{"id":139957,"date":"2019-02-15T01:57:20","date_gmt":"2019-02-15T01:57:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.georgianewsdesk.com\/news\/story\/139957\/the-12-hour-arctic-car-ride-and-aching-neck-that-led-to-a-successful-business-idea-and-a-100000-crowdfunding-campaign.html"},"modified":"2019-02-15T01:57:20","modified_gmt":"2019-02-15T01:57:20","slug":"the-12-hour-arctic-car-ride-and-aching-neck-that-led-to-a-successful-business-idea-and-a-100000-crowdfunding-campaign","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.honolulunewsnow.com\/news\/story\/139957\/the-12-hour-arctic-car-ride-and-aching-neck-that-led-to-a-successful-business-idea-and-a-100000-crowdfunding-campaign.html","title":{"rendered":"The 12 hour Arctic car ride and aching neck that led to a successful business idea and a $100,000 crowdfunding campaign"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Neckpacker is a jacket designed to help solve the physical discomfort that comes with modern travel. It allows you to sleep and rest on the go, and affords you a bit of peace and quiet in hectic travel environments. It has pockets that allow you to take all your travel essentials with you too. <\/div>\n

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The 12 hour car ride that led to a successful $100,000 crowdfunding campaign<\/strong><\/p>\n

Neckpacker<\/a> is a Finnish startup that has developed a custom-made “travel jacket” to improve comfort and privacy for long distance travellers. The jacket includes an inflatable travel pillow, a privacy hood to help people nap in peace, and numerous pockets designed to store travel essentials (think passport, boarding passes, snacks, etc). The company has already launched a successful Kickstarter campaign, with over 700 backers who have pledged more than $100,000.<\/p>\n

The idea for this ingenious product came to Niklas Kuusela – Neckpacker’s founder and CEO – during a particularly long and uncomfortable journey from Lapland up in the Arctic Circle down to Helsinki. “I was stuck in the car, staring out the window, trying to get some rest,” he explains. “Sleep was impossible, and as my neck began to get increasingly sore, I started thinking about different kinds of solutions to this rather annoying problem. A problem millions of people must be facing every single day.”<\/p>\n

The idea he came up with was Neckpacker’s “travel jacket” – a patented hood system that cradles your neck whether you’re just resting, or indeed full-on sleeping in an upright position. It has eight versatile pockets that allow you to store all your travel essentials, including iPads, notebooks, passports, food and more. The hoodshade, made from soft, breathable fabric, also encourages sleep by blocking out all light pollution, and affording a little extra privacy in crowded public spaces.<\/p>\n

With more of us are on the move than ever before and the well-documented discomfort that comes with modern travel – “back pain after flying” has over 130 million Google search results alone – the problem Neckpacker looks to solve will no doubt resonate with many. In fact annual air passenger numbers are now over 4 billion, with the number set to double again within the next twenty years, so seemingly the problem will only get worse:<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.nationalgeographic.com\/environment\/urban-expeditions\/transportation\/air-travel-fuel-emissions-environment\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Despite this, it wasn’t at all straightforward for Kuusela to get this idea off the ground (if you’ll excuse the pun). Having discussed the idea with his friend Mikko Nisula, he set about creating a prototype for his vision. He then met with and presented the results to officials and experts, investors and business angels though things didn’t quite go according to plan. “At one of the meetings I was literally laughed out of the room, and told the whole thing was a complete waste of time,” Kuusela recalls. <\/p>\n

Yet at the same time that Kuusela was getting rejections in Finland, Baubax, a company in the US with a similar solution raised $11 million through a successful crowdfunding campaign. This sparked renewed interest in Kuusela’s product, both at home but also abroad (from companies in Japan and the US). Riding high on this momentum he decided to launch his own crowdfunding campaign, which went on to raise over $100,000. The company then partnered with a Chinese manufacturing company to help them make the jackets. Along with mentions on NBC, Fox News and CBS, Neckpacker has to date sold its jackets in more 60 countries worldwide, with more ambitious growth plans to follow in the near future.<\/p>\n

About Neckpacker
<\/strong><\/p>\n

Neckpacker was founded in 2013 by Niklas Kuusela. It develops and sells patented travel jackets and vests designed to make travel as comfortable and pain-free as possible. To date the company has raise over $100,000 and sold its jackets in over 60 countries worldwide.<\/p>\n

Find out more at www.neckpacker.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Media\/ Images
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Neckpacker interviews – https:\/\/vimeo.com\/210025407<\/a><\/p>\n

Video Link: http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/O_lkBkLRTFo<\/a><\/p>\n

Media Contact<\/span>
Company Name:<\/strong> Rebelboost Oy (Ltd.)
Contact Person:<\/strong> Niklas Kuusela
Email:<\/strong> Send Email<\/a>
Phone:<\/strong> +358503838500
Address:<\/strong>Tupavuori 6 a39
City:<\/strong> Helsinki
State:<\/strong> Uusimaa
Country:<\/strong> Finland
Website:<\/strong> https:\/\/neckpacker.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n

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