{"id":2640,"date":"2016-07-04T17:42:17","date_gmt":"2016-07-05T00:42:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/explore.globalcreations.com\/theblog\/?p=2640"},"modified":"2016-07-04T22:57:37","modified_gmt":"2016-07-05T05:57:37","slug":"sturdy-foldable-canoe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/explore.globalcreations.com\/theblog\/featured\/sturdy-foldable-canoe\/","title":{"rendered":"Sturdy Foldable Canoe"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-2645\" src=\"https:\/\/explore.globalcreations.com\/theblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/ONAKHeader.jpg\" alt=\"ONAK Canoe in Ghent\" width=\"550\" height=\"180\" srcset=\"https:\/\/explore.globalcreations.com\/theblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/ONAKHeader.jpg 550w, https:\/\/explore.globalcreations.com\/theblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/ONAKHeader-300x98.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 550px) 100vw, 550px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>If you want to go canoeing, but you live in the city and don&#8217;t have a vehicle, \u00a0your only choices were\u00a0to get to the water and rent a canoe or just not go\u00a0canoeing. \u00a0Now, Belgian inventor Otto Van De Steene has taken an idea he developed from a paper origami canoe and created a fully functional folding canoe that is small enough to take on the subway. \u00a0Sure there have been foldable canoes and kayaks around for decades, but none like this.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div class='et-box et-shadow'>\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class='et-box-content'><p>\u201cIt all started back in 2013. \u00a0I had just come back from a photographing trip in Norway and lost my cameras in an accident. To clear my head, I started making little paper canoes as I missed my canoe in Norway. That\u2019s when it struck me: what if I could make real\u2010sized origami foldable canoes? I got obsessed over the idea. Hundreds of paper canoes and dozens of prototypes later, I\u2019m proud we persisted with our idea.\u201d \u00a0 &#8211; Otto Van De Steene<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n<h1>Honeycomb &#8211; Curv\u2122 Polypropylene<\/h1>\n<p>Clearly paper isn&#8217;t a suitable material for a canoe, so Van De Steene and his team began investigating materials that could work. \u00a0They ended up developing\u00a0\u00a0something new called &#8220;Honeycomb &#8211; Curv\u2122 Polypropylene.&#8221; They are in the process of patenting it. \u00a0Not only is the material waterproof, \u00a0it is 10 times stronger than normal polypropylene and it can&#8217;t sink.<\/p>\n<p>The hull of the canoe is one flat piece of this material with fold lines incorporated into the design. \u00a0The hull unrolls from its box-like packaged\u00a0shape to a single flat piece. \u00a0Then it is folded\u00a0into the canoe shape like\u00a0an origami piece. \u00a0Straps hold the canoe together against a couple of internal braces.<\/p>\n<p>It makes no sense to fold a canoe down to an easily transported package then have to deal with a full-sized\u00a0paddle. \u00a0The solution: a telescoping\u00a0paddle that fits into the packaged\u00a0canoe, taking up no additional space.<\/p>\n<h1>ONAK Canoe in Action<\/h1>\n<p>Van De Steene got together with Thomas Weyn, an engineer, \u00a0to found their company, ONAK. The canoe has now been prototyped and tested as can be seen in this video:<\/p>\n<div style=\"text-align: center;\">\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"ONAK&#039;s foldable canoe: Discovering Oslo\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/QDTHtzHEDhY?start=4&#038;feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>The assembled canoe is 15.25 feet long and 2.8 feet wide and weighs 27 pounds. \u00a0It can handle two people easily with a load capacity of up to 551 pounds. \u00a0When folded into its packaged configuration as a\u00a0case on wheels, \u00a0it has\u00a0dimensions of 16 by 48 by 10 inches. \u00a0Two paddles will fit inside the package.<\/p>\n<h1>Getting into Production<\/h1>\n<p>Like so many firms these days, ONAK has launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise the funds needed to get into full-scale production. \u00a0The idea is to use the money they raise to automate and improve the production process and to build a custom made, heated press.<\/p>\n<p>As of today, \u00a0with 27 days to go, they have raised $62,551 of their $166, 713 goal. \u00a0The rewards include canoes at a discounted price. \u00a0Unfortunately the 50 single canoes for $995 have already been taken. \u00a0There remain 149 canoes available for a pledge of $1,106. \u00a0If you and four friends get together you can pledge a total of $4440 and get five canoes ($888 each) \u2013 there were nine of these packages left today. \u00a0Paddles are extra.<\/p>\n<h1>Marketing<\/h1>\n<p>ONAK is taking an approach to marketing that focuses on word of mouth. \u00a0First, \u00a0the canoes will only be sold directly from the company&#8217;s web store. Second, each canoe comes with a website address\u00a0emblazoned on the side that includes your own special page. \u00a0There you can report on your adventures with the canoe. \u00a0In return you get a portion of the sales that come though your page.<\/p>\n<h1>Packaging The ONAK\u00a0To Go<\/h1>\n<p>Finally, \u00a0here&#8217;s a little animation that illustrates how the canoe comes apart and into it&#8217;s packaged configuration:<\/p>\n<div style=\"text-align: center;\">\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Onak_Kano_Sequence\" src=\"https:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/173412955?dnt=1&amp;app_id=122963\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; fullscreen; picture-in-picture; clipboard-write\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<h1>Conclusion<\/h1>\n<p>So there you have it, \u00a0a new and unique take on the idea of a foldable canoe. \u00a0If you&#8217;d like one, \u00a0head on over to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kickstarter.com\/projects\/onakcanoes\/onak-the-origami-foldable-canoe?token=51345880\" target=\"_blank\">ONAK Kickstarter page<\/a> and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/onakcanoes.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">the company website<\/a> to\u00a0get all the details.<\/p>\n<h1>Please Share<\/h1>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; If you want to go canoeing, but you live in the city and don&#8217;t have a vehicle, \u00a0your only choices were\u00a0to get to the water and rent a canoe or just not go\u00a0canoeing. \u00a0Now, Belgian inventor Otto Van De Steene has taken an idea he developed from a paper origami canoe and created a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2647,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,2,19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2640","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-equipment","category-featured","category-products"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/explore.globalcreations.com\/theblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2640","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/explore.globalcreations.com\/theblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/explore.globalcreations.com\/theblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/explore.globalcreations.com\/theblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/explore.globalcreations.com\/theblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2640"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/explore.globalcreations.com\/theblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2640\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2649,"href":"https:\/\/explore.globalcreations.com\/theblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2640\/revisions\/2649"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/explore.globalcreations.com\/theblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2647"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/explore.globalcreations.com\/theblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2640"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/explore.globalcreations.com\/theblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2640"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/explore.globalcreations.com\/theblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2640"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}