Wandrd bags are traveling down a successful path
Promo picture of the Wandrd Hexad Carryall bag.
Wandrd co-founders and brothers, from left, Ryan Cope, Spencer Cope and Austin Cope.
The Wandrd Hexad Carry All duffel.
The brothers behind Wandrd are on a successful journey with their smart travel bags.
Wandrd, founded in Orem in 2015, is the mastermind of co-founders and brothers Ryan, Spencer and Austin Cope. Their first product, the Prvke camera travel bag was the starting point. The company now has three highly successful Kickstarter campaigns under its belt, and the third one hasn’t even ended yet.
This last Kickstarter is the launch of Wandrd’s new product line — smart duffel bags. The Cope brothers have taken the versatility and ease of duffel bag travel, and made it more comfortable, and a lot more organized. This new set of products, the Hexad Access and the Hexad Carryall, expand the company’s reach to all types of travelers.
“This is more functional than a traditional duffel. More versatile than a dedicated travel bag,” Ryan Cope said.
The Copes all travel often, and their luggage of choice has long been the duffel bag. They intimately know its benefits and limitations, so they designed the Hexad bags to enhance the pros and minimize the cons.
The Hexad Carryall and Access somewhat resemble a duffel bag on steroids. Both product lines boast the large catch-all compartment standard to all gym and sports bags, but the similarities stop there. These duffels have a dedicated laptop slot, spill-proof inner pockets, multiple custom outside pockets, at least one pocket that can be accessed from both inside and outside of the duffel, backpack straps that stowaway when not in use (and also double as tote straps), a padded back surface, and are water resistant in and out.
“We’re solving the problem of comfort and organization when traveling with duffel bags,” Spencer Cope said. “Really, we’re just making what we want to use.”
“This is something we wished was out there on the market,” Ryan Cope said.
Luckily, each time the Cope brothers make a product they like, they have thousands of followers and backers that feel the same way. And they love seeing how far their bags go. They’ve seen social media posts of their bags in places as far diverse as Greenland and Kazakhstan.
“About 50 percent of our customers are international, and we’re in over 80 countries now,” Spencer Cope said. “It’s been fun to see that growth.”
Though they’ve had successful crowdfunding campaigns since the beginning, the Copes caution that it has not been easy. In fact, after their first campaign, Ryan Cope thought the $113,000 they raised was a lot of money.
“But I crunched the numbers and then turned to Spencer and said, ‘We owe $10,000,'” Ryan Cope said laughing.
They’ve built on that initial success and recently were finally able to quit their day jobs. This current Kickstarter for the Hexad duffels raised more than $100,000 in the first 24 hours, and it’s already well on its way to $300,000. The Copes expect it to go beyond $500,000.
“We haven’t made it yet, but we’re feeling more comfortable,” Spencer Cope said.