CR Brand Notebook Wallets

Industrial Design | Product Owner | DFM | Vendor Management | Mass Market | Customer Service | Campaign Management

This is a total ownership product, from conception to online retail marketplace. We know what our customers want, and what we are capable of delivering, and those are always in negotiation.

CR Brand started when my close friend, Sandy said "you know what sucks? I carry a notebook and a wallet. I mean, there's a pocket in my notebook, but everything just falls out."

I pulled a cereal box out of the recycling, grabbed an X-Acto knife and got to work on a cover. "Slots," I said. "It needs slots." I cannibalized my Moleskine for its paper pages, which I stapled inside, and a new product was born.

The next day people tried to buy that cereal box prototype from Sandy, so we started a business.

We improved everything about it since then. The cover is the most water and rip-resistant paper you've ever seen. We tightened up the die lines from the day-2 laser cut version, and found a manufacturer. They've survived tumbles in washing machines and rain-soaked trips to Alaska. These things are tough.

We sell both to retail and promo marketing channels, and have run a successful Kickstarter as well, during which we renamed the products the Wallaby and the Joey.

Check them out at www.cr-brand.com.