We launched Knack in November 2018 to help anyone who has ever experienced the hassle of juggling multiple bags during their day. Our unique collection of stylish, multiple-purpose bags lets you use just one bag to carry all the different aspects of your life. With over 9,500 units shipped and over $1MM in sales in the 17 months since launch, we believe that Knack will truly change how people live their lives while, at the same time, upending the $31B US bag market (market data as of 2018).

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Everyone has experienced the hassle of carrying multiple bags as they move through their busy day. Work bag and gym bag; work bag and travel bag; work bag and diaper bag; the list is endless (and exhausting). We launched Knack in November 2018 with the simple idea of making life easier by eliminating the need to own and carry lots of single-purpose bags. 

In our view, since legacy bag brands have always been focused on single-purpose bags in everything they do, from product development to marketing and distribution, consumers have had to accept buying and using a specific bag for each of their various carry needs. Therefore, they’ve been forced to carry more than one bag as they move across different activities during their day. Everywhere you look you see people carrying work bags, gym bags, backpacks, laptop bags, roller-bags, carry-ons… at the same time!

Not only is carrying multiple bags at the same time a hassle, but it makes it extremely challenging to keep your hands free for your phone, your coffee, or even your child's hand. Due to the massive inconvenience presented by single-purpose bags, 45%* of urban professionals would not recommend their primary bag to a friend. 

*This data is based on the analysis of proprietary research Knack conducted with a representative sampling of US consumers.

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Knack’s patent-pending One Bag Life concept is a game-changer. Finally, the shift from work to personal life (and back again) can be totally seamless.

We popularized the first intentionally-designed, multi-purpose bag concept: a collection of daily-use, professional laptop backpacks with a separate, hidden travel compartment that expands and packs like a suitcase when you need it and zips away when you don't.

Our brand gives urban professionals the ability to move seamlessly from their work life to their personal life and back again with only one bag; in other words, “One Bag Life”.  Our collection of add-on accessories, such as expandable organizer cubes, allows our customers to further customize their Knack Packs and enjoy a simpler life on the go.

Over the last few years, the US market for all types of work and travel bags has grown at a swift, sustainable pace moving from around $18B in 2010 to over $31B in 2018. We believe that almost one-third of this $31B market consists of single-purpose bags that are frequently used at the same time as other single-purpose bags. As a result, we think that well-designed, multi-purpose bags could replace these products and ultimately be a $10B opportunity.

Our category-defining brand is poised to fuse and soak up market share from multiple single-purpose market segments, including travel/sport, luggage, business cases, and backpacks. Particularly as flexible work options increasingly become the norm, and the average professional becomes even more ‘on-the-go’, we expect demand for all-in-one, multi-purpose bags to grow rapidly in the near future.

The Knack management team used publicly available source data combined with their estimates of specific category and use case volumes (based on over 35 years in the luggage, bag and accessory industries), to estimate the volume of currently-designed "single-purpose" bags that could be replaced by "multi-purpose" bags.

Since we launched our website, we’ve seen over 600,000 consumer sessions from across the globe, we’ve shipped over 9.5K units, and we’ve driven over $1MM in sales in our first 17 months.

We’ve gained thousands of new followers on Facebook and Instagram, and garnered impressive ratings from owners:

• 4.8/5 on Knackbags.com

• 4.8/5 on Trustpilot

• 4.8/5 on Facebook

We’ve seen that high levels of customer satisfaction also translate into high levels of repeat purchases. Since launch, 17% of our customers came back to Knack to buy another Knack product. In addition to a focus on customer satisfaction, we drive repeat purchasing through frequent product updates as well as through an expanding collection of companion accessories that help make the Knack Pack work even better.

The days of stepping out your front door with multiple bags are over. Knack makes it easier for urban professionals to work, travel, and play where they want, and how they want, using only one great, multi-purpose bag.

We focus our marketing and distribution efforts on building two main revenue pipelines.

Direct-to-Consumer: We sell to consumers in the US and Canada exclusively through our website - knackbags.com. We focus on efficiently driving traffic to our site through growing non-Cost Per Click digital marketing activities which have helped steadily drive down our average Customer Acquisition Cost since launch. With average customer revenue of $259.93 in 2019, our marketing strategy increased our Customer Revenue/Customer Acquisition Cost from 1.23X in Q1 ’19 to 2.73X in Q4 ’19.

Corporate Gift and Incentives: The US Corporate Gift market accounted for 22.3% of our 2019 gross revenue. The US Corporate Gift market is estimated to be $24.7B. Since launch, we’ve sold customized Knack products to NFL teams, Silicon Valley companies, and Fortune 50 corporations. We’ve also partnered with a major Corporate Gift Distributor to simplify execution in this channel.

First and foremost, our brand is dedicated solely to creating the best multi-purpose bags in the world. Our patent-pending products solve urban professionals' daily carry needs in a uniquely different, and better, manner than bags on the market today. Additionally, our team has grown premium brands and developed successful digital marketing strategies for some of the most recognizable bag and accessory companies in the world (like Coach, Tumi, and eBags). With this experience, we believe we are well-positioned to execute a winning digital marketing strategy with a winning brand concept.

We see a world where urban professionals use One Bag that eliminates the need to carry two or more bags as they move back and forth across their work and personal lives on a daily basis. We see this change not just in the US but across the world.

Tens of thousands of consumers visit our website from across the globe in spite of focusing our marketing efforts solely on the US. We’ve also had global consumers buy Knack products in the US and ship them through freight forwarders to their home countries. We know that our concept is global, so a key future growth driver is utilizing major key international market distributors, who we’ve worked with at past companies, to bring the Knack brand to consumers outside the US and Canada.

The B2B market is also an area for expansion that will allow us to more rapidly scale our consumer brand experience. We see increasing numbers of companies interested in outfitting their frequent-traveling executives with co-branded Knack Packs. To date, we’ve sold Knack bags to a wide range of organizations from NFL Teams, to established Silicon Valley companies, to Fortune 50 corporations.

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Our fully remote team consists of experienced start-up veterans as well as senior managers from Fortune 100 companies. Founder and CEO Chad Mellen is an experienced executive with two exits under his belt and a track record of managing growth for premium accessory and luxury brands.

Chief Digital Officer Keith Bristol has held executive roles across a number of eCommerce consumer brands such as eBags, Tumi, and UsingMiles. He has helped lead multiple startups to high levels of growth and exits.

We see a world where it’s no longer necessary to carry multiple bags at the same time just to go about your daily life. Although we’re still a young brand, professionals love our concept and, most importantly, our multi-purpose products. Our team has years of experience growing global accessory brands across diverse channels and is using that experience to make Knack synonymous with thoughtfully-designed, multi-purpose accessories. We need your support to help us continue to create innovative new bags and accessories as well as to increasingly spread the word about the Knack brand

Please join us in our mission to make it easier for people across the world to carry their lives with them every day.