Life Lately at GOBAGS
One of the best parts of my day happens before I sit down.
It's the walk into the office each morning. This time of year, the sun finally starts making its way through the windows and lights up the whole room. It's a small thing, but such a great way to start the day.
It's a good picture of the last three months, too. A creative space, good people, and a lot going on at once. Some days it feels like everything is moving a million miles an hour. Mostly, it's exciting, because things we've been working on for a long time are finally coming together.
Here's a little snapshot of what things have looked like lately.
Building the next thing
Most of what we've been doing comes down to one thing: getting ideas off paper and into our hands.
ALASKA. My dad and I took a motorcycle trip to Alaska, and we packed the new GOBAGS packing cubes and Air Bags to put them through it. Three straight weeks of nonstop use.
There weren't many big surprises, and honestly, that was a huge win. We had a lot of gear to fit on two motorcycles, in side bags and external containers. Having everything bundled and organized was a must. The bags made the trip a lot more enjoyable, in a quiet way.
They also taught us something we couldn't have learned at the office. Use a product that hard for that long and every little friction point shows up. We were deciding between a few materials for the packing cubes, and after Alaska the choice got a lot clearer.
THE LASER. Max bought a laser for the office. (If you want the technical bit, it's an OMTech Pronto 45, 100W CO2.)
Until now, we could only make prototypes we either cut out or made by hand. Anything more meant outsourcing it or waiting on a sample from a supplier, which takes weeks. Then we'd make changes, send it back, and wait again.
Now we have that precision right here in the office. We can cut specific materials and shapes, see how parts fit together, and test an idea quickly. It's been a game changer.
THE MATERIALS. We also connected with a new supplier who sent us booklets of really high-quality materials. We'd seen some of these on other bags and products, but could never figure out what they were exactly.
Now we can hold them, test them, and look up exactly what they are, which has made ordering samples much faster. A lot of what's coming uses transparent materials, plus lightweight, durable, weather-resistant ones, so being precise with these decisions has been extremely important.
Our first sponsored triathlon
This Saturday, October 24, Max is racing the Edisto Triathlon. He did it last year, loved it, and had to run it back this year.
This year, GOBAGS is sponsoring it. It's our first sponsored race, and hopefully the first of many.
A triathlon is a lot of gear. Swim, bike, run, and everything that goes with each. It's a lot to organize and keep track of, so we sent a batch of Air Bags to hand out to racers. We hope people use them on race day and can see firsthand how helpful they are in this space.
All the gear we dropped off for the Edisto Triathlon.
Max is already involved in the triathlon space, and a part of this community. We want to get our products into more hands in the triathlon world.
Growing, and still having fun
The last couple of weeks have been a little crazy. Our content has taken off, and we went from about 4,000 followers to just under 12,000.
It's exciting, but it also adds a level of pressure.
We've found it's tempting to get stiff, strive to make things that look "perfect", and lose the honest part of a brand. We don't want that. We're still a small team of people building GOBAGS, and we don't want to lose the personal connection with you for the sake of a bigger number.
So we're trying to keep it real. Make good content, have fun at work, and enjoy the new faces. The Alaska trip, the sponsorship, the content we share: all of it is aimed at the same two things. Helping people live prepared, organized, and ready for whatever life throws at them, and building a community around it. We don't want to lose the human touch in this overly digital age.
If you're new here, welcome. We're a small company with products we're proud of, and we want to get them into your hands.
What's next
We have a lot of new products in the pipeline. We're waiting on samples from our suppliers, and we think they're really close, maybe a couple of weeks away. We've been working on them for the past couple of months, and we're pumped to get them across the finish line. Going from a design on paper to holding a real product is one of the coolest feelings, and we can't wait to see how y'all use them.
If you take one thing from this, please know we love hearing how you use GOBAGS. Your comments and DMs, whether you're traveling abroad or keeping toys from piling up at home, tell us we're making something that matters. That's the biggest win we get, and it keeps us building. Tell us how you're using our stuff, and how we can make it better.
And thank you to everyone who's been here since the beginning. This business started in Max's garage. Watching the community around it grow has been an incredible thing.