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The 'Coolest' Cooler Kickstarter Has Ever Seen

By erika - July 23, 2014

in Kickstarter

If you could combine a cooler with another product, what would it be? A built-in ice crushing blender, a USB charging station, a waterproof bluetooth speaker, or a hidden cutting board? How about all of the above? These are only a few features of the portable icebox that raised close to six million dollars in the first week of its crowdfunding campaign. Now, I don't have a problem with the classic cooler, as inferior as it may seem next to the 'Coolest' cooler—I have many fond memories of get-togethers on the deck of my childhood house sprinkled with a rainbow of coolers filled with frozen treats for the kids and beer for the adults. But you would have to be a little out of your mind to argue that this isn't a significant upgrade to the original design (which dates back to 1954, history buffs).

Check out the video for more information on the frippery and flounce that the Coolest has to offer:

If all of these bells and whistles sound suspiciously like feature creep, have faith in the numbers—and take a minute to consider all of the features that your current cooler lacks. The project creators allotted 50 days for this fundraising gig, which reached its goal of $50,000 within hours of being posted. Seems like dad's hand-me-down just isn't getting the job done well enough for us millennials. The Coolest comes equipped with the aforementioned frills, plus an LED in the lid to facilitate after-hours drink selection, plate/cutlery storage, a bottle opener (of course) and extra-wide easy rolling tires. The cooler's shape fits into a tie-down system that sure beats the old, haphazard stack-and-bungee-cord strategy. A built-in bungee is accessible from the back of the container and can be pulled up and over the cooler, and securely fastened around the front control panel. Watch and learn:

That blender-capable lid, though. For a container that packs so much functional punch, the design is surprisingly intuitive. Coolest may not set any kind of wow factor standard in terms of aesthetic—which, in this situation, is ok considering function reigns king—but the Coolest works with its add-ons without adding any obnoxiously obvious design details. The bottle opener is nestled conveniently on the face of the cooler, while a cutting board doubles as a food prep surface and an interior wall between the ice and your snacks. It's tiny details like this that redefine the cooler experience.

Unfortunately, backers won't be getting their hands on their 'Coolest' this beach season—the product isn't due to ship until February of next year. That said, if you're willing to wait for your tailgate party's new best friend—or if you want to get way ahead on your Father's Day shopping—check out the Coolest Kickstarter campaign here.

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Mitch

10 years ago

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You're both wrong. Its simple marketing and dollars. His first campaign received less than 1000 facebook shares. his second had 80 thousand shares in 1 week. He promoted the projected and built a following, launched the project then used ads effectively. We notice a huge difference when we spend a few bucks on facebook ads.
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Zac

10 years ago

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Agree with James, that is the more interesting story here. I think it was a timing issue the first time. This second time was during the summer when its more relevant.
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JamesS

10 years ago

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His first campaign didn't fund, even as the video pitch was very similar:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ryangrepper/the-coolest-cooler-with-blender-music-and-so-much?play=video_pitch&ref=users

Can we attribute the massive success of this new campaign to just the design tweaks or to better campaign promotion? Did Core feature the first Coolest?
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