating something brand new that is yours.
It is this excitement that drives so many new entrepreneurs designing & printing a fancy logo and printing professional business cards before there is even a business. But, although a name rarely makes a business and a logo can always be changed, there is something special about this process: it is often the first time that the irrational obsession shines through that will be critical for the success of the new venture.
While I had so far restrained the urge to order business cards, by April the time had come to prove that real people were excited to receive a ThriftBox in the post, fill it up, and send it back.
I needed a real, physical box. I needed ThriftBox #00001.
Luckily for me, there was no shortage of design inspiration from the myriad of fashion startups beginning to use bulk postage of fashion. In the UK, The Chapar adverts had been filling my Facebook feed, while in the US Bombfell and The Trunk Club operate a ‘keep what you like’ model with the aim of giving their customers a curated, physical shopping experience from the comfort of their home.
Despite all the inspiration, it was in fact a basic ScrewFix box that arrived in the post that gave me the exact style that I needed. It had a self-locking lid so that donors wouldn’t need to use tape, and so that we could use the same box multiple times to spread the cost between multiple donors.
For the branding, I looked to a friend who had helped with my previous startup. Chris is graphic designer who has worked on clients such as Quiqup, Guardian Soulmates, and PayPoint.
After a few iterations, we settled on an initial design for the box and I was ready to create some boxes! But how to make them?
Plan A.
Custom cut & printed boxes.
While I knew there would be an initial outlay due to set-up costs and minimum order quantities with a large supplier, I was hopeful that I would be able to get a handful of samples made which I could use for the promotional video before committing to a larger order. However, the supplier wasn’t going to play ball. A huge minimum order was required, and they were unable to create a sample at a reasonable price.
Cost £1500+. Onto Plan B…
Plan B.
DIY: off-the-shelf boxes, acrylic paint, custom made stencils.
Making the boxes myself wouldn’t be scalable, but I figured it should at least give a professional looking box for the promotional video, and allow me to create a small batch to use for the very first donors. Unfortunately, the biggest size in the right style was only as large as a shoebox, but it would have to do. Orange & white acrylic paint, mini foam paint rollers, a lot of newspaper and I had my first box. And I was chuffed.
Cost £75.
However, while the stencils were useful for creating small batches of boxes, they weren’t giving the level of detail needed for a professional looking box for the promotional video. And so onto Plan C…
Plan C.
DIY v.2: Custom made vinyl transfers.
As the stencils (or my skills) couldn’t do the small text needed for the URL and tagline, I looked into custom vinyl transfers that would hopefully give a more accurate finish. One A3 sheet of transfers would be enough for only a handful of boxes, but I decided that it was worth the money for the quality. After carefully & nervously scratching the vinyl onto the first box, we had our very first, high quality prototype box. And it was awesome.
Cost £85.
With the promotional video done and the first 100 donors signed up, I was ready to commit some money to a proper quantity of boxes in order to start proving the logistics of sending to & receiving from our first 100 donors (read about the “First 100 Donors” pilot here). And so…
Back to Plan A.
Custom cut & printed boxes.
Excitingly, the boxes could now be the exact size we wanted. To keep our postage & courier options open we chose the standard Royal Mail ‘small parcel’ size, which has recently been increased to W450 x L350 x H160mm.
Receiving a sample of the larger box immediately transformed the ThriftBox from a restrictive shoebox to a spacious clothes trunk. The bigger size would help to convey to donors our expectations for the amount of clothes we were hoping to receive, and, for me, brought home the ambitiousness of what we were trying to achieve.
Restrictions with printing in the unusual white ink meant we had to adjust our original diagonal design, but we settled on an attractive alternative and were ready to send to print. Time to pay. Cost £1750. Ouch.
Update: 15 June 2017
We are currently patiently waiting (read: excitedly chasing) for two large pallets of flat-packed boxes to arrive to a tiny studio in Peckham.
(This seems like an appropriate point to remind you how to order your very own ThriftBox! → www.thrift.plus )
We will update you as soon as they arrive!
Update: 27 June 2017
This is what 700 flatpack boxes looks like! Two metres tall, too big to move and torrential rain.
And this is it! ThriftBox #00001
