Awesome Stuff: Sometimes It's The Simple Stuff

from the perhaps-too-simple dept

Going through Kickstarter, looking for interesting projects, I've noticed that there are more than a few times I completely skip over certain projects because they just look too simple. For this week's awesome stuff post, I thought it might be fun to check out three such projects.

• First up, we have the project that inspired this post: the Bergaffe tube. The subhed here really undersells it: "a simple tube with lots of possibilities." Actually, I've noticed that most of these "overly simple" projects all talk about how many "possibilities" there are concerning their offerings. And, in this case, they may actually have a point. I didn't check out this project for weeks, because, really, what good is a tube? But, there's much more to the idea. The tube is basically a platform off of which they're building a bunch of tools that become modular and interchangeable. It's actually pretty neat: It really feels like the initial description -- as well as that photo of just a basic tube -- completely underplays the actual benefit and value of what these guys are trying to sell. If you have to expect that people need to "imagine the possibilities" they're not going to. So even though this does seem like it could be cool, the project is just under its £25,000 goal with a week to go. It'll get there, but just barely. Also... for a "simple" tube, it's pretty pricey.
• Next up... we've got The Puck -- another simple plastic thing that asks you to imagine the possibilities. In this case, it's a simple wall mount for PVC pipe, so that you can build a towel rack or some other kind of rack out of PVC pipe. Now, if you were to ask me why you might want to build such a thing out of PVC pipe, you might have a very good point. For something so simple... and where you have to "imagine the possibilities" yourself, it seems incredibly pricey. When I saw these, my first thought was that it looked like something I could pick up at the local Home Depot for less than $1 each. But... these guys are trying to sell them for $20 per pair. Damn. That probably explains why, a week or so into the project, they've only got 13 backers and less than $500 committed. There's still a month to go, but I can't see this one reaching the $25,000 goal at all.
• And then we've got Bigmouth Funnels, which are basically what the name says: little strips of plastic that fold into funnels. I've seen something similar for years, so I was a bit surprised to see it on Kickstarter, and it seems odd that they're pitching it as some amazing bit of product design. It actually looks nearly identical to a little "sports cone" that I've seen on the fields near where I live. Just inverted. Also, whenever I've needed something like this, usually... a piece of paper has done the trick. Here's another one where I was a bit surprised at the price. $10 (AUD) gets you one big and one small funnel. But, it seems that I can find basic wide mouth funnels online for less than $2, so not sure I see the appeal. But, ~150 or so backers have bought into this one already, and it's nearing its $2,200 goal with over a month to go, so apparently it's got more appeal than I expected.

That's it for this week. Keep it simple.

Filed Under: awesome stuff, funnels, pvc, simple, tubes