The Real Adventure Den Kit
I don’t normally blog about last night’s TV (or should I say iplayer), but this has to be a small exception. Among the array of entrepreneurship televisual entertainment on offer these days comes a new one called ‘High Street Dreams’ aimed at launching new products in mainstream shops and thus realising the dreams of a few lucky wannabe entrepreneurs and inventors.
The product that caught my eye this week was the simple, but ingenious ‘Den Kit’ – brainchild of two primary school teachers from Shropshire, Jo Jones and Kay Miller. Having worked around children for over 25 years, it was obvious that they knew the target market inside out and upside down – literally. Having tested out various iterations of the den kit – a mallet, tarpaulin, camp mug and string to be precise – the pair had reached a point of sell or give up. So they appeared on TV instead (an opportunity not to be sniffed at, of course).
Jo and Kay were put through their paces to bring the product to market – re-thinking suppliers, packaging and branding. Eventually they were given the chance to pitch to a major toy retailer, who at first couldn’t quite see the value of the den kit, especially at a premium price of £29.99. But what swung it for said retailer was the fact that the den kit was merely the start of the adventures and a tool for which children could hootle off and go create and imaginate to their hearts content. In his words ‘the spirit of the product’ and sense of adventure could really have an impact and so the den kit (with a bit of re-working) will hit the shelves later this year.
There’s nothing quite like a heart-warming entrepreneurial success story to give you a fuzzy feeling inside. But this story goes further than that for me. The den kit is sure to appeal to both children’s sense of adventure and play but also help parents to give their children the right conditions for creating adventure too. That’s what we like to promote at Magnetic North. Our travels are based on the idea of exploring – not to conquer but to discover new ways to live in nature. And hey it’s fun too. We wish the ladies of Real Adventure the very best of luck!
We’ll soon be adding a number of school trips to our portfolio to give young people ways to enjoy being in nature by doing things like den building, food foraging and sailing. If you’d like to find out more about our school programmes, please do sign up for our newsletter or get in touch.