
Pakible (YC W15) Makes It Dead Simple for Businesses to Design, Ship Packaging - Skrypt
http://techcrunch.com/2015/03/16/yc-backed-pakible-makes-it-dead-simple-for-businesses-to-design-ship-packaging/
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alpinist
Hey guys and gals,

Glad you are tackling this problem. I run a company that rebrands and does
some ODM designs in China. Getting packaging quotes in the US has been a
frustrating and confusing process.

Here's a few reasons I still get all my packaging done in china:

1\. Instruction Manuals. Ever tried to have them printed to go with your box
designs? Box designers are typically not "full service" in that respect. Here
are two examples of instruction manuals that I need:

a) High gloss, multi-page booklet.
[https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0123/9252/files/Ambassador...](https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0123/9252/files/AmbassadorV4_Instruction_Manual.pdf?1118)
b) Single folded piece of paper:
[http://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0123/9252/files/instruction...](http://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0123/9252/files/instructions_Saboteur-
Tank.jpg?1117)

2\. Foam inserts. Offer me paper inserts to hold my product or cut EVA foam.

As a small business owner you need _full service_ to make your offer
attractive. Foam cutting may be more difficult but please let customers print
small instruction manuals on paper or folded booklets at reasonable prices.

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veb
> We assumed there would be a Teespring for packaging. But there wasn’t, so we
> decided to go ahead and do it.

Have you folks seen the bags that Teespring ships with? All cool branded logos
and such on them. Do you imagine that you'll be offering something like this?
To me, it seems by selling branded courier bags like that would mean people
purchase in bulk from you and can be used for more rather than just focusing
on boxes. (I imagine there'd be a whole lot less overhead and such. But I'm no
expert!)

They also ship air fresher stuff in their bags. I imagine that would be a
pretty neat thing to have with your service!

Best of luck. I'll be keeping an eye on this one.

EDIT: Have you guys seen this?
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLDA2miW7gg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLDA2miW7gg)
I've got a few friends that sell their music on vinyl, and they would
literally go crazy and throw money at you if they could get something like in
that video, but branded etc. (sorry if these suggestions have been put into
the idea bin already!)

~~~
Skrypt
We love Teespring's bags.

We're trying to find a good way to make these available to customize at low
volume.

~~~
veb
Can't wait to see!

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marinabercea
A few observations:

\- from your configurator, it's not 100% clear where each bit of info from the
Text form goes on the box and if they're optional or not

\- the sample boxes on your site appear to show a mark only logo, no text
(judging from its side placement on LaunchBox and Mini boxes). in this
particular case, it makes sense that a Brand/Company/Product name at the very
least would have to be additionally printed.

1) What happens when a user insists on printing a more complex logo containing
both a mark and text typeset in their preferred typeface?

\- It is enough to just upload a flattened vectorised file and simply leave
the Brand Name and/or Tagline field(s) empty?

2) What file types do you accept for the logo?

~~~
Skrypt
1) We handle this offline with the customer. The prototype 3D/2D editors we're
developing right now should make it a lot easier in the future.

2) ai, eps, svg, png, jpg, pdf... anything really. But preferably vector
graphics (will give best print resolution)

~~~
kenrikm
Awesome service and dead simple to use. I got 10 boxes made in no time at all.
:-)

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bnzelener
This is awesome. I was planning on doing custom boxes for us someday, but I
put it off because of the headache of dealing with existing companies in the
industry. Excited to use Pakible, and to be able to test out different designs
without sending a freaking fax (or 20 emails).

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skizm
Dang, this is perfect, but none of your box sizes fit what I'm shipping. Any
plans to add more size options?

~~~
aaronbrethorst
+1. I need to be able to ship 20x20" matted prints (so, big but relatively
flat), and finding a safe and easy means to ship these prints sucks.

Incidentally, I'd _love_ to be able to ship a bunch of product off to Level
and have them frame and drop-ship my prints (hint, hint!)

~~~
pakhzar
Additionally, we did product packaging for Level, custom. For now, if you need
1,000+ units we can do custom!

~~~
aaronbrethorst
Unfortunately, I'm not quite at the point of shipping off 1,000+ hand printed
and toned silver gelatin prints, but someday, I hope :)

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imaginenore
I would create 3D WebGL animations for every box type, updated in real time.

~~~
Skrypt
agreed. we have a prototype of that feature using three.js to give you a 3D
look at your packaging.

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CamperBob2
What about customizations like foam or polystyrene inserts? Is the design
process just limited to the box itself?

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antonioevans
Wish there was samples or at least an example creator so I can see what our
branded box would look like.

~~~
Skrypt
Working on adding that shortly. In the meantime we do email you a proof of
your design before we send it for print

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Moter8
The site's design is not terrible, it is quite unique and therefore
interesting. But I still gotta say that the elements on the main page are too
drawn out: [https://i.imgur.com/Xvs0F80.png](https://i.imgur.com/Xvs0F80.png)

Also, kinda nitpicky but still, while the page is loading it looks like this
which is quite ugly:
[https://i.imgur.com/dIBdD5g.png](https://i.imgur.com/dIBdD5g.png)

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kazinator
When this business name was chosen, did that process actually involve the
firing of a synapse in someone's cerebral cortex?

People are going to be put off by a by what looks like a portmanteau of "Paki"
and some word ending in "ble".

Large numbers of people, I suspect.

Gee, let's make up a venture name by adding a common suffix to an ethnic slur!

~~~
pm
Paki, an ethnic slur? I would've thought it was short for Pakistani.

~~~
kazinator
Maybe this will help you:

[http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Paki](http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Paki)

Starting with the very first sentence under "Usage notes".

In summary, a strict prefix of some place name or nationality is not
automatically a harmless contraction. For instance, "Jap" is not a word which
has exactly the same nuance as "person of Japanese descent".

~~~
pm
Fair enough, but it's not a US-centric thing (which is the bulk of YC
companies), so I highly doubt that "fired a synapse" for the founders when
they came up with the name.

When the Pakistan cricket team tours down here in Australia, they're
colloquially referred to as "the Pakis", but that's because we colloquialise
EVERYTHING, and has nothing to do with slurring anybody.

