Hello everyone,
Today marks Monday July 23 which means this is Team Slide with a quick update on.. Slide! ;-) It’s a short one, as we're all taking a short summer break to catch up on sleep, sunlight and to recharge for the exciting final run ahead. But we wanted to make sure to touch base with you, our backers, regardless and bring you up to speed.
Slide packaging
As we’re moving into the final phase, it’s time to fill in all the remaining blanks before we start delivery. In this update, we want to show you the box in which your Slide will come. Our industrial designer Jesper has been working with our production partner on the design and layout of the packaging. The goal was to create a box for Slide that seamlessly blends in with the hardware and the mobile app. A minimalist print on the outside packaging puts all the focus on what’s inside.
After opening the box, the only thing immediately revealed is Slide itself, with nothing to distract you from its elegant design combining soft fabric with smooth curvatures. Removing the cover panel on the right reveals the various mounts and connectors used to mount Slide onto your existing curtain system. With some parts, such as the power cable, hidden further underneath, the layout embodies the simplicity of Slide itself.
We’ve also focused on optimizing for a sustainable packaging, minimizing the use of plastic and using renewable material where possible. This includes the choice not to package all parts separately and instead ensure the casing is constructed in such a way that everything is kept in place with pressure fits. We combine this with sturdy foam panels to ensure Slide is well-protected during transport.
Production and shipping timeline
For good reason, we frequently receive questions about the production/shipping timeline. In our last update we also included an update on our timeline, explaining that the shipment of the first units is pushed back to the Fall as a result of final optimizations taking longer than expected. At this point, we don’t have a shipment schedule per batch yet, which means we’re not yet able to provide a timeline for individual orders. We’ll reach out ahead of each shipment batch to double-check your address as well as provide tracking numbers when they’re ready.
We also want to emphasize that we understand that delays have been frustrating. Almost everyone can’t wait to get their hands on Slide – so of course it sucks that it’s taking longer than expected. For us, working on getting this product to the current stage has been a great privilege, but it’s also tough. There have been plenty of setbacks, some that might have been avoidable, others that we simply had to find out the hard way through testing, testing and some more testing.
We put out the our frequent updates because we want to share the journey with you – both the good and the bad. We’ve backed plenty of projects ourselves and we know that delays suck, especially if you don’t seem in the loop. That’s why we choose to document the process and make sure that even as things take long, you see why that happens, how it’s moving forward and how it’s taking shape.
Keep in mind that on the other side of the screen there’s a team of four people (plus our supporting partners) that have been hard-working anywhere between 50 to 70 hours a week for the past 1.5 years to get Slide into your hands. Sometimes, we’ll discuss other aspects, like developing our retail strategy or an exciting pitch or exhibit we did. (To clarify – both our visit to the Barcelona DIY Summit as well as our exhibition here in Amsterdam were fully sponsored ;-)). We believe these are great company building moments to share with you. But know that until we’ve shipped every crowdfunded Slide, you as our backers remain our #1 priority.
We’re very excited to have reached this stage and going into production. We’re often getting the question if we’re not ‘over’-engineering. Rest assured, we weren’t. :-) We wanted to make sure to put a truly solid product in your hands that’ll still work great years from now, not a flimsy beta unit that breaks in a few months’ time. Now that we’re there, we can’t wait to put it in your hands.
That’s all for now – as always, email us directly at thijs@goslide.io for any questions. Our next update comes out in four weeks, on August 20th. Until then – if you’re anywhere close to Amsterdam – good luck beating the heat!
Cheers, Thijs and Kaj
P.S.: Here’s a nice shot of our Slide stand at the IoT Expo here in Amsterdam a few weeks ago. We were very happy to have met over two dozen of our backers who came by to check out Slide. It was nice to talk to you! :-)