PRESS RESOURCES
We build tools for people who are on the move.
What started - quite literally - as two guys in a van has become a lifestyle movement, a company building products for people who travel; who create; and who are making big moves, around the world.
The Daily bag & the Carry-on 2.0 are here.
Minaal Carry-on 2.0 - Detail Shots
Our Dropbox has additional product photos.
New Kickstarter Video
Kickstarter Teaser Series
Company Background
Founders Jimmy & Doug left their jobs as corporate lawyer and ice cream truck driver to build a company that mirrored their values and travel-focused lifestyle. Their first product, the Minaal Carry-on, was brought to life in their first Kickstarter.
Key Takeaways
The first Carry-on launched on Kickstarter in September, 2013 and surpassed its goal by $300,000+. We raised $341,000 on $30k goal. We were supported by 1600+ backers.
The Minaal team is fully remote and has been since the launch of the company in 2013. We use the amazing series of tubes that people call 'The Internets' to co-ordinate our projects.
Press Quotes
The perfect carry-on backpack.
- Buzzfeed
Our bags (and accessories) are developed via our user-centric design process, with the belief that traveling with a backpack shouldn't make you look like a backpacker.
The new Daily Bag & Carry-on 2.0 raised more than $700,000 in our second Kickstarter. It features Minaal's signature minimalist design and professional functionality, optimised for your daily travels.
Our second Kickstarter also introduced the next version of the Carry-on, the Minaal Carry-on 2.0, featuring re-engineered carry handles, fabric improvements, an aluminum hook compression security system, and component upgrades.
Logos
MINAAL (pronounced min-AHL)
Mission: Minaal makes durable, professional travel gear that gets you where you want to be - faster, happier and more productive.
With ideas borne from endless hours spent in transit, business meetings, and the back seat of a tuk-tuk, Minaal is a travel gear company aiming to make your travels faster, happier and more productive. They lead the fight against the evil ‘Travel Drag’, which they define as “Anything that slows you down, mentally or physically, from reaching your destination.”
In creating streamlined, stylish, yet practical gear, Minaal is drawing on the founders’ combined experience growing up in the varied climates of New Zealand, then working from the road, around the globe. They aim to attract the dedicated traveller who wants to remain professional on the road, instead of looking like a backpacker.
The first product was a Carry-on bag that opens flat and allows you to pack it like a suitcase. In addition, you can easily access your gear from any angle; the main straps zip away within seconds, leaving you with a sleek duffel-style bag; the separate device compartment protects electronics and is lockable, and the bag fits within regular carry-on dimensions.
The second release is the Minaal Daily bag, a smaller bag optimized for everyday use. It's an everyday backpack with an easy-hide strap system, meaning you transition effortlessly into formal mode. Works as both a backpack and a secondary personal item when flying. Fits inside the laptop compartment of its bigger brother, the Carry-on. Minimalist design with rugged outdoor components – a seam-sealed raincover, 600D Nylon core fabric, and custom molded-foam backing panel for comfort.
Minaal is always developing new products for their community, but they're super secret and we can't tell you about them unless you leave $100 in unmarked bills in a brown paper bag at the intersection of Av Rivadavia and Campichuelo in Buenos Aires (directions available on request).
Points of Interest
The founders met and bonded while living in a van with 3 other people, eventually circumnavigating North America on a 27,000km / 17,000mi, 52-day road trip.
After travelling extensively, they couldn’t find the perfect gear for their lifestyle; they wanted to travel light and practical, but maintain a professional appearance.
After spending years imagining the bag, they prototyped it in New Zealand before living in Vietnam for 6 months to develop it further.
The company aims to provide a point of difference with regular brands by emphasising a minimalist aesthetic and focusing on the user, rather than producing hundreds of new models a year to satisfy sales targets and quarterly reports.
Minaal was founded by two regular guys with no formal training in the industry, who decided to make a business out of doing what they loved - travel. Then they made it happen, through a mix of Lean Startup techniques applied to manufacturing; willingness to challenge industry 'rules'; and commitment to living the lifestyle they're enabling.)
Carries like a backpack... expands to be a true piece of carry-on... smartly designed from every angle.
- Racked
Pack lighter and save time and hassle on the road, without sacrificing good looks.
- Idealog Magazine
The bag to end all bags? One thing’s for sure, the Minaal comes closer than any bag we’ve seen to date.
- Complex
Founders' Background/Bios
DOUG BARBER (Co-Founder)
Doug was born to travel, so much so that the maternity nurses had to restrain his progress out of the hospital doors. He was inspired to design travel gear when he realised his mother’s hardcase wheeled luggage weighed more than half the allowable carry-on limit. With a passion for the ocean, sleeping on floors and clean code, Doug is the brains behind Jimmy’s noticeable brawn. He is currently asleep.
JIMMY HAYES (Co-Founder)
With honorary degrees in street food and interpretive dance, Jimmy is also an expert at writing outlandish things about himself in the third person. He was drawn to making travel gear when his bag imploded in an unfortunate rush-hour incident on the Shanghai subway. He is currently refusing to join LinkedIn or sign documents with anything more than ‘X’.