7 comments

  • Cole TownsendCole Townsend, over 9 years ago (edited over 9 years ago )

    I think this was already ripped apart on Reddit.

    Apparently guys who have worked, or still work, at large shipping companies said there was no way these would hold up. Even though the boxes have a specific way of opening, they're likely to pop open from contact with other boxes in the sorting fury.

    Someone also brought up the point that these companies have probably tested a million different box styles as well.

    5 points
    • Brendan SaundersBrendan Saunders, over 9 years ago (edited over 9 years ago )

      Yeah, back in my warehouse days I had to build a TON of boxes. It didn't take nearly as long as either of these guys took to assemble a single box. Also, I think the jig would actually be more cumbersome and process-slowing than they'd lead you to believe.

      They didn't really address the "ease of building" for the reverse use-case either. It's a fairly complex set of steps (and you get no help from the jig!) I've seen people struggle over assembling a traditional flat-pack box where you just have to push on two opposite corners and fold the lid down.

      I'd be curious to see stats about how many people currently save boxes to reuse them. At the company I work for now, we ship textbooks to students, and come return-time (after a college semester) they often don't have the original shipping box (can't blame them, dorm rooms are small.) We sometimes get books back in cereal boxes or shoe boxes!

      All of that said, I think it's a cool way to rethink the lowly cardboard box. The press down to disassemble is pretty neat idea, as is the reversibility. The reversing of the box could work quite well for things that need to be returned in a small window of time e.g. if you buy shoes online and they didn't fit as expected. It would also be a nice way to get a free box to ship in (countless times I've ended up purchasing a box because an old Amazon box was too big, or too small for what I needed to ship.)

      I'd guess that getting a supplier to build these at a scale for large shipping companies to adopt this, is a monumental task. Also, shifting the paradigms of uninformed recipients to "save the box" and reverse it for reuse, is also a monumental task (how many people discard cardboard boxes instead of recycling them?)

      Edit Wow, after posting this I realized that's a lot of words.

      TL;DR; Neat Idea on the surface. Lot's of problems on deeper-inspection, and incredible challenge to get adoption of this on both business-side(packer/shipper) and consumer-side (recipient/re-user). Still a worthy idea! Kudos to these guys.

      2 points
  • Joshua HynesJoshua Hynes, over 9 years ago

    For some reason this just strikes me as the industrial design version of "I redesigned Facebook last weekend, and here's what I came up with." Interesting idea but they didn't really address the concerns that @Cole T. mentioned above.

    4 points
  • Account deleted over 9 years ago

    reminds me of this amazing idea: http://www.good.is/posts/the-humble-pizza-box-masterfully-redesigned and wondering why they didn't patent and licence it to a Dominos or something

    2 points
  • Clark WimberlyClark Wimberly, over 9 years ago

    Have these guys never received a package from Amazon? Becuase they've been doing the custom-sized, less-cardboard thing for years now...

    1 point
  • Anatoli NicolaeAnatoli Nicolae, over 9 years ago

    These guys had an amazing idea but do you think that the world will switch to this packing method? Have you ever redesigned something that you use everyday?

    0 points