About
flipbin™: A new home for the vinyl you're now playing
$42,886
481
flipbin™
Flip. Play. Display.
Meet flipbin™
"The Spirit of K-Tel Is Alive on Kickstarter" - The New Yorker
"Flipbin Brings Your Favorite Vinyl Records to the Front" - Cool Hunting
"Kickstarter's Most Useful Vinyl Project" - Vinyl Me, Please
"A Better Way To Store Vinyl Records" - Crain's Chicago Business
Flea Market Funk
Modern Vinyl
Vinyl Factory
Vinyl Emergency
flipbin™ is the tabletop storage and display solution for your vinyl that sits near your turntable, provides a familiar flip-thru browsing experience, and showcases the album artwork. It’s the new flip, play and display home for the vinyl currently in rotation.
flipbin™ was designed and created for vinyl records, and for all of us out there who enjoy collecting, playing and otherwise engaging with our collections. There's a place for shelves, right? We all have something that functions as our shelf, and that's where the bulk of your collection is, facing spine out and looking impressive. Shelves are the equivalent of your walk-in vinyl closet. flipbin™ is not your vinyl closet.
flipbin™ is where the new digs go, where your favorites hang - it's designed for those "other" records. Records are meant to be handled, played, heard and displayed. We designed and built flipbin™ with those simple concepts at the forefront.
Why flipbin™?
We were tired of leaning records against the wall (the lean), piling them up on the nearest flat surface (the stack), or just putting them wherever we could find space (the freestyle).
We've used crates and wine boxes, but they didn't necessarily look good, and in our minds, left some room for improvement from a functionality standpoint. We're not the only ones struggling with that. Most of our friends had similar issues. We set out to design something for vinyl that we hoped would provide a better experience, and, looked good doing it. flipbin™ was designed for records.
We wanted to design something that:
• provided organization and storage near our turntable
• safely and properly supported the records
• displayed the current selection (at least better than a crate)
• included the ability to browse and flip through like we're all familiar with
• had the capacity to handle more than just a couple records
• looked good enough to sit next to our gear and inside our home
Simple, right? We thought so, and yet, when we started looking for solutions, we found...a lot of milk crates, wire frames and boxes, but nothing we felt addressed all of our punch list. For vinyl enthusiasts there was nothing truly designed and built for records and we wanted to provide a smarter option. In short, we wanted to find a solution to a problem that shouldn't have been a problem in the first place.
Introducing flipbin™ Model 33
...and flipbin™ Model 45
Details & Features
Capacity
Model 33: holds approximately 33 of your favorite 12 inch records
Model 45: holds approximately 45 of your favorite 7 inch records
Size
Model 33: 12.25"h x 13"w x 10"d
Model 45: 7.25"h x 8"w x 9"d
Quality
flipbin™ is formed from a single piece of custom tooled aluminum bent into shape in six separate steps. Next, we attach another bent aluminum kickstand to support the entire unit, and weld everything together for maximum stability and strength before the finishing process. There's a lot that goes into making each one, and touched by many skilled hands during the process. We've built flipbin™ to be special, and to last!
Materials
flipbin™ aluminum models are made from a single, laser cut piece of 12 gauge aluminum by our manufacturing partners. It’s Made In Chicago, and we’re very proud of that!
Strength
flipbin™ was designed with a kickstand to provide stability and strength while storing your records. It's also designed to provide support for the entire record, minimizing warping that comes from stacking.
Options
flipbin™ is currently available in seven (7) powder coated and seven (7) anodized colors for the campaign. The Model 33 is available in powder coated and anodized finishes. The Model 45 is currently only available in powered coated finishes.
Sticker & Logo
All logos on flipbins that appear in our video or in photos are removable stickers. flipbins will be shipped without stickers attached to them.
We've coordinated with our manufacturing teams here in Chicago to ensure we're ready to roll and can meet capacity. We're starting with the Model 33 because it's literally ready to go, and have now launched and made the Model 45 available as well. We've created a series of rewards for you, our backers, that we hope you'll support, and back as part of this project.
We've worked really hard to get to this point, and we hope you dig flipbin™! Here's a little bit of the story behind it or the beginnings of flipbin just so you know what we've been working on for the last 9 months.
In The Beginning…flipbin™ started as a drawing, based on the idea of and desire to solve the issue of where and how to deal with records, and specifically, those records not in shelves. It wasn’t a great drawing. In fact, it’s absurdly bad, and it’s a wonder anything ever came of it! In the end, that’s the genesis of this thing we’ve worked a long time to design, prototype, create, and finally, share with all of you!
Making flipbin™
It's a labor of love. Coming up with the idea was relatively easy. Figuring out and designing what it was, what it should do, and, what it should look like is a process, and it’s pretty challenging for three guys with jobs and families!
Here's where we're at right now, and what we've done to get here:
- 5+ rounds of prototyping to get flipbin™ right, and finalize the design, working with two different manufacturers.
- Manufactured 100 samples each of our Model 33 & Model 45 for testing finishes, surfaces, capacity, and in general, making sure flipbin™ was our best effort at making what we set out to accomplish.
- Met with and worked alongside a number of vendors, all in the Chicago area, to finalize painting, anodizing and packaging details.
- Worked with our legal team to properly protect and safeguard flipbin™ from knock-offs (i.e. patent pending).
- Engaged, annoyed and otherwise bothered many of our friends to help us with countless things we needed help with.
- Lots of calls and discussions about shipping. OMG, shipping! We're really excited about how this turned out. This was almost more challenging than designing flipbin™!
We've invested and funded everything related to flipbin™ on our end, up to this point. When you believe in something enough, you do what you need to in order to see it through. That's where we're at with flipbin™ and why we're using Kickstarter to take us the rest of the way. We believe in the idea, and we've always felt that we weren't alone. We wanted to share flipbin™ with all of you, and make it something tangible so those who "get it" could actually get one.
Our Kickstarter campaign is our sharing of that idea and our passion for something we're really excited about. We're using the funds you're helping us raise to increase capacity, streamline our manufacturing process, and essentially kickstart something that we believe is more than just a one trick pony. We might not have the flipbin™ for you yet, but we're going to, and your support is integral to our accomplishing that and making flipbin™ a reality for everyone.
The Team + Some Final Thoughts
We're bringing flipbin™ to you, and using Kickstarter at this time because we can't take our next steps on our own. We've spent a considerable amount of time, money and energy to get to where we are. We think we're in a pretty good place, and we're thrilled and honored to be here, but we need your help. The money you'll help us raise by backing flipbin™ will go towards a lot of things, including:
- Streamlining our manufacturing, improving the speed and entire process to make things work efficiently and effectively.
- Covering the cost of our custom tools for all of the bending and shaping that goes into making flipbin™ Model 33 & 45!
- Helping to offset the costs associated with finishing and packaging each flipbin™ that we send your way.
- Larger picture, we'll use the money to constantly improve and innovate what we're able to offer, including moving forward on our flipbin™ plastic line, where molding costs are very expensive and impossible for us on our own.
- Ultimately, you'll be supporting our efforts to kickstart our company, so we can continue making great products that people love and want to use.
We've never done this before, and we're really just a group of three guys who had an idea, a passion for vinyl, and wanted to make something we loved. We hope you'll support our work and flipbin™ by backing our project, and ultimately, enjoy your flipbin™ as much as we do ours.
Special Thanks, In No Particular Order
Andrew Manocheo, designer of amazing things!, Collin Diederich for the stellar video work, The Numero Group for the fine records, The Gang on Sesame Street (no, seriously...they know), S&B, Jamie Feldheim for the amazing graphic work and our logo, Metro/SmartBar, Shout Chicago, TheVinylFactory, Modern-Vinyl, CoolHunting, VinylMe,Please, FleaMarketFunk/DJ Prestige, DustAndGrooves/Eilon Paz, U-TurnAudio, PolyVinyl Records/Matt Lunsford, Michael Slobach, Furnace Record Pressing/Eric Furnace, David Yow, TowerRecordsDoc/ColinHanks, FunkyLittleShop, Greenway Records, Brad Owen/TheWindishAgency,Steve Reidell/TheHoodInternet, The New Yorker /David Sax, Anthony LaPenna, Dept.Chicago, PitchPerfectPR, FlenerIPLaw, DarkMatterCoffee, our better halves, Holly Robertson & Michelle Garcia, our friends and family (huge) in and outside of Chicago, all the great record stores and labels involved, all the people and press that have supported us when we've asked and surprised us when we didn't. Everyone, basically. (oh gawd...we hope we didn't miss anyone!)
Risks and challenges
We've worked really hard to get this far, and we're hoping you're excited about what we've got in store and will help by backing our project. We owe it to all of you to be upfront and honest about where we're at, and, share possible challenges because, well, we know there are a lot of potential challenges to deal with.
We've invested a lot of time, effort, more time, our own funds, and more time to ensure that we keep our promise to you.
• We've finished our design and prototyping of both models.
• We've actually produced some of each model
• We've researched shipping and fulfillment and have partners lined up.
• We've talked to our mfg. team about production capabilities.
We've done a lot, and survived a lot of challenges already, but there's always the possibility that something unexpected comes up. We hope we've done everything in our power to minimize that from the process, and we'll communicate to all of you along the way to keep you in the loop. If something does come, you'll be the first to know.
We're really excited about bringing the flipbin™ to everyone who wants one, and we hope that you're as excited as we are. We'd love to see you show that love, back our Kickstarter, and help us make flipbin™
Thanks for your support!
Team flipbin™!
Questions about this project? Check out the FAQ
Support
Funding period
- (33 days)