À propos du projet
Cardboard 'Landmark' play houses for cats, dogs & small pets
49 397 €
787
The Landmark playhouse is the perfect gift for both you and your pet. It provides a play area as well as a safe chill out spot. Originally created with cats - for cats, but fun and healthy for all small animals!
We are not stopping just because we reached our goal. We still would love to have you onboard as a backer! To reward you all for continuous pledging we introduced stretch goals. If we reach certain milestones we will give away additional perks.
THANK YOU ALL, PLEASE KEEP PLEDGING, SHARING AND LOVING!
The Sphinx of Giza is the largest single-stone statue in the world. Although some people still believe it resembles a lion, we know better! Cats were worshipped in ancient Egypt, with this gift your cat may finally start to worship you! Click here to view high resolution image.
The most well known landmark in France, maybe even in Europe. View the city of love from 324 meters high. Pets are not allowed to access the real tower, our tower however is for pets only! Click here to view high resolution image.
The Purresidential residence of the United States since 1800. For cats with political ambition or an oversized ego.. Did you know that 11 US presidents had cats, Lincoln was the first in 1861 with Tabby & Dixie! Click here to view high resolution image.
St Basil’s Basilica is the most famous building in the Kremlin, and now you can ‘Put-in’ you pet. Built for Ivan the Terrible in 1555, who did not own a cat. Lenin had one though, pretty sure he was red. Click here to view high resolution image.
This perfect symmetrical structure was built for the emperor’s third wife. Love can surely construct great things. You can now make a similar romantic gesture for your cat. Click here to view high resolution image.
Pagoda temples originated in South Asia and are iconic places of peace. Here your pet can reflect life, the universe and everything. Your cat could be a Zen Master, they do seem to contemplate a lot! Click here to view high resolution image.
South America houses more pyramids than Egypt! The Maya start building them from 1000 BC. Fun fact, the end of the world prophecy was not supported by the Maya, this is why your cat was so chill in 2012…Click here to view high resolution image.
Please note that the prototypes have simplified prints. The actual prints will be covering the complete Landmarks (now parts are not printed) and have a detail precision of 0,5 mm or 0,02 inch. When we constructed the prototypes we cut and pasted the prototypes may hand, therefore we had to remove a lot of detail.
In the current world there are a lot of things changing. We will always believe in the good nature of us humans. We chose the landmarks as a reflection of our achievement, from all continents and cultures. We all know these powerful landmarks, and therefore they connect us all. It is an appreciation of collective human strength (what we did!) and our vote for confidence in an improving global society (what we can do!).
Just like us humans, animals need their own space every now and then. With these landmarks we facilitate a perfect getaway. Private, but still close enough to their beloved caretaker. We hope the landmark in your house will remind you of all the beauty in the world.
Cats love cardboard, what about other pets? First we have to ask ourselves the number one question: “why do cats love cardboard boxes so much?”. Understanding the feline mind however is like analyzing the universe, it’s infinitely intriguing as well as incomprehensive. Scientists - and enthusiasts like us – have been working on the cardboard mystery for over 50 years. And still, we do not have any definite answers…
As the picture above shows, cats not only love cardboard hideouts, it is also healthy for them. When we brought in the guinea pigs for some performance testing, we found out we could accommodate more animals. Rabbits, hamsters and even small dogs apparently appreciate the value of a private, historical chill-out spot. And the guinea pigs themselves of course.
While we want ‘The Shining’ in our project, ‘all work and no play makes a dull toy’. To increase interaction between toy and your pet we included a play element in all Landmarks. The Eiffel Tower for example has an elevator hanging from a rope on the inside. You can add a cat - or small dog snack in the top and your pet needs to shake things up in order to get the reward. This active play for food has proven to be better for cats and dogs! All landmarks incorporate a unique play element.
It is so easy, we almost forgot to write about it. The steps are straightforward and simple. You cannot do much wrong really. We timed a few people with Landmarks and the most complex landmark (Kremlin) is set up in about 5 minutes. Just place the structure on the floor and let your pet work out the interior design! Every time we put our product on the floor cats would immediately go in there - they just love it...
We value the views of our backers. Not only is it more fun, it helps us improving our current products and facilitates thinking of new products. We like to invite you to actively engage in our product development, we will use questionnaires and/or social media to make it easy for you to join the team! Among other things, we will ask your help with:
- Selecting our next Landmark
- Color schemes of current Landmarks
- Outer packaging design & print
- Text for our tote bag reward
We are a proud company from Amsterdam in The Netherlands, and although we have a multicultural team from 3 different countries working in the office, we feel as Dutch as cheese. This actually means we charge our phones with windmills, our office would be flooded without the dams and tulips are a valid currency. We think it is important to support our local economy, therefore we produce the Landmarks locally.
We use recycled cardboard for our landmarks. Now, some of you may think this will result in lower quality – an understandable argument. Our cardboard is made out of two thick, separate layers of different ‘flutes’. This results in super strength, and when I mean super it means it can even withstand Kryptonite (yes, our cardboard is therefore stronger than Superman). Still not convinced? A Dutch guy sailed across the English Channel in a cardboard boat. I rest my case…
Poopy Cat works together with animal protective agencies and animal shelters in The Netherlands and abroad. We support charities financially by donating for products sold via our webshop. Next to that we stimulate adopting animals from shelters by providing free litter boxes to new caretakers and by organizing events. If you have any ideas or charities which are worth looking into, please feel free to contact us. We are always open to talk with great organizations!
We did it!!! Thanks to you guys we made it, in less than two weeks even! With over two weeks to go on our campaign we thought it would be a nice gesture to introduce some stretch goals to you.
With stretch goals we reward current and future backers with additional perks. This way we can reward you for getting us incredible results. Also, it may help you guys to tell your friends to buy one too (if you have not done that already!).
So help us, help you, and therefore help us… Oh no, I’ve gone cross-eyed. In other words, if we set an amazing result together we can make more amazing stuff for you!
We love you, thank you! Keep sharing, keep cuddling and let's do this!!
Building prototypes is expensive, never mind taking care of our board of test cats living at our office in Amsterdam! We finished our product development phase, but lack resources to bring Landmarks to the market ourselves. We choose kickstarter as a platform to finance our first production and make our dream become reality. Help us reach our goal and we can make it happen together.
After conceiving the idea we needed to select which Landmarks to start with. This was a though process, because if we could we would make them all. We came up with these seven because they resemble a lot of different continents and cultures.
At first we started of by making a huge mood board in our office, this helped us decide basic shapes, important architectural elements and colors. We also started our research in the history of the buildings, including any cat related facts (let us know if you want to read more about those!).
Between our walls of inspiration we started sketching, experimenting with shapes and testing materials. After we had a general idea how a Landmark should look we drafted up first versions of technical drawings that actually started to create. First cutting by hand, later using a computer-controlled plotter.
The process of prototyping was ‘on repeat’ for quite a while until we had the Landmarks in a size and detail which we wanted. Optimization for production followed and we produced the final prototypes.
As we are talking about purresidential mansions here, of course we need to paint the walls. We looked back at our mood board, researched deep into even the smallest details of the Landmarks and developed fantastic prints with a precision of 0,05 cm!
For our Kickstarter campaign we wanted to have printed prototypes for the video and the pictures, this way we could give you a glimpse of how cool they will look like. Surprisingly, this was the heaviest part of the process…
We had an agreement with a big printing company, but only 2 days before we were shooting our video they told us “we can't do it”! In time of great need Fatih, Kadir, Murat and Achmed of Birun Copy & Print in Amsterdam saved our lives. They worked 36 hours straight with us to create simplified stickers of the prints. As it may sound easy, it really is not!
In the office Rick, Kelly, Inge, Moden, Sophia and myself worked continuously up until about 3 AM on the morning of the shoot, but we made it - and you have seen the result!
Risques et défis
Albert Einstein, proud owner of a cat called ‘Tiger’, once said: “The only source of knowledge is experience”. And experience we have, we successfully funded BLOCKS by Poopy Cat last year!
The milestones of our BLOCKS campaign:
- 1.000+ products sold during Kickstarter campaign
- Shipped to 25+ countries
- All products shipped out on time
- Over 4.000 BLOCKS sold in first year
To quote Warren Buffet: “Risk comes from not knowing what you're doing.” Our team has the knowledge and experience to mitigate risks related to bringing this product to you. Although nothing is completely without risk, we believe we have identified major risks and challenges. We will make sure you will receive a fancatstic product on time.
WILL MY PET USE IT?
We can all imagine buying an expensive scratching post, toy or playhouse, but after unpacking it remains untouched. If you have a cat we bet you can also imagine them sitting in the packaging box. Well not anymore, and not only because our awesome packaging box is not fit to hide in. To be on the safe side we tested (with pleasure!) with different animals from various sizes, ages and even organized group testing session.
PRODUCT LIFETIME
Cardboard may seem like a temporary or disposable material, but that is definitely not the case. After BLOCKS we got a lot of information on the materials. Although it performed as expected, we wanted to increase strength! We use a double-layered cardboard with high density. This way your pet can sit, jump, chew, lick or scratch as they please.
FULFILLING GLOBAL ORDERS
In our last project our biggest challenge was worldwide shipping. We shipped all products on time, but we underestimated the work in exporting and support. We did not experience major delays, but we did missed a few nights of sleep… For this project we are happy to not only improved the fulfillment, we are also able to lower costs significantly! Shipments to the USA for example dropped from 40 euro to 12 euro.
WORKING WITH MANUFACTURERS
This is not the first product, not even our second ;) Our (far more complex) biodegradable and disposable litter box was launched a little over a year ago. Check it out at poopycat.com! We have learned a lot from multiple product development cycles. By having good relations with our multiple and known producers we will be able to control the quality. Among other things, quality assurance is a reason for producing locally.
READY FOR LARGE VOLUMES
We have experience in producing large volumes in the correct quality, quantity and time. We know how to manage our partners and are aware of the challenges that come with it (we faced them before). The first order batch as described for this project will be the benchmark. But, first things first, let’s reach our critical volume!
RELIABLE AND ECONOMICAL METHOD
We have tested and evaluated various production methods and came to the conclusion that pressing the shapes with molds out of cardboard is the only feasible option based on economics, quality consistence and scalability. Molds are costly, but can be used to produce many units in the exact shape we want them to be.
CHANGES TO THE PRODUCT
It may seem a paradox, but we are perfectionists ànd we believe in continuous product improvement. The Landmarks are tested and ready for production.
Nonetheless we value your experience, insights and/or happy accidents. Please feel free to interfere and share your views, before and while using it.
We are ready and we will say it again, we cannot wait to bring this product to the market! Our team in Amsterdam and our selected partners are aligned and ready to start.
All pledges help us reach our goal, small or big. If you want please help us share our concept via social media. A big thanks to you all on behalf of the whole team! Let’s do this!
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Période de financement
- (32 jours)