First and foremost, thank you for taking the time to check out our Kickstarter page. We truly appreciate all of the support!
The Project:
The Fresh Air Pillow has been through rigorous testing and research to make it extremely comfortable, and thoroughly washable. We like to say it is: Designed for comfort. Engineered for clean. It is the collaboration of my father, Rubin Rochlin and I over the last 25 years. He was a foam fabricator and pillow manufacturer over 50 years ago when he realized the shortcomings of pillow design. Together, we patented his original work on open cell foams and now I have a trademark and a patent pending on his dream pillow. It all may have happened sooner if he were still here.
The ugly truth of other pillows...
What happens in your pillow, unfortunately, stays in your pillow. There are literally thousands of dust mites living, breeding and defecating in your pillow every day.
According to the Asthma and Allergy Foundation:
But Dust Mites aren't the only thing lurking in your pillow..
Wash it hot or wash it cold, but please wash it!
You need temperatures of at least 130 degrees to kill dust mites. These little critters contribute to asthma and allergy attacks for the sixty million who suffer from this in the United States alone. In addition to dust mites and their feces, studies show pillows also contain mold and bacterial organisms. A two year old bed pillow can contain one tenth or more of its weight from these allergens!! Yuck!!
The "open cell" foam technology, combined with the ability to remove the pillow's inner core in seconds, allows you to deep clean your Fresh Air Pillow from the inside out- in just one cycle of your conventional washer and dryer. This allows you to actually get your pillow clean to the core and wash out the dust mites, their feces and carcasses, and the mold and mildew that grows deep inside because of atmospheric moisture. Don't just cover your pillow with a thin piece of fabric like a dust mite cover. These covers are effective in keeping the mites from coming out of the pillow, but are they effective t keeping the dust mite feces from escaping?After all, the real allergen is the feces and fungus. And if you think bout it, just covering something dirty doesn't make it clean....I mean, you can put on a fresh pair of underwear... but you still need a shower! Seriously bro, and use some soap.
But don't take our word for it... here's some independent research-
http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/2000/2157.html
http://www.ehso.com/ehshome/dustmites.php
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2005/10/051015093046.htm
Did we need to sacrifice comfort to make it so washable?
No way Hombre!!! This final product is the accumulation of over 25 years of trials and working prototypes with major foam manufactures in the US and their endless different foams. Combining all the factors that make a great pillow (support, coolness, softness, flexibility, adjust-ability, wash-ability, durability) was very difficult. We have tested and tested all of these over the years and owe much thanks to my many friends and family who helped in the process. When our funding is successful, we will be able to manufacture the Fresh Air Pillow with a foam that is not only exclusive to us, but is the best performance foam we have ever found. It is a highly open cell foam, which were usually brittle and stiff, but our years of testing and formulating have resulted in an open cell foam that is silky soft, and yet surprisingly strong and resilient. We did a blind comparison with a high-end luxury down pillow (that cost $270) and the Fresh Air Pillow was chosen 50% of the time... that was before we told them about the nasty things in the down pillows! We are extremely confident that you will absolutely love the feel of the Fresh Air Pillow.
Now, you may be saying, "Hey, my pillow says it can be washed." and you'd be correct. But the Fresh Air Pillow is the only pillow designed to be washed every week if you like, in one cycle, and the resilient, high-performance foam was designed to be long lasting. Other pillows are a pain in the neck to wash, take all day, need tennis balls in the dryer, for multiple cycles, and then break down so much they're only recommended to wash once a year. ugh, gross!
http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/how-to-wash-a-pillow-42606
Here's the custom art for the Fresh and Grody pins:
How we plan to pull it off:
Our US assembly factories already have tooling set up. The money raised on Kickstarter will be used for ordering the minimum amounts of materials for production. Each material requires minimum orders to get it at a reasonable cost, and the foam manufacturer cannot produce this exclusive foam without costly set up fees, unless we have a large enough order. Our $18,884 minimum goal will allow us to produce a little more than 300 pillows and give enough production to our supply houses, sewing and manufacturing to meet the minimum requirements. Because our manufacturers are all experienced, large-scale companies, we will gain economies of scale on larger orders and they can fulfill those more efficiently. The more sales we make, the easier it will flow and the cost per unit will go down. Our manufacturers have open capacities to produce these in the thousands per day. Let’s get them busy and bring home some U.S. jobs.
Where will the money go?
- Kickstarter fees
- Amazon (credit card processing) fees
- Outer shell casing material
- Inner core casing material
- Exclusive open cell polyurethane production and set up
- Pre-cutting of raw materials
- Sewing
- Die cutting and assembly plan
- Setting up further production and quality control
- Marketing
- Further patent and trademark work
- Rewards
- Shipping and packaging
I am extremely excited to finally launch the Fresh Air Pillow! I am thrilled to be working with exceptional manufacturers that support American labor. Whatever amount you donate, from $1 - $1,500, I know you will get more than your value and I appreciate it more than I can show!! Thank you!! As a backer of other products on Kickstarter, I truly hope that someday I am able to contribute to fulfilling your dream!
Sincerely,
Scott Rochlin
Risks and challenges
MANUFACTURING:
One of the primary challenges when dealing with any physical product is in manufacturing. This product has to hold up to a standard higher than other pillows because of the repeated machine wash cycles it will endure. Rest assured, our US manufacturers and our suppliers are some of the very best at what they do. From our foam manufacturing plant to our production sewing factories, we’re dialed in with professionals.
When were funded (of course, that is the wish) I will be personally assuring all quality control measures are being maintained. And the process will remain the same as we get ready to manufacture more units after our kickstarter campaign.
LEAD TIME & DELIVERY:
Knowing the exact timeline for production from start to finish is never easy to judge. Thanks to all of our samples over the years and the tight relationships we've built, we're confident that we can finish all orders within our timelines upon the conclusion of this campaign. Because their reputations are also involved, all our manufacturers and suppliers want to make sure the product is absolutely perfect upon completion for the first run through. They are true professionals and would rather over deliver and under promise, than to do the opposite. In the case that any delays do arise all backers will be informed immediately and kept up to speed with all updates. Our future production orders will move at a much higher speed, with inventories always in stock if we raise enough here.
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Funding period
- (39 days)