Kickstarter Approaching, Pricing Set, Etchr on Tour!

Hey all, Daz here again, welcome back.

NOTE: If you're interested in purchasing, we recently concluded our successful Kickstarter campaign and just opened our Pre-Order store - if you missed out on the KS campaign, our Pre-Order campaign is still offering some pretty sweet discounts!

Our Kickstarter campaign is approaching fast so we wanted to give you an update on what we're doing in the final stretch before launch and what we've been up to over the past month. Let's get to it.

KICKSTARTER LAUNCH WINDOW

The Etchr Art Satchel and Etchr Field Case will be launching simultaneously on Kickstarter in the second half of August (next month).

We still have a ton of moving parts, so we'll need to confirm the exact date as we get closer to launch.

For those of you not already on our Early Bird List feel free to join as we'll be letting our mailing list know our launch date ahead of the crowd so they can jump on the very limited Early Bird Specials we will have on offer (more to come on these!).

If our last campaign was anything to go by we don't expect these Early Bird specials to last long :)

PRODUCT PRICING

We've been repeatedly asked about the pricing of our new products, but as much as we would have loved to have dropped some indication of price, we simply couldn't until now as we have been working around the clock to improve our offering with our manufacturers. Every change affects the production cost - sometimes quite markedly.

While we strived to keep prices as low as possible, the fact is that we also didn't want to compromise on the quality of the materials and components nor the functionality of our new products. We think there are enough low-quality, poorly thought-out schlop products in the world and we want to create items that will last with very few compromises.

Where possible, we always opted for the higher quality option.

Obviously due to the complexity and quality increase of the Etchr Art Satchel in particular, the cost of production is much more expensive than the original Nomad Art Satchel (which was retailing at US$135) - but I think when you see the final result, it's evident where the extra cost has gone.

We've literally just finished on the spec list and design and can finally confirm our recommended retail prices (RRP) and the ceiling prices for Kickstarter (Early Bird pricing will be lower than these):

Etchr Art Satchel
Kickstarter Max: US$189
RRP: US$250

Etchr Field Case
Kickstarter Max: US$55
RRP: US$75

Again, I realize the price of the Etchr Art Satchel is quite a leap over the price of the original Nomad, and I understand not everyone may be able to afford it.

It is totally not our intention to marginalize anyone or to gouge people with pricing, but the goal with our new products is to deliver the best darn art carry that we can in each class.

Hopefully it is understandable that there are significant costs associated with such an ambitious endeavor.

TAKING THE ETCHR GEAR ON TOUR

In preparation for our Kickstarter campaign in August we thought it would be a great idea to get our products into the hands of some pros in Tasmania (for those of you who don't know, it's an island off the coast of Australia). Not to say we couldn't find any Artists in Melbourne we just wanted an excuse to go in search of the "extinct" Tasmanian Tiger. 

While down in Tassie we caught up with the pretty-damned-rad Marvel Comics Artist Patrick Brown, seen below in his sweet home studio in Launceston.

Patrick has done a bunch of stuff for the Spiderman franchise (he even has a Spidey tattoo which we thought was all kinds of awesome).

Simon and Hana (Simon's partner) had a great time hanging in his decked out studio while he got acquainted with our Etchr Art Satchel prototype and the wonderful Procreate App.

Check out the Guardians of the Galaxy fan art on the wall behind Patrick. Patrick credits this particular piece for getting him "discovered" and landing his first big freelance gigs.

We also had the pleasure of dropping by the studio of Marty Abel in the beautiful city of Hobart on Tasmania's South coast.

Marty is a rarity in the art world - a professional Fantasy Artist who primarily earns his bread with his own creations - pretty much the Holy Grail of every artist.

He spends most of his time in an eclectic little stone studio in his idyllic garden - something that we absolutely adored!

Marty put our Art Satchel to the test with the iPad while Simon and Hana hung out with his lovable fur baby.

Check it out, he even has a Chicken coop in the backyard...there's something entirely wonderful about hearing bok-boks bok-bokking during the day, a throwback to an earlier simpler time in human history. Or something.

Thanks so much to Marty for being so accommodating - such a great guy.

Next stop was a visit to the guys and girls behind the killer app Procreate which probably sells more iPad Pros than any other software. 

For those of you who haven't heard of Procreate (wut), it is THE best painting software that you can get on iPad Pro and utilizes the Apple Pencil tech to achieve spectacular mobile results. You should try it.

Simon ran the crew through a quick demo which saw the team descending on our little baby for a play-around.

Thanks to the guys for having us over, it was super inspiring to be in the presence of such a kickass, world-changing company.

Somewhere between way-points, Hana (who is from Boston) saw her first Kangaroo when Simon got lost somewhere...the look says it all hah :D

One more thing, we wanted to shout out Yan our Co-Founder who's just tied the knot with his College sweetheart! He's been honeymooning in Europe with his new wife, Christina and lugging around one of our prototypes. Congrats guys!

FIN

NOTE: If you're interested in purchasing, we recently concluded our successful Kickstarter campaign and just opened our Pre-Order store - if you missed out on the KS campaign, our Pre-Order campaign is still offering some pretty sweet discounts!

Well that's it! We can't wait to launch the Art Satchel and Field Case in August - I am both extremely excited and also anxious to get it going on Kickstarter... this time around we've put so much more effort behind the scenes to make this something special and I'm crossing all my fingers, toes and existential crisiseses that we do ok.

This is where you come in if you're so inclined. If you like what you see and what we're striving to stand for (more art in the world) please please please tell your friends - we could really use all the help you can muster to spread the message.

It would go a long way to making these new babies a reality and we'd forever be thankful and hold a special place for you in our cold black calcified substitutes for hearts :D

Stay on the lookout as we'll be releasing more updates directly to our Early Bird List to keep folks up to date given Kickstarter is just around the corner.

If you'd like, you can also connect with us through Facebook and Instagram, and learn more about our mission, our journey and all things Etchr on our Blog.