Sleep. We all do it, though maybe not enough.
Seven years ago, a group of ragtag product designers (that’s us) noticed that the world seemed to be running on too little sleep. We saw people yawning in the metro, office workers slumping at their desks, and far too many under eye bags to count.
So we took our observations and started crunching the numbers. Though it’s recommended that people get at least 7 to 9 hours of sleep each night, our research showed that in many places people were getting less. For those who did make it to 7, those hours weren’t necessarily offering high-quality rest.
Imagine the possibilities if people could find an easy way to get more sleep - what dreams and adventures would that give them the energy to accomplish?
So we decided to redesign sleep - yes, we took on that thing humans have been doing for millennia. And because poor sleep is such a common problem, we knew it wasn’t going to be fixed with a conventional solution.
Inspired by the ways people rest, and the moments when they crave rest most, we started building off-the-wall prototypes. We asked questions like, what if, instead of putting your head on a pillow, you put your head in one? What if, when your eyes start getting droopy during work, you enjoy a power nap at your desk instead of fighting through yawns for hours until you could head home? Turns out, we weren’t just dreaming: power napping has been shown to improve productivity by 34%.
If you’re here, you already know the happy ending to this story. In 2012 we launched a Kickstarter campaign for OSTRICHPILLOW ORIGINAL, our playful take on the way an ostrich sticks its head in the sand and a serious challenge to the ways we think about sleep. That revolution wasn’t just a dream in our heads: the ORIGINAL went viral, got over 4,500 Kickstarter backers, and got picked up by countless media outlets across the world.
The rest isn’t exactly history. In seven short years, we’ve continued to challenge the expected, using our observations of how people live to create products that make life just that extra bit more comfortable and interesting.
ORIGINAL kicked off a napping revolution, and we’re proud of the community that’s grown around it. And, most exciting of all, as we’ve branched into unconventional travel pillows and forward-thinking wellness products, that community has only continued to grow.
So, it might be our birthday, but really, we feel like it’s more of an anniversary between us and you: our amazing user. From Kickstarter to here, our journey together has been anything but conventional. We wouldn’t have it any other way, and we can’t wait to see what the next seven years hold.
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