

The Results Of My Year-Long Physical Product Experiment - j0ncc
http://needwant.com/p/results-physical-product-experiment/

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jere
>After a lot of back and forth with a few different factories, I managed to
find one that could do what I wanted.

This is glossed over, yet I have no idea how I would even start contacting
factories.

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thruflo
Makersrow.com custommade.com fabhub.com

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jere
Interesting links. The first is for American factories only, which is neat,
but I'd be surprised if this case was made in America. I'm familiar with the
second link, but I don't believe it's related to factories/mass production.
The third link is being squatted on.

~~~
thruflo
Ah yes sorry, meant fabhub.io. Ironic to get the address wrong as its my site.
Belated disclaimer.

For outsourcing, alibaba.com and mfg.com are the big ones. Starting onshore /
digital may be good for short run & prototyping. Trade mags and manufacturer
associations have local directories.

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hengheng
> We’re almost at the stage now where we will never have to even see another
> iPhone case.

"We successfully made the transition from being an ad agency with attached
warehouse and fulfillment center to being solely an ad agency."

So you never had anything to do with the physical product anyway, no
development or manufacturing or anything. Naturally you had to streamline your
business process to reflect this, but it's not what I'd call a "Physical
Product Experiment".

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pclark
I own a Peel case. It's really great, in fact it's the only case I have ever
been satisfied with using.

~~~
tedmiston
Any you chance you have the "white" model? I'm having a hard time telling from
the pictures how translucent it is.

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HeyLaughingBoy
Awesome read. BTW, both UPS and USPS (don't know about FedEx, etc) will pickup
packages on demand. Of course, if you live in an apartment, this does mean you
have to be home at the time.

~~~
rbritton
Last time I did that with FedEx there was a charge for it ($10 I believe). I
don't believe that's changed.

~~~
HeyLaughingBoy
UPS also charges, but IIRC it's less if you have an account with them. Pickup
is free with USPS.

~~~
tedmiston
Not sure whether it's changed, but USPS pickup was only free a few years ago
when you shipped Priority or higher.

I'm surprised how much time was spent writing addresses by hand. Paypal Multi-
Order Shipping and cheap adhesive shipping labels, which can be found on eBay,
take a lot of pain out of that process.

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marban
Any insights where the factories are located and how they found the
manufacturing partner?

~~~
pdog
Your best bet is to find a "Gold" supplier on Alibaba.com.

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Pxtl
That "exit intent popup" had better not be a big modal thing or else I hate
you.

~~~
tedmiston
It's better than _alert()_

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pdog
Exit offers for Shopify are powered by Sticky[1].

[1]: [http://www.addsticky.com/](http://www.addsticky.com/)

~~~
createmyaccount
Any idea about their rates? Honestly, this seems pretty easy to set up
yourself.

~~~
pdog
$10.00 / month

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wehadfun
So this is the same guy that bought the Las Vegas apartment and rents it on
Airbnb?

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6655492](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6655492)

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colinbartlett
I'd love to buy several of these. Would you consider accepting Bitcoin? I'm
always looking for ways to spend it and I see you're on Shopify which should
make it very, very easy.

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nedwin
Have you considered outsourcing your shipping to a third party logistics
company? Slightly added cost but takes away a bunch of the pain as well.

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createmyaccount
Great post. Mind sharing the company that did the packaging and shipping for
you? (Or any alternatives)

