Tag Archives: outdoor gear

Alpine Hammock Press Release for Outdoor Gear Media

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Contact: Mike Brown                                                FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Cell Phone: 207-619-0592

Email: AlpineHammock@gmail.com

Twitter: @AlpineHammock

Alpine Hammocks – Redefining Fast and Light Outdoor Travel

Two young engineers from Boston bring their “alpine-style” project to Kickstarter

The Alpine Hammock is a weatherproof one-man shelter that can be used in the outdoors both as a traditional hammock as well as a bivy sack.  This patent-pending design is the creation of two young engineering graduates from Tufts University, Mike Brown and Ryan Stolp. “We have both hiked and climbed with hammocks, bivy sacks, and one-man tents but we were dissatisfied with the tradeoffs that we had to make between the available options on the market,” says Brown.  So one day they decided that there had to be a better solution for fast and light traveling in the mountains.  This led to the creation of the Alpine Hammock.

After several rounds of prototyping, they have created sleek and functional prototypes out of waterproof materials and have tested them in both the Rocky Mountains of Colorado and the White Mountains of New Hampshire.   It’s a project they’re very excited about.  However, “As recent college graduates, our student loans limit our ability to fund the project ourselves,” says Stolp.  Therefore, Ryan and Mike have taken their idea to Kickstarter.com in an attempt to raise $40,000 in 30 days.

While the Alpine Hammock incorporates design components from both the hammock and bivy sack, it is a significantly more versatile product than either option.  “We pulled the powerful features of both systems, and combined them in a way that preserves the functionality and integrity of both the hammock and bivy experience, in a single, lightweight and capable product,” says Stolp. It can be used up in the trees as a traditional nylon hammock and in the event of poor weather, the built-in bug net and waterproof-breathable rain fly can be zipped up for protection from the elements.  This self-contained, compact design makes the set-up and tear-down fast and easy because there’s no need for additional rain tarps and multiple tie-out points as is common with most backpacking hammocks.  When traveling in areas above the tree-line or without trees in general, the Alpine Hammock can simply be used on the ground as a traditional free-standing bivy sack.

Kickstarter campaigns operate under an “all-or-nothing” funding model so if the Alpine Hammock project doesn’t reach it’s goal at the end of 30 days then it might be years before you’ll see it on the market. To follow their project, be sure to find them on Twitter (@AlpineHammock) and Facebook and spread the word to your social media networks.  Consider donating as little as $1 to help their project come to life.  If you decide to donate more, you might be among the first in the world to travel in the mountains with an Alpine Hammock.

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If you’d like more information about the Alpine Hammock Project, or if you’d like to schedule an interview with Mike or Ryan please email AlpineHammock@gmail.com or send them a tweet @AlpineHammock.

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Mike Brown studied Biomedical Engineering (B.S.) and Engineering Management (M.S.) at Tufts University and currently works as a Mechanical Engineer in greater Boston.  He is a Tufts Business Plan winner, a MassChallenge Alumni, and a recipient of entrepreneurial scholarships.  Ryan Stolp studied Engineering Psychology (B.S.) at Tufts University is currently working with the forest service.  He has designed and built multiple backpacks specific to both rock and ice climbing.  Both engineers were avid members of the Tufts Mountain Club and belong to a Boston-based climbing group called VICE: Vertical Ice Climbing Enthusiasts.  Their technical design skills, entrepreneurial savvy, and experience in the mountains makes them a great pair to tackle the challenge of bringing the Alpine Hammock into the world.

The Alpine Hammock on day 5 of backpacking from Purgatory Flats through the Vallecito Trail in Colorado

The Alpine Hammock in bivy sack mode near Columbine Lake in the Weminuche Wilderness of Colorado.

Making a Killer Kickstarter Video – Tips from the Blogosphere

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Perhaps the most crucial element to a successful Kickstarter campaign is the video.  It’s often the first, last, and only thing that people will see when they visit your project page.  From the Kickstarter website they give statistics that say “Projects with videos succeed at a much higher rate than those without videos (50% to 30% comparatively).”  So it seems fairly obvious that simply having a video is a decent step toward success.  How “good” the video is is a totally different issue.

Kickstarter goes on to say that the video doesn’t have to be perfect but it does have to be you.  While this is encouraging to someone like myself who has literally zero movie-making experience, I still take it with a grain of salt.  I’m sure there’s a correlation between high quality videos vs low quality videos in terms of successful funding.  A low quality video might show me that the project’s creator doesn’t have their act together so why should I give them any money?  A high quality video will engage the community, inspire confidence in potential donors, and likely lead to a larger social media reach.

To start things off I wanted to find some failed Kickstarter Campaigns and look at their videos.  I definitely found more than a few videos that rambled on and on without really getting to the point, even after 5+ minutes of talking.  People on the internet have zero attention span so if you can’t hook them in under 30 seconds then they lose interest.  I lost interest but only continued to watch for educational reasons.  Here’s an example of a particularly poor Kickstarter video (in my opinion of course).

The project’s creator seems to mumble and spends a lot of time talking about how awesome he is versus helping me understand why his project is game-changing.  Better yet, he never convinced me that he needed my money so I’m fairly unlikely to donate to his project.  He only reached $17k out of his $55k goal

Moving on to more positive examples, the Kickstarter website gives guidelines on what your video should cover:

  • Tell us who you are.
  • Making personal connections is key.  Put yourself in front of the camera so that people see who you are. They often invest in the person as much as the project.
  • Keep it personal.
  • Tell us the story behind your project.  Where’d you get the idea?  What stage is it at now?  How are you feeling about it?
  • Show examples of your work.
  • Come out and ask for people’s support, explaining why you need it and what you’ll do with their money.
  • Talk about how awesome your rewards are, using any images you can.  Explain that if you don’t reach your goal, you’ll get nothing, and everyone will be sad.
  • Don’t use music, video, images that you don’t have the rights to.  This might lead to expensive lawsuits down the road.
  • Thank everyone.
Sticking with my theme of outdoor-esque gear I found a lot of really well done videos.  The Capture Camera Clip System was one of my favorites, it’s a clip designed to hold your SLR camera on your belt, backpack, bike, etc.  Having experienced these troubles before I could identify with the project’s creator.

He did a great job at explaining the problem, why his solution is better, what stage his project is at, and why he needs Kickstarter funds to be successful.  As a result he raised 3646% more funds than he originally asked for $10k and ended up with $364k.

The advice from the Kickstarter website is all well and good but I wanted to dig a little deeper and get a 3rd party’s perspective on what makes a successful Kickstarter video versus an unsuccessful one.  There are hundreds of blog posts on Kickstarter campaigns so it wasn’t hard to find advice throughout the blogosphere.

Tips from the Blogosphere:

  • IT’S ALL ABOUT THE VIDEO
  • In the first few minutes people had made the decision of whether or not they wanted to buy the product.  The first 20 seconds must be pure punch.
  • Most people don’t read the text on the page, they only look at the video.  If your video REALLY interests people they might consider reading your long explanation below, but according to the Kickstarter project page stats, this is unlikely.
  • The video is your elevator pitch so it should be short, punchy, to the point, and game-changing.
  • In the first minute show them they have a problem, why everything else sucks, and why your product is changing the game (i.e. they need to want to buy it)
  • 3 minutes is on the long end
  • Don’t leave a shot on for more than 10 seconds, people on the internet have zero attention span
  • Know Thy Audience – what is important to your target viewers?  Is your viewer getting out of your project? Why should they cough up $X to help make our dreams a reality? What makes the project as a whole worth funding?
  • Sell Yourself – why are you the right person to receive this funding? Show that you are capable of achieving your goals.
  • Be Genuine – it’s easy to see through the sales pitch.  Set realistic expectations and explain why you’re doing Kickstarter as opposed to a traditional funder (relative, angel, VC).
  • Demonstrate the prototype in the video
  • Introduce your Team
  • Recording – DO NOT READ A SCRIPT.  Write down bullet points and then give your spiel in front of the camera.  Do this five more times and you’ll see yourself getting more comfortable.  There’s nothing less inspiring than watching someone read a script.  If they can’t easily explain their project without cue cards, do they really know enough to launch a successful project?
  • Editing – when you think you’re done, take a break, then come back and cut out 25% of the video.

So what I learned from this research was that my video, while it doesn’t need to be of professional quality, it is very important to the success of my project.  It should be less than 3 minutes but more importantly is the the content within the first 20 seconds.  When someone goes to my project’s site and presses play, will they want to continue to watch after the first 20 seconds?  I plan to use the above points as a check list when I’m creating my video.  I’ll be sure to post my first draft for review so please give me your comments once it’s posted.

I gleaned some of the above information from friends who have had successful Kickstarter campaigns as well as some who are frequent (almost religious) backers.  Here are a few of the websites that have helped me out:

http://wooshii.com/blog/2011/12/how-to-make-a-good-kickstarter-video/

http://www.lockergnome.com/news/2012/04/17/tips-for-making-a-better-kickstarter-project-video/

http://www.good.is/post/the-6-variables-behind-a-kick-ass-kickstarter-project/

http://www.kickstarter.com/blog/2011-the-videos

https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/mydeveloperworks/blogs/782c981b-356f-4bd8-b494-da4da4899e70/entry/kickstarter_best_practices_for_getting_the_crowdsourced_startup_seed_money_you_need29?lang=en

$30,000 in 30 Days – Launch a Kickstarter Campaign for my Alpine Hammock

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For those of you who are unfamiliar with Kickstarter, it’s an online funding platform for creative projects.  More specifically, you can post a project on this website for 1-60 days and people from all over the world can pledge money to your project.

My good friend Paul from college recently raised $153,585 with his Ramos Alarm Clock so I'll use his project page as an example throughout this post.

Kickstarter is an all-or-nothing funding program so if you successfully reach your fundraising goal ($75k in the example above) before the project’s duration is over (a self selected1-60days) then your donors’ pledge amount is debited from their accounts and you get the money ($153k in the example above, wow!).  If you don’t reach your funding goal then you receive $0 (go home empty handed) and your potential donors didn’t lose any money in the process.  In this way, money isn’t being given to projects that 1.) aren’t popular/doable/well-thought-out ideas and 2.) don’t have enough funding to have every possible chance of success (i.e. you wouldn’t want to underfund projects).  So it’s a great, global way to crowd-source money for your project versus trying to find a rich relative or any other single investor to give you cash.  People can get anywhere from 100 to 1000′s of donors who little by little do their part to help the project get off the ground.

This seems like a perfect scenario for the inventor, however, nothing in life comes without a price.  The inventor/entrepreneur must set up a rewards structure for varying funding levels.  Typically  the lowest tiers of funding would get a social media shoutout/thanks, medium tiers of funding get the product itself, and the highest tiers of funding get the shoutout, the product, and something even more awesome.  Therefore, each kickstarter project has  built-in incentives to encourage people to pledge money (the higher the funding level the more awesome the reward).  Here’s an example from my friend Paul’s campaign:

and so on…

I’ve heard it said that, “There’s no such thing as altruism, only mutual self-interest.”   From what I’ve read and seen online I think there’s a decent amount of altruism on Kickstarter (people with money to spend want to see you and your project succeed and don’t want/need anything in return) but at the end of the day, people donate because they like and want to own part or all of your project (alarm clock in the example above).  It’s a win-win from both parties because the inventor gets access to money they wouldn’t otherwise have and the donor gets a cool product in return. 

In addition to your project description and your reward structures there’s also the video.  The video is often the first and only thing people will look at when they visit your project’s page.  Therefore, this is your elevator pitch where you must briefly describe what problem you’re solving, why your project is better than the competition, and why Kickstarter funds will be crucial to your success.  Here is Paul’s video for his Ramos Alarm Clock product:

Now, for the meat and potatoes of this post: What is my project?

Over the past year, a few friends and I have developed a concept that’s been brewing in my head for a few years now.  I’d been looking for a lightweight, one-man shelter which could help me finish my 48, 4000 footers in the White Mountains of New Hampshire.  I bought a one-man tent but that was bulky and heavier than I wanted it to be (poles, separate rainfly, etc).  Then I bought a bivy which was bombproof weather-wise but pretty uncomfortable.  Lastly I bought a hammock which was super comfortable but it required buying (and carrying) additional stuff sacks for bug netting, rainflies, and ropes which became expensive and heavier than my 1-man tent.  This lead me to start developing an Alpine-Style Hammock (thanks goes to Stolp, Sarah, Colette, and Katarina for all the help).

The Alpine Hammock - finally a fast, light, weatherproof and comfortable one-man alpine shelter. (photo courtesy of Sarah, Vallecito Trail, Weminuche Wilderness, Colorado)

Hammock tents certainly exist on the market but they are bulky, time consuming to set up, expensive ($300-$550!!), and as a result I’ve never heard of any serious alpinist using one.  I’ll go into more detail in a future blog post but essentially the Alpine Hammock is a one-man shelter that can be used as a weatherproof hammock below treeline and as a weatherproof bivy-sack while above treeline, thus the term “Alpine”.  Through personal use I’ve found this prototype to be lighter, faster, and simpler than other options on the market. It’s also the first product I’ve seen that offers the hammock and bivy options that I’d be willing to take with me on a serious alpine ascent (significant time above treeline, high altitude, poor weather conditions, etc).

It is my goal by the end of this month to launch a Kickstarter campaign with this project.  Ultimately this Kickstarter campaign will last longer than 30 days but I’m using the construct of my “30 Day Lifestyle Experiments” blog as a forum for doing my research on how to launch an effective Kickstarter Campaign.  I’ve wanted to do a Kickstarter campaign for this project for a while.  Now I’m finally under the gun to manufacture prototypes and file my full utility patent.  I filed a provisional patent last October so I’m on the hook for writing the patent, working with Lawyers and submitting it by the end of October 2012 (short timeframe, yikes!).

I hope that those who read my blog will contribute to my research with their constructive criticisms.  If something doesn’t make sense, tell me.  If you’d like to see a particular reward in my incentive scheme please let me know.  If you know anybody with $30k burning a hole in their pocket, please email me :) (theyoungurbanunprofessional@gmail.com).  It’s all in an attempt to help make my project as successful as it can be.

In each post this month I’ll include research on successful and not-so-successful campaigns that have occurred in the past.  Kickstarter is something that I’ve been following since it started so I’d say I’m very familiar with it.  However, I know that a few weeks of intensive Kickstarter research will definitely help lead to a successfully funded project.  I think the Alpine Hammock is an extremely versatile piece of outdoor gear, I just need to effectively articulate its significance to the Kickstarter community to obtain the funding I need to move this project forward.

Wish me luck!

The Alpine Hammock in use above treeline at Columbine Lake (~12,000 feet) in the Weminuche Wilderness in Colorado.

 

The Final Count of November’s 30-Day 100 Item Challenge

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Today I reached my goal of 100 items after spending 30 days getting rid of 45% of my belongings.  It was a pretty aggressive timeline and I’m really surprised that I was able to actually reach 100.  The hardest part of this challenge was definitely the timeframe.  I was able to rationalize a lot of my belongings and why I had them and what they meant to me but the major obstacle was how could I possibly get down to 100 items in 30 days while still having a life?  The answer was: give things to friends/family or donate as much as you can as fast as you can, it was like pulling off a Band-Aid. I purged at first by category: clothing, sports clothing, sports gear, books, electronics, etc.  Then I purged en masse, taking a look at all my belongings and figuring out what was really important.  The easiest items to give away were pieces of clothing (not emotionally tied to what I wear).  The hardest things to get rid of was my ukulele and harmonica, neither of which I have played more than a few times in the past year (however both of which I am emotionally tied to for various reasons).  I am still trying to sell my ukulele because I want it to go to a nice home where it will be loved and if that takes more than 30 days then so be it J

I spent the entire month coming to terms with the fact that the number 100 was pretty arbitrary and gimmicky.  Why 100 items?  Why 1 month?  I decided to do this challenge because since I left home 6 years ago, this is the first year that I’ve stayed in the same place for more than 12 months.  Moving so often during college requires you to be nimble, agile, and minimal with what you own.  I could usually manage one car-load of stuff to move from one place to the next.  Now being almost two years out of college with disposable income and staying in the same apartment for a second year I saw myself accumulating lots of stuff. “This is how it starts, I’m settling down.  Next I’ll get old, stop adventuring, and spend my weekends at home depot trying to remodel the bathroom .”  That’s an exaggeration but I’ve been interested in a major purging project for a while.  I basically picked the number 100 because I had read about it on the internet (hundreds of blogs online talk about doing their own 100 item challenges).  I never expected that I’d actually get to that number.  However, after making my final count of all the items that I own, I can safely say that I use (with high frequency) EVERYTHING that I own.

Now this challenge wasn’t without the caveats.  I stated these at the beginning of my challenge and stuck to them.  The point of doing these 30-day challenges is to improve the quality of my daily life, mostly by getting myself out of the daily grind and attitudes associated with being a young urban professional.  Therefore, I decided that this challenge shouldn’t impact:

1.)   Hygiene because that sucks for everyone, not just me.  Knowing myself as well as I do, I’d likely pitch my deodorant or toothbrush in order to keep my snowshoes.  This is exaggerated of course (or is it?) but it’s not a choice my friends/girlfriend/family/coworkers would want me to make.  So I didn’t count soap, toothbrush, deodorant, and the like, mostly for the sake of others (and for things like my dentist bill).

2.)   Safety because this challenge isn’t worth putting my life in danger.  I do a lot of recreational sports, so I didn’t even give myself the option of getting rid of safety gear.  I’ve had a few serious concussions so I don’t even mess around with that anymore, wear a helmet, always.  For example, I left out my helmets for biking/hockey/climbing and medical kit for hiking.  I also considered my trail maps a safety item.  One could surely hike in NH without a map, but that’s pretty dumb so I didn’t even consider it as an option.

3.)   Other People because this challenge was my idea and wasn’t meant in any way to negatively affect those around me.  Therefore there were a few items that I share with my roommates that I didn’t count because getting rid of them would have resulted in getting beat up, harassed, or unofficially evicted.  For example, we share my bike pump (without it we wouldn’t have one), some tools for around the apt (again I have some unique tools), a couch (can’t really get rid of that), kitchenware (I’m not even sure what’s actually mine anymore), and the worm compost (that I built in my first month’s challenge but share with my roommates).

I didn’t count food as an item because it’s always in flux, never really existing as an item in my life for very long (except for those few things in the fridge you forget about for 2 months, yikes).  So the above three caveats would definitely drive me above the arbitrary 100 item limit, but at the beginning I decided that it was in my best interest (as well as those around me) that I stick to them.  Therefore my 100 items listed below are the items that I personally own, personally use, and would personally carry with me if I were to pick up and move or travel.

Here’s the list of my final 100 items:

Socks – Cotton

Socks – Wool

Underwear – Cotton

Underwear – Techwick

Pants – Blue Jeans

Pants – Khaki

Pants – Corduroy

Belt – Black

Belt – Brown

Shorts – Khaki Cargo

Shorts – Jorts

Tshirt – Dysarts

Tshirt – Spartan Beast

Tshirt – Chamonix

Tshirt – VICE Fest

Tshirt – College Baseball

Longsleeve – Blue

Polo – Blue

Button Down – Blue/Black

Button Down – Green Flannel

Button Down – REI

Button Down – White/Brown

Button Down – Red/White

Button Down – Blue/White

Button Down – Black

Blazer – Brown

Suit – Grey

Dress Shoes – Brown

Sneakers – LL Bean

Sandals

Hiking Boots – LL Bean

Running Shoes

Running Shorts

Running Shorts

Tech Shirt – Ragnar 2010

Tech Shirt – Ragnar 2011

Tech Base Layer Upper

Tech Base Layer Lower

Expedition Base Layer Upper

Expedition Base Layer Lower

Shell Pants

Tech Baseball Hat

Micro Fleece 1/4 Zip

Rain Jacket

Marmot 3-in-1 Winter Jacket

Polyester Liner Gloves

Goretex Winter Gloves

Mountaineering Boots

Gaiters

Crampons

Microspikes

Snowshoes

Osprey Backpack – 24Liters

Osprey Backpack – 40Liters

Osprey Backpack – 70Liters

Backpack Cover – 40Liters

Ski Pulk (haul sled)

Sunglasses – Athletic

Sunglasses – Aviators

Messenger Bag

Sleeping Bag – 0F

Sleeping Bag – 35F

Sleeping Bag Liner – +20F

Expedition Down Parka

Winter Hat – Fleece

Winter Hat – Expedition

Nalgene

Insulated Thermos

Camelback – 3Liters

Rock Climbing Shoes

Rock Climbing Harness

Head Lamp

Camping Bowl

Camping Stove

Knife

Hobo Tool

Sleeping Pad

3-Season Tent

Trekking Poles

Hammock

Baseball Glove

Hockey Skates

Hockey Gloves

Hockey Stick (and puck)

Bike Shorts

Road Bike – Beater

Road Bike – Racer

iPod Touch

Waterproof Camera

Smartphone

MacBook

External Hardrive

Electric Guitar

Tube Amplifier

Acoustic Guitar

Acoustic Guitar Lamp

Reference Books

Bed/Bedframe/Pillow/Blanket

Wallet

Watch

I found that 14/100 of my items are strictly used for winter (crampons, puffy jacket, etc) so for 8-ish months out of the year I have only 86 items.  I also found that 57/100 of my items are related to sports/outdoor activities.  Therefore, when taking out sports stuff, I’d own only 43 items.  Through this challenge it became evident that I was largely unwilling to give up on my outdoor life thus reaffirming its importance in my life.  I have 31 items of regular clothing, 50 items of outdoor adventuring stuff, 7 items of strictly sporting goods, 5 electronic items, 4 musical items, and 3 in the “other” category.

It was a pretty intense challenge trying to juggle all of the baggage that goes along with owning “stuff”. My emotions, the emotions of others, having to be practical, trying to stay comfortable and many other factors were very real and very hard to deal with.  All in all I’m glad I did the challenge and I feel like I have more clarity on what “things” are important in my life.  Generally, these “things” give me mobility and the ability to adventure.  I think from now on I’ll do something like this once a year where I take an inventory of everything I own just to make sure that things aren’t getting out of hand.  The last thing I want to do is to let the things I own hold me back from seeing what’s really important.