Either you end up renting an expensive day locker or loosing some valuables at the beach – either ways you are screwed. Designer Marcal DaCunha shares similar sentiments, which is why he has this cool project called Beach Vault on Kickstarter. We caught up with him to know what triggered him to design this amazing solution.
Marcal – My wife was inspired to come up with the Beach vault because she could never fully relax at the beach. She likes to go to the beach to lay on her towel, sunbathe, and relax. We would leave our stuff wrapped in a towel or in a bag with us, but she never felt comfortable closing her eyes in case someone would quickly walk by and walk off with all our stuff. She wanted to conceal her belongings from view so that she could fall asleep if she wanted and not worry at all.
We get it – behind every successful man is a woman.
Marcal – My wife and I were driving home from a day at the Beach and we were talking about a class we took in college about Innovation and Creativity. My wife is a real genius and always comes up with these brilliant ideas and she came up with the idea for the Beach Vault. The final product is true to her original concept. She wanted a container that she could screw in the sand to put her belongings in and access it through a hole in her towel. From day one she called it the Beach Vault.
Okie – so what is so genius about this design?
Marcal – The key innovation is the helical screw blade around the container. We have created a patent pending invention that can insert any container beneath the ground by means of the helical screw blade. Not only does it pull the container into the ground, it also secures it in the ground.
Life is tough – so what are the challenges here?
Marcal – We are currently facing our biggest problem now. It did take months to finalize our design, work with engineers, build relationships with manufacturers, and build our prototype, but our biggest problem is acquiring the funding for the tooling and inventory. The bare minimum amount of money needed to at least start production is $15,000. In order to really get our product off the ground we need a substantial amount of money. Crowd funding places like Kickstarter have created a platform where we can unconventionally get the funds we need to get started, but without the right exposure people will not know who you are or what your product is.
Give us the deets doctor – spill some beans here.
Marcal – The design process began with building our first prototype at the kitchen tables with some plastic containers and a baby blanket. We wanted the towel to go in the container when not in use. We moved the hole from the center of the towel to go beneath the head so that we could create a cover for the hole with a pillow. We attached a pillow covering to the towel so that it can flap over the opening to the container. We created an inlet around the top of the container so that the towel could slip inside for secure fit. This way the towel does not just slip off the container. Our product is comprised of a plastic, fabric, and an inflatable pillow. We were fortunate to find our plastic manufacturer who solves the problems of working with numerous manufacturers. They were able to work with different suppliers so that the entire product could be assembled and packaged in one location. It was big problem solved.
The project is in its last stages of fundings, head to Kickstarter to get your own Beach Vault.
