Friday, June 10, 2011

PakNak Review


It all began with two moms, two cups of tea, two husbands, three children, two cats, one dog and one dream: let's start a business! After more discussion, much more tea, and many hours consulting with our "expert" children on what kids would use and love, PakNak ® was born. From there, we set out to create ginormous fun, one backpack at a time.

Our Naks are 3D, rubbery, interchangeable and are super easy to attach to surfaces (with no work or hassle for mom and dad).  We knew self-adhesive, flexible, weatherproof designs were crucial to making Naks work. In the early days, we experienced what we now know many startups go through – one day we were plotting certain world conquest, the next we wondered what on earth we were thinking.

There were days of elation, like the day the first prototypes arrived, and even our geeky husbands said, "Wow, cool!" (both were especially big fans of the dinosaur Nak). Other days we flirted with disaster as we experimented with adhesives to make sure the Naks were easy to attach and switch out – hair dryers, hot sun and active kids really put them to the test!

As the Naks got closer and closer to our ideal, we became addicted to Skype, gmail, international time zones and color wheels, along with more prototypes and more sessions with our 6-12 year old resident product testers ("Mom, I really think the butterfly should be purpler."). We worked toward building a profitable business, but we knew we wanted much more than just that. We wanted to set a standard for social responsibility, so we contacted the warm and wonderful people of Eastco, where they focus on clients abilities, not disabilities, to help us pack the Naks. From there, it was only fitting that our first large order (10,000 PakNaks®!) should come from Schoolhouse Supplies, a free store for public school teachers in our hometown of Portland, Oregon.

In August 2007, we proudly delivered our first order of 10,000 PakNaks®, launched the website, felt the elation of seeing the first orders roll in and heard the squeals of delight from happy customers. Now, with great appreciation for those who helped us on the first legs of the journey, we look forward to the great adventure that lies ahead for paknak.com!



I know my kids love to be original with their things, and this is a great way to allow them, to personalize their backpacks so that it doesn't look so much like what the other kids have. I let my oldest put one on a notebook for school, and she has already decided that PakNaks will be on her must have list for school next year.

We received Robert and since my daughter is a girly girl I kept him, and applied him to my daycare folder, where I keep all my paperwork. 

manfred snail page
Manfred was a favorite,  of both girls, and  this led us to go to the PakNak site, and let the girls ooo and ahh over the many choices. With the easy of application, and the fact that once you attach the Velcro circle it's super easy to switch it out, to compete with the ever changing style of the 3rd grade girl.  

These are a couple of the girls favorites
sprinkles cupcake pagekyla jane butterfly page
These were the ones L loves. 

minty hearts pagepinky the flower pageclaire the cat pagepowder blue flower page
H couldn't choose between these 4 and insists she needs them all when she starts school in the fall.
I've even got a couple favorites...
martin monkey pageturtle page

With a $3.99 they are an affordable, accessory for your child's stuff. 

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