Lessons Learnt Manufacturing During a Global Pandemic
Welcome to Alimasy - the hard work is only just beginning!
So, we have done what many people thought was “crazy” and a “huge risk” – we have successfully launched a new company, designed a fantastic new product, found an awesome manufacturing partner, and navigated the nightmare of shipping a container full of goods internationally all in the middle of a global pandemic…… and survived to tell the tale!
Here’s a few of our high, lows and lessons learnt from our journey:
What was the hardest part of designing the new Alimasy kids school bag?
After selling backpacks for preschool and school age children for years designing our final backpack design was relatively easy as we had gained so much market knowledge and customer feedback.
Surprisingly the hardest part of the backpack design was shortlisting only 15 prints for the 1st release which would hopefully provide something for everyone. We decided the first 15 would include a mixture of popular children’s backpack prints such as dinosaurs, unicorns, space and construction and some more unique prints such as our lucky cat and mythical creatures prints.
What did we learn most from the journey?
Finding the right manufacturing partner takes a lot more time and patience than we had anticipated. The manufacturing options in the luggage and backpack product category are huge. With kid’s backpacks being produced in so many countries worldwide there were so many options to choose from. It took us much longer than we anticipated it would do to find the right manufacturing partner. We tried and tested so many manufacturers and samples before we finally found the right one. We eventually landed with our chosen manufacturing partner for our kids backpacks and they are based in China.
What was easier than you thought it would be?
Since the pandemic hit there has been so many news articles and discussions in online business groups about the scarcity of shipping containers being available and shipping delays being experienced worldwide. With all this negativity around international shipping we had become quite petrified about how the whole shipping process from China to Australia would work out for us.
As it turned out, we didn’t need to be so worried. Our manufacturing partner referred us to a reliable local shipping agent who secured a container for us and organised the transportation of the container. Our container arrived in Sydney only 2 days later than scheduled. Either luck was on our side, the stories and rumours weren’t true, or it was just another benefit of choosing the right manufacturing partner. Whatever the reason for our luck, we are thankful to have so many amazing school bags in stock in time for Christmas and Back to School 2022.
What is next for Alimasy?
We have so many ideas for the Alimasy brand in the future. We are already designing our next backpack design and can’t wait to share it with you!
Please contact us if you have any specific ideas or requests, we would love to hear from you.
