Hi folks! I'm a new user but longtime reader of this forum. You guys are awesome! I wanted to reach out to introduce myself and tell you a little bit about a recent project I've been working on.

My name is David, and I support a small product company called Danger Goods. I became interested in slinging a couple years ago, because it combines my passions for tools and self-sufficiency. My day job is as a product and medical device designer for an organization called Pixel and Timber. As designers and engineers for other peoples' products, we don't often get the opportunity to develop devices that promote self-sufficiency, because most of our clients' businesses dependent on dependent consumers.

During some down time a couple years ago, I was able to use Pixel and Timber's product development horsepower on a project related to slinging. That device was a molded sling design (www.pixelandtimber.com/paleotech) designed to be sold through outdoor retailers. But because the market for a mass-produced sling doesn't yet exist, we redesigned the project as a split pouch sling-making kit which is currently selling at www.dangergoods.com.

That's my introduction. I'll follow up with another post on the details of Danger Goods and some coupons for anyone who's willing to help spread the word.

Welcome to the forum , great idea as a little sling building kit.

Welcome, ELLIOT is a forum member here. I sed he finially got it up and running, this post reminds me i gotta reach out to him

Welcome from Finland!

Welcome from Pennsylvania!

currently elliot has abandond the moulded sling design and instead developed a totally new and rather unique design.

I think it still needs a little work - but it's the first totally new sling idea I've ever seen in over 30 years of being involved with slings and slingers.
And that's all I'm saying ;-)

Finally we meet the chap who designed the original moulded pouch :-)
From just seeing it in pictures it had a number of issues.
But I never got one to play with :-(

So those balls with your 'kit'- hoping they're some sort of solid foam.
The crappy wbite markings suggest 'dog grade' tennis balls. They last about 3 throws. So hope you went with foam :-)

so $15 for some paracord and instructions. And one of the worst sling designs for tennis balls.

It's a nice way to make  easy money, but not great as far as slings for beginners goes.

If you have to have a braided sling - then why not a larger netted pouch that would easily handdle rocks and tennis balls ? 


The idea is sound - you just picked entirely the wrong sling design.

Welcome!
I like the idea generally. It looks like you’ve gone all-in with manufacturing your products and setting up the website. Best of luck with getting this off the ground. Curious Aardvark has put a lot of thought into selling slings.  I’d recommend taking his feedback seriously.

Who is your target market? I don’t think you’ll ever get more than a handful of sales from slinging.org, and we’ll be slightly annoyed if you only chime in when you’re trying to sell something.  We’ve seen a lot of people make a go of selling slings, and none of them are millionaires yet, but if you can get a larger crowd excited about slinging, then go for it!

that's the thing about Elliot - that guy is 100% enthusiasm !
But also has some good ideas about how to get people slinging.
I am still sworn to secrecy :-)

I will say his new design - and it really is new, (no, you won't guess) - is just about totally indestructible, water proof, chemical proof and geared totally towards tennis balls.
The fact that it will also give the mallorcan's 'kittens' - in no way effects my opinion :whistle:
It's about as non-traditional as it's possible to get lol

On a serious note, until we get rid of the ridiculous bias towards traditional slings and a proscribed slinging style - slinging can never achieve mass appeal.

That said a simple braiding kit IS a good idea.
But it has to produce a sling that can throw tennis balls. 
The one string sling and some pre-cut pieces of medical tape to make the three string pouch solid and slightly cupped - would probably be a better way to go.

Or the netted sling pouch - I've always liked that one since I got one from a naval bomb disposal guy in afghanistan.
Throws well and will hold most safe ammo easily. 

The fact that it came with a bunch of 'shrapnel' recovered from an ied - in no way influences me :-)

Here’s the thing... a kit will appeal to a certain small crowd, but the real reason to launch a product as a kit is because the labor to assemble it is too expensive. A $15 kit would cost $50 if you had to pay for the assembly. If you’re going for a mass market, a kit is not the right thing unless the customer already loves making things from paracord... and then that customer base is no longer a mass market!

The product has potential, but the target market is a bit jumbled in my opinion. If you’re going to make a kit for preppers, make it for preppers. If it’s for paracord enthusiasts, then you sell it differently and you also sell kits to make other things from paracord instead of selling wearables and sling targets. If you target slingers, then we don’t need to be sold on slinging, but we do need to be sold on this particular sling. Pick a market. Establish a foothold, and then target a new audience from there. You don’t have the marketing budget to go after everyone at the same time.

Hey CA, is there an ETA on when we might see anything on Elliot's new sling design?  Assuming the timeframe isn't part of the secrecy.

https://www.pixelandtimber.com/paleotech

Wouldn’t be anything to do with the pictures at the bottom of this page would it CA???

Hi guys,

I can’t comment on Elliot’s new sling design, but he is a frequent contributor here, if I’m not mistaken. I’m sure he’ll provide an update on that design when the time is right!

I appreciate all your input on the sling kit! I’d love to do a version with some other sling designs at some point. For now, I selected the split pouch design for its speed and ease of construction. The target market is described briefly in a post in marketplace. It’s not really intended for experienced slingers such as yourselves but more for the average Cabela’s customer making an impulse buy.

This project was intended to get a sling product to market at a speed and COG commensurate with the size of that market. It’s possible that a more detailed analysis of the market will reveal it’s big enough to justify an investment in tooling (such as that required for the Paleotech design), but for now, I believe a kit is a better fit. If you all have some data I can use to justify such an investment, I’d love to take a look!

I don’t think anyone believes that selling slings is a way to make real money, but that’s not primary purpose of this project. If it helps grow the sport a little, though, I think it will probably be a benefit. The folks who have bought the kits so far have indicated a liking for it, anyway. We had a dad and his five year old slinging here the other day — it was adorable!

Curious Aardvark: what sling design would you suggest as the easiest to use for beginners? And for tennis balls? What are the advantages?

The images at the bottom of the Paleotech page were excerpted from the provisional patent application (PPA) for that device. They’re not reflective of Elliot’s new design.

    Hi, David.  I wish you luck with your sling kit.  As I mentioned on the fourm, I prefer a longer sling; about 38" at least.  Maybe you could offer a longer version kit also.

Danger Goods wrote on Feb 3^rd, 2020 at 5:47pm:

Curious Aardvark: what sling design would you suggest as the easiest to use for beginners? And for tennis balls? What are the advantages?

On the forum there is a thread on leather sling templates. A lot of those would be better for beginners due to split pouches dropping tennis balls (C_A is prejudiced against split pouches but he has does have kind of point). If the ammo slips out at all, that can be discouraging for beginners. A full pouch that has next to no chance of dropping ammo would be a safer option. Including a template would work well with this sort of kit as well. Including a template they can cut out or (depending on the design) construct for themselves would work well. You can still have paracord included but maybe just have braided cords.

Thanks Rat Man!

D.

Thanks Kick! These are all awesome ideas!

Additionally, you can always stitch on a leather pouch to a split braid, just by stitching the pouch on the braids.

By the way, CA... what does it mean to get “kittens”?  Is that a good thing or a bad thing?

NooneOfConsequence wrote on Feb 5^th, 2020 at 2:30pm:

By the way, CA... what does it mean to get “kittens”?  Is that a good thing or a bad thing?

As a fellow Brit, I can answer. Bad thing :D They wouldn't be happy with it.