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It's no longer uncommon to see bags and even jackets with pockets for gadgets, but French WTFjeans are the first pants we've seen designed specifically with technology geeks in mind. iPods, iPhones, USB sticks and more can all be accommodated in these high-tech jeans, which feature “Twitter bloo” stitching and microfiber lining for extra gadget protection. Along with the mobile-device compartments, there's a special USB stick pocket on the front of the pants, which are sold in men's sizes. There's also “extra protection” padding along the crotch sides. Finally, just as interesting is that WTF plans to make only 1,000 pairs and it's conducting all its promotion through online social media. Launched earlier this month, the “beta version” of the pants, comprising 100 pairs priced at EUR 59 each, has already sold out, and will ship April 1. The rest of us can now get WTFjeans for EUR 79 on orders placed before Aug. 1; 400 pairs will be sold that way and shipped in early September. Thereafter, the final 500 pairs will sell for EUR 109 each. Consumers may live much of their lives online, but in the real world, they still need pants—both figuratively and literally. Still plenty of opportunity out there for gadget-enabled, OFF=ON clothing! (Related: Chic camera bags for style-conscious photographers — Design your own jeans, custom-made for $145 — Limited-edition jeans for summer music festival.) Website: www.wtfjeans.com Spotted by: Jenny Lau |
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Much the way Urban Gentry and Insider London offer specialized urban tours catering to people with particular interests, so Photours offers lengthier trips designed specifically for budding photographers. Founded by two professional photographers who were tired of tours that took them to wonderful places but hurried them through the sights, London-based Photours offers specialist photography holidays designed to provide inspiring views and personalized education every step of the way. Spain, Italy, Greece, Iceland and the U.K. are currently the focus of Photours' trips,which vary in length from half-day sojourns to two-week treks. A thematic approach is used to guide participants through the subtleties of photographing within a particular context, such as taking night shots or capturing architecture and landscapes, and nightly critiques are provided at the end of each day. Photours also gives each participant a detailed workbook filled with full details of the themes used on their trip. Pricing varies with the length of the trip and the travel involved. With travel options so numerous today, offering a customized experience with the added value of specialized education makes good sense. You can't be all things to all people, after all—might as well pick one group and go all the way to please them. It's also not hard to imagine a company like Canon—which already offers workshops in national parks—sponsoring something similar, or creating a branded travel business on the side. Care to pick a specialist niche of your own...? (Related: Louis Vuitton's walking tours of Beijing, Hong Kong & Shanghai; Sightseeing on the run.) Website: www.photours.org Spotted by: Petz Scholtus |
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The delay in getting goods from production table to retail shelves is a frustrating hurdle for consumers with an ever-increasing lust for instant gratification. Doing their part to help tech-obsessed consumers be the first to get their hands on the latest electronic gadgets, Preorder.It is a new website based out of Saint Petersburg that allows customers to preorder the latest devices in advance, before official sale starts. Consumers can browse through company press releases or search products by brand or category to locate whatever soon-to-be released device they want, and register their interest with the merchant. Merchants then peruse the unbinding preorders left by customers and send them offers. Preorder.It sends a notification email the moment a device of interest is available for purchase, giving site users early access to online bargains. Opportunities abound for entrepreneurs who can bring the future even closer for nowism-driven consumers. What can your brand do to set your "I want it now" customers ahead of the rest? (Related: Real estate 3.0: selling houses that aren’t for sale.) Website: www.preorder.it Spotted by: Cecilia Biemann
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Office paper may be virgin or recycled, but when it comes right down to it, most of it is still made from wood. Aiming to spare the tens of millions of trees felled each year for paper in Australia alone, Nature's Paper offers an alternative that uses leftover wheat straw instead. When wheat is harvested, it's typically just the grain that gets used for products such as flour and cereal. Left behind, however, are waste hull and wheat straw, which typically gets left in the fields to decompose. That's where Nature's Paper comes in. The company collects the leftover wheat straw and converts it into a paper pulp. The leftover waste hull, meanwhile, is used to produce an organic biofuel that not only helps power the company's plant but also heats the self-collected and repeatedly recycled water that's used to clean the paper. The whitening process is both sustainable and chlorine-free, using sodium salt and oxygenization instead. High-quality, wood-free A4-A3 copy paper is the result, and Nature's Paper even converts the waste from its own production process into cardboard boxes to hold the paper. Nature's Paper looks, feels and performs just like standard copy paper, and it's priced comparably as well, the company says. It's sold through a variety of retailers within Australia; within the United States, it's distributed by Enviro Green. One to help bring to your part of the world...? (Related: White lines make paper stand out.) Website: www.naturespaper.com.au Spotted by: Dustin C. |
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Joining the customer made revolution, Toronto-based bike tour company, Tour D'Afrique has set up a division called DreamTours which invites consumers to pitch their dream cycling tour concept and engage with fellow cyclists to bring the trip to fruition. Currently in beta, DreamTours allows cycling enthusiasts to design a tour and post it on the website for others to comment on, make suggestions to improve upon it, and register their interest in joining the tour. Creators name the tour, upload destination photographs, outline trip highlights, plot the route on a map, and set the cost parameters of the tour by choosing variables such as accommodation, number of riders, food, crew and vehicle support. Interactive, collaborative development processes such as this empower consumers to create the products and experiences they most desire. We have seen similar models applied across a variety of industries and no doubt there will be more to come. Time to tap into your customers' wealth of knowledge and cash in on fulfilling their deepest desires? (Related: Trip planner lets customers create their own tours.) Website: www.tourdafrique.com/dreamtours Spotted by: Theresa Brown |
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Just when we thought the cupcake craze was beginning to wind down, a New York City bakery has come up with a new twist that looks set to revive it: cupcakes for men. A far cry from the pink and fluffy affairs that are typically embellished with sprinkles and flowers, Butch Bakery's cupcakes aim to be the place where "butch meets buttercream". But they don't go for the stereotypical "golf" or "baseball" themes, either. Rather, Butch Bakery's cupcakes are specially crafted confections designed specifically for a man's palate. The Rum & Coke version, for instance, features rum-soaked Madagascar vanilla cake with cola Bavarian cream. The Beer Run, on the other hand, is a chocolate beer cake with beer-infused buttercream topped with crushed pretzels. Then there's the Jackhammer, featuring chocolate cake with chocolate hazelnut filling and hazelnut buttercream. Available designs, meanwhile, include woodland camo, wood grain, houndstooth, plaid, checkerboard and marble. Cupcakes are available in sampler boxes of 4, 6 or 12 cupcakes, priced at USD 4 per cupcake. Due to huge demand, there's currently a wait of about two weeks while the company ramps up its production capabilities. Delivery is now available only within Manhattan, Queens and Brooklyn, but Butch Bakery hopes to begin delivering nationwide this year. One to partner with or emulate for the hordes of macho but sweet-toothed guys near you...? (Related: Playground for men features heavy equipment — A man's kitchen.) Website: www.butchbakery.com Spotted by: Jim Stewart |
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The edupunk movement recently moved up a notch with the entrance of the world's first global tuition-free online university. University of the People (UoPeople) is a non-profit venture—supported by the United Nations—that embraces the worldwide reach of the internet and dropping technology costs to bring higher education to people who would not otherwise have access to it. UoPeople founder Shai Reshef explains: "The idea is to reach the hundreds of millions of people worldwide who graduate high school, have all the ability and the right to study in an academic institution, but cannot do it either because they don't have the money or because there aren't enough institutions." Launched in September 2009 and now in its third term, UoPeople has received 3,000 applications and admitted 380 students from more than 70 countries, including Afghanistan, Thailand, Sudan and Zambia. At this stage, UoPeople students can pursue unaccredited studies in either business or computer science. The California-registered institution is in the process of applying for accreditation in the United States. Employing a small group of paid staff, UoPeople's educational model has an emphasis on peer-to-peer learning with guidance from more than 800 volunteer scholars who participate as instructors. Relying on free learning materials from open courseware projects, the model includes classes, discussions, readings, assignments and exams. Website: www.uopeople.org Spotted by: Gergana Stoeva |
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Just as EUclaim and Miss Refund help travellers claim refunds that are owed to them, so Tube Refund helps consumers get compensated for the 40 or so delays that occur each week on the London Underground. Each time a train is delayed by more than 15 minutes, riders are entitled to a full refund of a single-journey fare. Many underground commuters aren't aware of that fact, or don't want to go to the trouble of submitting a claim, which is why LB Media created a Tube Refund application for the iPhone. Priced at GBP 0.59, the app can be used to register where and when a delay occurred and how long it lasted. Tube Refund then submits that information to the London Underground website, which generates a refund voucher for the user. Tube Refund currently supports only Oyster and Travelcards, but National Rail tickets will be included soon; so, for that matter, will Blackberry support. What consumer pain points or little-known regulations could you turn into a profitable app of your own...? Website: www.tubeticketrefund.co.uk |
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OK, so it might seem like the design-your-own customization trend has come to just about every product category under the sun, but there was one we hadn't yet seen—until recently. Specifically, Canadian RedMoon Custom Pet Food lets its customers design the food they buy for their cats and dogs. Inspired by the recent rash of pet food recalls and the increasing incidence of food allergies in pets, RedMoon offers fully customizable dry pet food based on a variety of meats, produce and supplements. All RedMoon products are free of grain, gluten, soy, rice, wheat and corn. Dog owners begin by choosing a base formula—high-protein chicken and yellow pea medley, for instance—and indicating the activity level of their dog. They then select the size of kibble they'd like, along with how big a bag. A variety of supplements are available to be added—antioxidant immune booster, for example—and then the order is done. Cat owners have similar options, starting with a base food made from salmon. Either way, pricing starts at USD 8.99 for a 2.5-lb. trial-size bag, shipping included. There's no doubt consumers like to have it their own way, and it seems a safe bet that their pets do too. Unfortunately, RedMoon ships only within Canada and the continental United States. One to partner with or emulate for the four-legged consumers in your part of the world...? ;-) (Related: Eco-habitats for cats that can be decorated by kids.) Website: www.redmoonpetfood.com Spotted by: Anita Windisman |
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Now that sites like Facebook and Twitter have become a major part of many consumers' lives, there's a growing need to bridge the online and offline worlds, as we've noted before. Efforts like HotPrints, News from YOUs and Kodak's new kiosk capabilities all get at that to some extent, and recently we came across two more interesting examples: Famebook and TweetNotebook, both of which embellish custom notebooks with select online content. With Famebook, Facebook users can create a unique notebook featuring a post from their Facebook feed at the bottom of each page. By connecting to Facebook from the Famebook site, users allow Famebook to access their status updates. If there are fewer than 320 available, Famebook will duplicate some to fill the pages; if there are more, it makes a random selection. Either way, the result is a mostly-blank notebook with one timestamped update on the bottom of each page. Pricing is EUR 18 for a 200-page hardcover notebook or EUR 14 for the 320-page paperback version. Users can choose their own cover post and design. TweetNotebook, meanwhile, does much the same thing but featuring the user's Twitter posts instead. Customers simply enter their Twitter name on the site, and it automatically populates each page in a blank 320-page notebook with one randomly selected tweet along with its timestamp and URL. As with Famebook, users can customize the cover post and design; three colour choices are available. Pricing on a TweetNotebook is EUR 12. Both Famebook and TweetNotebook are the creations of Belgian agency Boondoggle. Who will push the OFF=ON integration even further—notepads, t-shirts, laptop skins, bags, anyone...? Website: www.myfamebook.net — www.tweetnotebook.com Spotted by: Murtaza Ali Patel |
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Regular Springwise readers already know that corporate generosity is increasingly the way to the hearts, minds and, yes, wallets of Generation G. We've seen several "buy one, give one" programs toward that end in recent years—ranging from houses to baby clothes—but recently we happened upon a Singapore-based site that enables and supports myriad such efforts at once through what it calls a transaction-based giving engine. Businesses interested in setting up a donation program begin by looking through B1G1's list of almost 700 available projects. They can search by country, region, beneficiary or project category, or they can simply browse through the list; a typical donation contributes a small, set amount—two cents, say—toward a particular cause, such as clean water for the needy, each time a particular product is purchased. At the end of the month, participating companies report to B1G1 how many units they sold of that chosen product, and B1G1 calculates the amount of donation due. Once approved by the business, that donation then gets made in a single click. Business memberships start at USD 395, and there are now participating companies in 14 countries supporting more than 600 projects in 22 countries around the world. More than 19,000 meals have been provided to kids in orphanages and slums as a result, as well as access to clean water for 70,000 people and more, B1G1 says. For the supporting businesses, meanwhile, there's the ability to say, "every time you buy a cup of our coffee, a needy child gets a meal"—or whatever the case may be—and to work that generosity into their own corporate storytelling. Time to make giving a core part of your generosity-minded brand....? (Related: Buy a bottle of wine and donate clean water — Pepsi asks crowds which community projects to fund — For every brand and logo, a species to be saved.) Website: www.b1g1.com |
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That mobile phone charging is a universal nuisance is underscored by all the many efforts we've seen to alleviate the pain, including harnessing the wind, the sun, bicycles, dancers and foot pumps to make it easier. With similar intentions, Finnish Powerkiss has developed an approach that imbues everyday furniture with wireless charging capabilities. Powerkiss's technology consists of two parts: a charging transmitter that gets integrated into furniture, and a charging receiver that gets plugged into the electronic device. To charge a phone, users simply attach the small receiver stick to their phone and place it on the surface of the enabled object. The proximity allows the resonating coils in each of the two parts to work together to charge the phone. Powerkiss's charging packages have already been integrated into a meeting room table and a coffee table from Finnish Martela; the technology is also available for public use in Café Alvar A and the Via Lounge at Helsinki-Vantaa Airport. Though currently limited to mobile phone charging, laptops and other devices will eventually be supported as well, Powerkiss says. Ultimately, Powerkiss hopes cellphone manufacturers will begin enabling their handsets with wireless charging capabilities, which would eliminate the need for the plug-in receiver. Towards that end, it seeks partners in the mobile technology world as well as those in interior architecture, vehicle design and—of course—furniture. Who will be the first on your block to release customers from the charging-cord shackles? Website: www.powerkiss.fi Spotted by: John Greene |
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