How it started?
WITH PASSION 🏁
I have been passionate about cars and specifically race cars since I can remember - the photo of me at 7 years old is proof. I've been lucky enough to experience some incredible classic race cars thanks to my Grandparents, and throughout the years I have been able to visit some of the most iconic race tracks in the world including Monaco, Le Mans and Silverstone. There truly is nothing quite like the intoxicating buzz of a packed race track.
I am also passionate about creating, always have been, always will be. So when I came accross a photo of an old city map rug and reminisced about those amazing stress-free days being a kid and playing with model cars for hours on end, something clicked. I realised that for some strange reason, nobody had merged fun design and the love for racing with this iconic plaything that so many of us were fortunate enough to have in our childhood.
And a touch of
TRIAL & ERROR!
After countless hours of design development with my - now friends - Milica and Dejan, months of back-and-forth with our suppliers through our sampling process and most importantly, a ridiculous amount of time spent being motivated by my fiancée, family and friends... here we are! A product, brand and vibe that I love passionately.
I truly hope that you and your loved ones enjoy playing with Carpits as much as I have loved creating them.
Thanks for reading,
Ben
It all began with
AN IDEA
I use the "notes" app mostly to jot down super random ideas that I have day to day. I tend to forget that I have these lists on my phone but occasionally I revisit them and read through and think to myself "what could actually work?"
Well in this case, I believed in this very simple idea - Toy car carpets of race track layouts - and this is where Carpits began.
After deciding that this is what I wanted to focus a ton of time and energy into, the process started with drawings!
Working on the
FIRST DESIGNS
Myself and my now good friends Milica and her partner Dejan - both fantastic graphic designers - got to work with the initial drawings. I was pretty set on Carpits being purely aimed at children, with super bright colours and simple designs. But as we went on, we'd add a few bits here and a few bits there, which is when I realised there's potential to make a perfect mix of fun and aesthetically pleasing.
Milica would send me a drawn out track with loads of detail like the rumble strips, markers, pit boxes and I would then spend hours and hours with my fiancée or my little brother scratching our heads to try and perfect each track with extra textures and objects added in.
Receiving the
FIRST SAMPLES
This was tough. A bit of a blow even. We realised that the material, colour and print details were not what we were after and the overall product lacked rigidness. So it was back to the drawing board... We contacted some new suppliers, had some more samples made - 6 rounds of samples to get to our perfect product - and finally saw the potential.
The scary thing with building the brand around a product that wasn't perfected at the time, is that you're never too sure whether it will see the light of day. And the idea of your countless hours going to the bin is terrifying!
Finalising the
PACKAGING
I've always loved memorable packaging - I can't quite put my finger on why, but there is something so satisfying about receiving a product in a box or bag that looks and feels special. That's what I have tried to create with our boxes - they're big, bold, and keep your Carpits safe!
We also decided not to double box, that means that when you open your front door to your delivery, you'll be greeted with our iconic branding which should instantly inspire you to get racing!
We can also pack your order in a discreet box for special occasions 🎁
We finally received the
PERFECT PRODUCT
WOOHOO! Now this was such an exciting day, as far as work goes, probably the best day in my life. What I felt that day was utter relief to be able to hold, feel and use a product that I am truly proud of after 100's of hours dedicated to it, mostly spent staring at a screen!
Şenez and myself had fun racing on each of the tracks, purely for product testing purposes, definitely not because it's actually super fun...
As an adult, you do get a strong nostalgic feeling playing on a carpet with die-cast model cars. And that's why we made Carpits!
