Good morning and welcome to an Origami Paddler town hall meeting this morning, where we want to address your biggest concerns and let you know how much we care about you. I think first and foremost, we want you to know that we are 100% committed to the vision of our company. And the vision of our company is two things. Number one that's to increase health and happiness throughout the world. And number two, is to make this planet a more beautiful planet. by cleaning up the waters, we call that paddling with a purpose. And we know that the origami paddler is going to bring you a lot of joy to have that freedom experience that comes from getting out on the water. So this morning, the four of us want to take and address your biggest concerns and share with you as much information as we can to help you feel that you've made a good decision in with origami paddlers. So I'm going to turn it over to Elena and Kayla who are going to ask a series of questions to primarily Tim and a little bit to me as well,
to communicate to you the information that we know that you want to have. But I want to say first of all that a big blessing and a big, big sense of gratitude and appreciation to you, our origami Padlet family, and to Tim who is the North Star of our company who set this vision out in the first place, and frankly, is one of the best human beings I've had the privilege of working with. So let's get right into it. Elena asked the first question. Okay. So the biggest question that a lot of our community has right now is why are the hinges breaking in transit? Why are they breaking when we're shipping them?
We'll take that one. Yep. Okay.
The, the issue, I think, is mainly a packaging, we're taking a big object and putting it into a
small package. Now, the product itself is indestructible, the polyethylene is fantastic. But the hinges are need to be supported. And we're working on that support and that part of the package. And we've made great strides.
Let me just say that this is one little obstacle that we've overcome. And we've overcome many, many obstacles this last year, and this is not that big of a deal. But one of the the the challenges is that we can't, we can do all the shop testing we want. But really, ultimately, we have to send the thing, see what happens, and then improve, make improvements. And we've made great strides in a very, very short amount of time, we have a fantastic team that is very innovative. And so we're we're making great progress in reducing. First of all, the the amount of the percentage of
breakages has been very, very slight. But we're trying to get that as soon as we can down to zero. And we've done that very rapidly. And we're we're getting down to zero gray very shortly. We're also making big improvements for the future. Got it, I want to jump in and add to that, Tim, you made several different really great points there. One of them was that, that we've done a tremendous amount of testing, none of the problems that we are currently seeing with the hinges happened during our prototype testing, where we were testing the hinges under all kinds of different circumstances, they only showed up when we started shipping product across the country by truck that lasted like, you know, seven or 10 days of rumbling in the back of a truck. So it was a surprise to us to have that to have those that damage happen. And it has only happened, you know, since we started shipping them across the country. So we've done a fair amount of tests. And now we are testing new packaging materials. And we are optimistic that we are continuing to reduce the amount of breakage every single week with the with the small changes that we're making in the packaging materials. And we think that soon we'll have this problem completely eliminated. Let me say one more thing. If we package the thing, like, normally you get a tiny little package in this big box, we can't afford to do that. If we did that, if we put a lot of padding around everything, which the boat doesn't really need it indestructible, then we'd end up with a boat that would support maybe 80 pounds. So we just don't have the luxury of doing that. And that's what this whole company was predicated on was to be able to ship the boat easily. So that's that's the original assumption was that, you know, we can do that. We just need a little support with the that we have to test by actual shipping with the hinges itself.
Awesome, thanks.
Next question. Sorry for interrupting on the tail end of that, and if they're breaking when they're shipping, how can I trust that they're not going to break
In my car when I'm traveling or out on the water when I'm using it.
Yeah, go for that. Yeah. 10 go ahead with with ups the first answer on all the questions, okay, unless they're addressed specifically to somebody else. We did a systematic testing. And we're here in Bellingham, and in all of our testing have on the water, and even transport to the water, we never had any problems at all. It was only when we started shipping, we went into production started shipping. And that was the only time we'd really be able to find out whether there was a problem. And so we're coming up with the solution for that, but the hinges are very durable on the water. And we're continuing to make improvements to make them even more durable all the time.
And I'm going to add to that just a little bit too. We strongly recommend that when you get your paddler that you take a look at all the hinges. And if you see any cracks, or you see any little white stress marks, then be sure to let us know because that means that that hinge is not safe. And that goes for six months from now or for a year from now to just like airline pilots inspect their aircraft before they take off, we encourage you to take a look at your paddler and make sure that everything looks just right, you know that all the pins are in place that the that the hinges look like they're in in tip top shape, you know that all the cords and straps and leashes are in good shape before you take it out on the water. Because safety is our biggest concern, we always recommend that you have a personal floatation design device. And some sort of, you know, morning device. Typically, it's a whistle that's connected to your PFD with a lanyard, you know and put safety first. So that's not only your personal safety, watching wind and water conditions and current conditions. But it's also taking a look at the organic power and making sure that it's just right for you to go out on the water.
Oh, we're just, we're just putting out a new video that will be on online here very shortly. And one of the things is to look for is equipment that you check your equipment just like a pilot would check his plane over in a pre checklist and you check all the things it's ultimately your responsibility to check that over when you get it or when you or your whoever it goes out in that. And I totally endorse the
the safety aspect of the thing of you know, that's, that's, that's first and foremost. Yeah, well, we've done a lot from from the packaging materials, the the guide that's given to all of our posts into things that we're planning on to really make it very easy for you to know even if you're new to paddling, the kinds of safety features that you should keep in mind and the safety tips. That's why on the second page of our origami traveler guide, we have a list of safety tips. But you know, being in a boat is like using any other sort of piece of equipment. And so it's not just for the origami pablor this is something that you would do with any sit on top kayak. And we are committed to that safety. And I think that that has really shone through even in the shipping tests that we initially did when we saw that there were some issues and that we talked about it earlier this week and earlier this month, then have been really working with all of our community to not only address it quickly, but to come up with a solution that's getting better every single every single week. It's something that we're doing every single day to make the origami a little bit better every day for our family. And that's something that I know that we'll continue to do.
Another question that this does bring up, though, was how do we know that this is a shipping issue and not a design or a material flaw? And we want to be I know very transparent about that. Because we don't want for people to think that we're shifting the blame to you know, the fact that this is just shipping and that this isn't because of all of the tests that we've talked about doing since Kickstarter.
The design and material
issue is, you know, we're we're doing the best we can somebody said Why didn't we make a metal hinge and and maybe that was jumping the gun a little bit here. But we did look into making a metal hinge. One of the issues that that we're up against is that we talked to two different companies one offshore and one in Seattle. And they were simply too busy to to to make these. It was possible, but it was it was it was very complicated. And we're absolutely positive that the plastic hinges is ultimately more durable because it won't bend. One of the things with metal is it bends. So it's a superior material. It's we are at
sourcing a different material, the material that we do have the plastic that we do have is, is quite adequate. But we're looking at it, always looking for new materials. And it's difficult and timely to do that. So, you know, we're we're getting the boat out the hinges are, like Paul said, are very easy to replace, there, it's a five minute, unscrew and screw. So it's a, if we upgrade, then those will be available. So it's up, but we want to be able to get get the boats out this summer. And if we can, if once the boat gets there, it's it seems like nobody has any problems. Amen. And we are a continuous improvement company. So the the material that we're currently using on the hinges is about the third or the fourth generation of material that we have tried. The first few materials that we had were were subpar. We're not as good as the material we're using today. And we continue talking with material scientists to engineer even better materials in the days and weeks and years to come. So this is we are a company that's focused on continuous improvement, you can expect that from us, you're going to expect that over time, the products that we offer will continue to improve in quality. And I do want to make a add on to a point that Tim said there about getting these boats in the water this summer. So we have experienced in the first week of shipping probably about a 10% problem or damage problem. We think that we lowered that to 5% in the third week and the second week, we believe that we are now in weeks to come down in the one to 2% range. And while that causes a big issue to the one, two, or 5%, who had the damage issue, that means that 95% of the people who have received the origami paddler are out and enjoying the fun and the freedom that comes from being on the water.
So we want to make sure that we give everybody possible the potential of that experience, while we are judiciously and professionally handing handling all of the damage issues that we are seeing. Yeah.
Yeah, I'll just add to that, that, you know, we have overcome a lot of other issues that have been if this has been quite a year. So this is just another thing we're working out Jake takes a little bit of time, but we are going at warp speed to make this thing work. We have an exceptional team that is very, very adaptive and very imaginative that I'm very proud of. And, and it's sometimes that the 10% or 5%, or 1% ends up being a picture on online and you don't see the other 90% of the people or 98% are going to be 100% of the people that are having a great time. And that's that's what we want to do is get people on the water this summer. I did have a question because I know that a lot of the first prototypes on Kickstarter that people saw were metal hinges, but then I feel like I saw something about looking at the sustainability long term of the metal hinges but also the recyclability of the metal hinges because, you know, our goal is to create a product that is as green as possible that is completely recyclable, all of you know, that really creates that sustainable, you know, future that's part of our values.
Can you you know, sort of go back and explain some of some of that process.
Yeah, it was a lot, it was very difficult to make it so the hinges when you recycle plastic, you have to have clean
and sorted plastic to recycle. So that it was a lot more trouble to make it so that the
the hinges actually clamp on. Rather than having poles and fasters we didn't want to we want to eliminate
most of the metal. We only have two metal inserts that the Finns screw down to that the rest of it is, is it's a beautiful design because it's it just unclamped you take out the screw and then you have two different distinct types of plastic that are recyclable. And the other main thing about this this boat getting back to the ship ability of them if it's an ocean kayak, I had a policy I started the first sit on top kayak company, that ocean kayak way back when and our policy there was if you can cut the thing back up and put it in a UPS double box. Then we'll pay the shipping back and be 100% responsible for our post consumer waste and no other company has ever done that before or since. Now with the origami it's even better because all you do is you know wrap it up and ship it you can put a label right on it.
Or,
if you have the box left, then you can put it in a box. But it's very shippable. Because the, it folds into a UPS double package, which wasn't easy to do.
And, but that makes it very, very much more recycle abled. So that's
Yeah, I'm gonna, I'm gonna come back and address the question about the metal hinges. So the metal hinges that people saw were on the very, very early prototypes of this product. But for the last year, we have been focused on the plastic hinges, and minimizing any metal that's in this in this product whatsoever to increase the recyclability of the product.
Yep. Gotcha.
And the next question I have on our list is, what is your r&d team and your engineers, what are they doing to fix the problem that we're seeing?
Specifically, we're we're at, it's his kind of like developing a photo that takes a little while we pack the the rest of the boat, the body of the boat has, like I said, it has no problem at all, what we're doing was just supporting the end that has the hinge on it. So that the, if it gets
it, well, it also has to, to learn to it has to be able to flop fall from four feet, in shipping. And so that's, that's why most and most packages, like I was saying, have the oldest packaging around it. But to we've done tested it with different, you know, support systems underneath the, the hinge. And so we're basically putting different support systems around the hinge. So that the, the, when it gets dropped from four feet, which is really pretty severe, that's more than I've seen anybody on on land do that, that the the, the blow will be supported by the hole rather than the hinge.
So we're testing a lot of different packaging materials. So we make minor changes in our packaging. And when we do we ship those products back to our r&d facility in Bellingham, from our manufacturing facility in Kansas, to simulate the movement of these paddlers across country. So, you know, Washington is about as far away from Kansas as anywhere in the United States is, so we can fairly simulate and duplicate the the transportation conditions that our paddlers see. So every time that we make a minor change in the packaging, we not only send it out to a few 100 customers to get all their feedback and find out if we really have reduced the failure rate from 5%, down to 2%, down to 1%. But we also ship variations in packaging back to our r&d lab in Bellingham. And they're very careful to analyze every aspect of the boxes that they receive, so that we get their input on what the effectiveness has been of our packaging changes.
Yeah, and one, one more thing to that is that, then it makes it a little bit more challenging, but it's just the challenge is that we have to relay that information to Kansas. So they differ from Kansas to Washington. And then we look at that, and we get the information back there now with with other companies that I've started, if I wanted to change something I just walked down and you know, we'd say, well, we're going to change it, but to change it 1500 miles away is a little bit more difficult. And but we're addressing that and making those adjustments, but it just takes a little bit of time. But we we've done this thing really, really rapidly.
Yeah. So let me address let me say one more thing about the time, it's every time that we make a packaging change, it takes about, you know, 10 days to 15 days to really understand the impact of that, because it has to ship across country, which takes seven to 10 days. And then we analyze the results. And then we give the feedback to our manufacturing company. And then we make the packaging change for everybody else. So it does take time to improve the quality of the received product. But we are doing it just as judiciously and as diligently as we possibly can.
Absolutely. And we all know that, you know, social media is 24 hours a day. So this question was actually posted 13 hours ago. So that was while most of us were sleeping. But it's a kind of specific question. So I really wanted to make sure that you know we got some feedback on it. In the world of engineering manufacturing, its standard Practice to use CAD or cam techniques, when designing and manufacturing things like hinges and fasteners, and extending the design to include simulation of forces under variable dynamic conditions for multiple materials, I have to ask if this approach was taken, and why not, specifically with the maximum weight and the hinge issues that we're seeing?
Well, this is in both design, when it goes through the water, I'll just say this. And then I'll address the shipping issue, one of the things that you can do is simulate a boat going through the water, but they can only simulate going through flat water, it simulating going through rough water or wave wave conditions, has has been proved to be ineffective or impossible. So the same thing happens with because you can't, you can't put a wave on the waves are so complex, you can't put that on, on a computer to simulate that. So it's a it's it's more of a trial and error type thing, which we can zero in on. And we've been very, very good at. When you get to instead of the ocean, when you put a product through the shipping channels, it's the same thing. There's no program that says if it will, you know, pass or fail test in a computer that says, Okay, if if it does this, this and this, then it will pass the shipping test, you know, the shipping is is is rather random. There's, you know, 1000s of people that handle this thing, and each one of them have lived differently. And I wish there was a program to do that. But
but we can learn from doing so many live tests, right? Like the ones we've been
talking about. Yeah, and we do use CAD. And we use that as much as we can we have a CNC I have a CNC machine that were cut out full size products, so we can test out how they're going to go even how flexible they are. And we've been able to simulate all that stuff. And we can we there's certain tests that we do that. We'll simulate that and and we're learning more about ups, I asked the driver, you know, what do you guys do with these things? And I got more information from the driver that I did from the office. So
yeah, let me let me jump in there as well. So we did do CAD modeling, and we did the finite element analysis on the initial hinges, which is why they never didn't showed any problems at all, during normal use. But we didn't do, you know, either forgot to do or didn't think to do, or I don't even know if it's even possible to do that same sort of analysis to simulate the shipping conditions moving one of these boxes, you know, across the country by truck. So it's really a combination of that science and the engineering of of having qualified engineers take a look at the CAD models, doing the stress analysis doing the finite element analysis that we continue to do, plus the real world testing that we've done, from, you know, from taking the prototypes out on the water with Tim. And now the real world testing that we are doing shipping the units across country via UPS.
Oh, I'll add one more thing that people have that that isn't mentioned here is the it's the 3d printing, we employed 3d printing, and I never thought 3d printing up till this point was ever something you could do in production, because it's so slow. But there's, we have people that are really good with 3d printing. And they've shown me that it is possible to do 3d printing extra support pieces, that that, you know, we could 3d print, you know, do a CAD model, 3d print, put it in there, and in a matter of days, we could improve the performance, we did that with one and he had a much more improved breakage thing between that and that changing the materials that the hinges are made out of. So it's a work in progress, and it won't stop. We we have a product now that you know we need to support a little bit, but we're we're making improvements all the time on that.
And you made a really good point there, Tim. So our design process really has multiple steps to it. So Tim typically carves something out and then we do the CAD modeling on it and then we do all the engineering tests and the the finite element analysis on it. Then we 3d print the model out of several different materials and test it out and try it out. Then we spend literally hundreds of 1000s of dollars on molds, so that we can create those hinges and other parts, you know, at a fashion that allows us to ramp up to shipping 500 boats a day. So we are extremely careful before we spend those hundreds of 1000s of dollars on the molds, to make sure that we have a product that we think is absolutely going to work, then when we create the molds, we test it out with various materials, so that we can have the material that's going to work the best. And then we do the real world testing with the real holes, and the real hinges, you know, after having spent, you know, nearly three quarters of a million dollars on the molds, and then we continue to make continuous improvements and design modifications and material modifications to improve the quality of our product over time.
I'll add that somebody might ask, why do you spend so much on molds, you know, I can make a fiberglass mold in my garage. And that's what I used to do. But it won't, the cost of making it out of fiberglass means it's going to be 10 times as much. I bought a racing kayak just recently here and it was 10 times as much it was over as almost 40 $500. And it's very, very light, and very expensive. And it takes months to get. So with this, with this technique of these expensive molds, the molds are expensive. But if you make enough votes, and you have enough support from supporters like you, you've made this happen, that and this is really your company, because it's it's, it's we really honored that you made you put us on the map this way, and we gave you a great deal. The idea of of having a boat, even anything under $500 a little while ago would have been, you know, absurd, so that we're able to make you a product that's very durable and lightweight. And, and, and will last for a long time. And let me add also that this is a sit on top kayak, it's the very nature of a sit on top kayak is much safer, I feel my opinion is better sit, sit inside. And you can't do any FAA analysis on that. But basically with the sit inside kayak, if you flip over, you're swimming. And with our boats, the sit on top concept is is great because it's it's both a sit on top kayak and a paddleboard. Now I'm going to get off sales mode. If that's something people want, we're delivering what people want at a at a very affordable price. We're getting it you know, my my goal in life is a billion bucks in boats. And that means beginners and everybody. So I, I honor and say thank you for all of our supporters that made this company happen.
All right. So why why would we still ship things if they're still breaking? And I think that we answered some of this. But also what is our current position and what we're doing in our shipping? Because we've talked about, we've talked about, you know why, you know, we're continuing to ship product, I think, but I think it's good to address it directly. And then, you know, what's the current status of the products that are being shipped? On the rest of that? Oh, yeah,
I jumped in and answer that. So the reason we're continuing to shipping is because that's the only way we can test the shipping. There's no other way, you really do need to send it out, you really do need to send a few 100 boats out a week to really test whether or not you've got the packaging down in order to scale up to sending out several 1000 votes a week, it's the only way to do it. We really appreciate the cooperation of our community. We're really sorry that any of these are breaking at all during shipping, but it's the only way that we can create a product that will allow us to ship out 10,000 boats a month or more is to test those shipping changes by actually shipping.
The What are we doing to make it right? If I get a boat that has broken hinges, what happens from the moment I find the hinge and how is Oregon have they're going to make it right.
We simply send you a new set of hinges and we can do that in a very short time and that the hinges are very easy to take on and off because it's just just clamps on the hall and there's no holes in the hole so there's no through holes which which that part was everybody that says there's a problem with the hinges but the part of clamping on the hole was a monumental thing that was working perfectly. And nobody's you know, knows how well that's working. But it makes it so it's very easy. There's just once basically two, for each part of the hall, there's the screw that goes down, you unscrew that day, pop it off, put the other one on. And in a few minutes, it's done. And, and the Kickstarter group has been very, very cooperative. They're part of this whole experiment, you know, so they funded this thing and their their testing thing. First, we had 100 people that were designated testers, and we got feedback from them. And then we're getting feedback from the the other people. And so they're, they're part of the improvement program.
Gotcha. I mean, I can answer that from a community side, if you open up your boat, and there is a problem with it. Email us right away at support at origami peddler calm, the more information that you can give us like your back or number, or your name, or anything that came with the boat, that would be wonderful, we will send you a survey. And in that survey, you can give us pictures, you can tell us exactly where the break is happening. And as soon as we have all of the specific information that we need to help you replace your hinges, we will send them out to you. But we have been doing more than that we've been getting on video calls with people and we've been following up with them to make sure that even if they're not super confident in replacing that hinge that we can, you know, walk them through that process. So all everybody behind origami paddlers is a real person, the people that you're emailing the people that are responding to your comments. They are real people living primarily in the United States and Mexico, and Canada. And they are doing all that they can to address your issues. Because we are a community company, the origami pablor is important. But making sure that you feel that love and light that we're all about is really important, even if something goes wrong. And I would encourage anyone to email us first because that's really the best way to get on paper what you need help with. So that way we can have a record of it. And we can keep track of you and we can make sure that you're taking care of as quickly as possible. So there is one I've been seeing this one idea that is floated through our community group. And I think this is our last question. Someone last night around the 14 someone last night, in a different timezone than me it looks like has asked about how we're currently shipping the Oregon maze. And if we're thinking about maybe shipping them unattached. That actually is their their question and their recommendation and what what does the current origami that's floating out the door look like? And how is that different from the first or gummies that were floating out the door.
I'm gonna take that one. Because it's been it's I've been working primarily with our manufacturing team in Kansas to do that. So effective Monday, which is next Monday, the 26th that I believe, is that we're just going to start testing shipping the boats disconnected, which means that we're going to fully assemble them, test them out. And then we're going to disconnect it and send the three whole sections out separately, with some road what we call rotational pins in a plastic bag, and ask our customers to finish the final assembly at their place. It's not quite like IKEA, but it's like you know, 5% IKEA. So when you get the boat out of the box, you lay the lay the three whole sections down individually. And then you've put in for rotational pins to take less than five minutes or so and complete that assembly. And we're optimistic that that's one of the final changes that we need to do in the packaging of these products to eliminate or at least minimize any sort of damage that we see during shipping. So we first kind of stumbled on to that idea a few weeks ago when I got my first origami peddler. It came disconnected, and it came in perfectly good shape. So now we're trying that on a mass scale. So the next several 100 of you that we're shipping out this next week will get origami paddlers that are disconnected. And we expect that it will take you about five minutes or even less to re insert the rotational pins and you'll have a fully operational, hopefully completely undamaged craft that you can get out on the water in in in a matter of minutes from the time that you receive it. Yeah,
and let me add to this. This was a really interesting discovery we made because we found that putting these rotational pins in made the boat stronger when you're using using it, but weaker, not good when you're shipping it. So we said, okay, we'll take the pins out, but during the shipping, and you put them on during the once you get the boat, and it makes it a little bit more time consuming to take the pieces apart, that isn't quite as instant. But it most of the time people keep the boat together anyway. So it's more convenient. And it makes the unfolding and putting the pin in much quicker. So we've adapted with the, with what we've had. And we've had some interesting, you know, we're learning as we go. With this and in like I said, it's impossible to, to learn until you've actually there's no computer program that will tell you the ideal shipping package, we just have to ship it. And we've had great cooperation with our people about getting that feedback. This is a group effort. And I honor and thank all of the supporters for for all their support in this.
Yeah, we are to Kickstarter, and it's already a part of the guide. And all in our instruction manual, taking apart the boat and three pieces. That was always something that was intended, we thought that it would be easier for everybody to put them together. But if taking them apart means that they they make it to you and there's not unusual stress on the hinge then that sounds like a great plan.
Okay, Kaylee, we are taking the hinges apart to ship them? Should I also be taking them apart? Should I be taking my boat apart to transport it in my own car?
Oh, yes, answer that. Most cars. But let me first just just to make something perfectly clear. When I was saying about replacing the hinges, we're not talking about that the the hinge will be remained clamped on the boat, and there's a rotation pin that links the two hinges together and makes it pin and we call it a rotation pin because the boat rotates around it. So the question is, do I take the rotation pins apart when I put it in the car. And if you have to you can, but 99% of the time, I think the people will just get the boat and put it in the back of their car, it goes into a regular sized trunk or car. And that's the only time you really have to lift the boat. Once it's folded, which is minimal. Sometimes what, what people do is they'll they'll kind of slide it out of the car until one and down. So you don't really have to lift it, and then put it on two wheels and wheel it away. So you'll never be the amount of lifting you do is very, very minimal. And you don't have to lift up on the roof rack.
Yeah, which was. So I'm Uh, I'm going to jump in there and say, generally speaking the ride of a car, if you put an origami pattern in the back of your car, the ride is going to be a lot smoother, and the ride is going to be a lot shorter. We don't envision any problems at all, if you're taking the powder and putting it in the trunk of a car and going, you know, 10 2050 or 100 miles or so if you decided to put the origami paddler in the back of a pickup truck, you know, like a 20 year old pickup truck with worn out sheet springs and shocks, and you're going to drive it across country, then it might be a good idea to separate the three whole sections to prevent any sort of damage. But otherwise, we haven't seen any reports of damage that happens when somebody is, is using the product with normal use. And part of the normal use is putting it in the trunk of your car and driving 10 2050 miles to the beach, and then taking it out and using it. Yeah,
I think I we don't really know because we can't heal. We don't know what the shipping companies do. But, you know, if I lifted packages all day, and they were really heavy and big, I would throw them around to so you know, I think it's mostly from throwing them around and they're used to just tossing things like basketballs. And this one is on the upper limit of the it's not actually really close to the limit of of regular price shipping for the companies that that that ship so it's it's I think it's it's I feel like it's mostly dropping from from big distances that that causes the damage which doesn't happen.
Which doesn't happen on purpose a lot. Yeah.
What doesn't happen when on like, I don't do it? Maybe somebody does, but I think generally people that own the things don't drop it from four feet. Well, I
think in our guide, we did read exceptionally tall. Yeah, in our guide, we do recommend that this is a boat, like any boat, if you wouldn't throw a boat, then don't throw an origami. If you throw a boat, I like to see the boat that you have, because I'm pretty sure it may have a hole in it, and it may not be floating anymore. The last question and we can cut this out. And that's why I saved it. Because the what I've seen this morning, the question that I've seen this morning is, are we willing to ship replacement hinge packs as part of as part of the product, like, and I mean, a total hinge assembly so that if any part of the hinge is broken, they have an extra right there to replace it with.
I'm gonna take that one if I may. So we are certainly willing to consider that we have not decided to do that yet. Because frankly, we need to think that through. Because there are there are 16 different components to the hinges that go on each origami paddler. And we're not sure what in fact, we would ship out if we had a replacement hinge pack. What we're doing right now is, is when somebody says this one broke, we get pictures of it, we know exactly which ones of those components to ship, and we ship out the two or the three, or even the just the one component that they need, and then talk to them about replacing that on their craft. So shipping out replacement hinge packs is something that we are we are considering but it's a bit of a challenge to try to figure out what to ship I don't think anybody wants, you know, a complete 16 piece set with screws and the hinge cords and the hinge pins and all that you know in every box that we ship out. Gotcha.
Since this it might get cut. I will say that the in full disclosure some but some people say well I want full disclosure on everything. And something we haven't said before was that the we've had some really high price increases. So their profit margin on our our first boats to the the discount, well highly discounted first. adopters are the first Kickstarter people we are We aren't making that much money. But so we've had the price of the plastic for the material for the holes doubled. And the prices of the shipping that we decided to just go ahead and do the cost of shipping equal the price or sometimes it was more than the price of the thing that we were getting. Because we had to airfreight things in because we thought it was the right thing to do to manufacture as soon as possible. So we're taking a hit on that. And then to do that, the other thing I will say separate subject is needless to say we are in we want to do constant improvement all the time. And if we come out with a more improved in which anticipate then that will be available and some arrangements. So he did what's nice about this is that the hinges are easily adaptable and can be put on so that if we have an upgrade somebody can upgrade if they so desire.
I think that's the end of it. Ladies, do we have any more questions? Hearing none, hearing none, I just want to thank everybody who took the time to listen to this video. We hope that we have communicated enough information to restore your confidence in us and to help you feel optimistic about receiving a paddler that's going to work and allow you to get out and get on the water as we hold true to the truth to our vision of the company, which is to spread love and light and increase the health and happiness of every one of our customers and everybody on the planet you know as the their energy that they have ripples out through the universe. A big thank you to Elena Keeley and especially Tim, who is the founder of the visionary, you know the heart of our company, in helping us work through these problems and designing it in the first place in taking care of our community and making your life as as good as possible. So thank you again for watching and listening and thank you most of all, for being a supporter of origami paddler and a valued member of the origami paddler family. Thanks. Let's get a billion butts in boats. Amen.
