A multipurpose travel jacket that was created by a married couple for their long-distance relationship has now raised $7.2 million on Kickstarter.
Hiral Sanghavi, who grew up in India and owns a company there, had been traveling frequently to Chicago to visit his wife, Yoganshi Shah, in Chicago. Sanghavi kept forgetting his neck pillow during his flights, which also involved business. Shah wasn’t happy that her husband was spending $25 on a pillow every time he traveled, and that they were accumulating a stockpile of pillows.
This prompted them to design the multipurpose BauBax Travel Jacket, which comes in eight styles—four for men and four for women—and provides travelers with 15 features including a built-in neck pillow, an eye mask and earphone holders. The jacket also features nine utility pockets—for an iPod, portable charger, mobile phone, passport, drink, sunglasses, blanket, gloves and hand-warming.
Part of the jacket’s appeal is that it provides room for items that otherwise might need to be placed into carry-ons and checked luggage. Carry-ons now are more strictly limited and some airlines charge for them, while many airlines are charging fees for checked luggage.
The jacket generally falls in line with the products created by Scottevest, which specializes in designing clothing with plenty of pockets. “We design our clothing around you (and your stuff) to help you achieve pocket nirvana,” Scottevest states on its website.
The couple hoped to raise $20,000 for the BauBax Travel Jacket on Kickstarter, and have now surpassed their wildest expectations. Their campaign has been backed by 36,245 people, through Aug. 31.
Kickstarter is a platform that designers, artists, filmmakers, musicians and others use to generate financial support for their projects. Backers don’t profit financially, but are typically rewarded with something related to the product or the creator’s other items. In the case of the BauBax jacket, backers receive other BauBax clothing products.
