Storage Locker Nostalgia - From Crazy Idea to New Product
The below is the first part of an article on a trip down memory lane and how when at first you don’t succeed, you better freaking keep trying!
Ever clear out an old storage locker and get hit with a wave of nostalgia? Things that you had completely forgotten about but played such an important part of your life at the time? We store these items because way back when they seemed trivial, yet subconsciously we know that at some point they will remind you of how far you have come, and they will have incredibly significance. Personally, spiritually, and professionally.
I was about ready to toss a box out of our storage container last week when I peeked inside a box and found Original Slyde product prototypes. I had completely forgotten about how absolutely ill-conceived some of our product concepts were when we first started six years ago. But like so many life success stories these original prototypes had seemed like I was inventing the flying car to me at the time, and looking at the product in hand left me with a wave of nostalgia (with a little “what the hell was I thinking!?”)
the original prototype for the SlydeDrawer
These ideas often reflect our state of mind at the time. My furniture dealership was at the end of its cycle, and I was trying to figure out what the next step would be. Forty years old was a huge shift, I had started to think about the fact that I was halfway through life and still had not accomplished a fraction of what I intended to. Instead of dating younger women and buying a Ferrari, my creative side began to bloom, and I had started to develop a disdain for all things conventional. I’ve always been a gear head and my feeling was that the contract furniture world was driven by designers and not necessarily geeks like me that love their gadgets. Why not combine the two?
Slyde started as a way to differentiate my furniture dealer’s mock-up presentations. At the time (2015) the industry shifted almost overnight from high cubical partitions and Mad Men-Esque private offices to dense benching. Employees hated it, bosses loved it (they kept private offices and saved a tone of rent money while users sat crammed into tight cluttered spaces). Worksurface space and privacy were virtually nonexistent. The above prototype drawer was designed to free up desk stop space and remove AC plugs from the work surface. My dealer project team and I designed the drawer as a means to stand out in a mock-up presentation, and believe it or not the clunky original charging drawer was well received.. despite its awkward appearance.
while others were talking about the density of their worksurface particleboard, we were talking about saving desk space, charging devices, and taking back privacy. As you can see from the image the product left a lot to be desired, the lock was ugly and protruding, the inside space would barely fit a phone, and it took up way too much space. But users loved it, and we won multiple high-profile projects as a result of our forward-thinking and ingenuity. And what was most of all eye-opening to me is that you could not find a laptop charging drawer anywhere. Not from any of the major furniture manufacturers, nor anywhere on a google search. It was truly a new frontier for a product application that was rapidly emerging, and this realization was incredibly exhilarating to me.
What got me most excited about this was that I had actually (for the first time in my life) seen a need in the market, designed a product, got it made, and sold it to someone that wanted to pay for it. Now, I had sold tens of thousands of office furniture products before this, but they were someone else's products. Even customs were typically designed by an architect. Once I had discovered that this was possible, it opened my eyes to the possibilities, and Slyde was born.
I’d love to hear similar stories from people about "hacks" or ideas they took to the next level. Even if it’s just a red pill moment when they realized they were onto something (or even a moment they found in a storage locker that reminded them of something uplifting in their lives.