Building a BrandBefore We HaveAnything to Sell

There's something slightly unusual about what we're doing at UNROUTED.

We've built the website. We're building the Journal.

We're talking about adventures, destinations and the things we believe in.

We're starting conversations with other brands.

But the thing we've been spending a huge amount of our time developing?

We're not showing you.

Not yet.

Why?

Because we'd rather reveal something when we're happy with it than spend months telling everybody how amazing something is before it's ready.

There are enough products in the world that started with a marketing campaign.

We're trying to do it the other way around. Build the idea. Build the brand. Build the community.

Then earn the attention.

But we can tell you this

We're ambitious about what we're creating. Very ambitious.

We don't want to make something you buy, use twice and eventually discover in the back of a cupboard.

We're building something with a much bigger goal.

Your next EDC essential?

That's the ambition.

We're working on something that we believe could earn a permanent place in your everyday carry.

Something that goes in the bag before you leave. Gets thrown in the car. Comes camping. Travels.

Lives alongside the things you already wouldn't want to leave home without.

Something you reach for without having to think about whether you should bring it.

That's a high bar. Good. It should be.

Useful beats novel

There's an enormous difference between something being interesting and something being useful.

We don't want to create another gadget that gets attention because it's new.

New wears off. Useful doesn't.

We want somebody to own what we're building for a year and still take it with them.

Then two years. Then wonder what they did before they had it. If we can achieve that, we've done our job.

So what is it?

Nice try. We're not telling you. No specifications. No carefully cropped product photograph. No silhouette. No clues hidden in this article. You'll see it when we're ready for you to see it. Until then, we're going to keep building.

You're here before the reveal

And that means something to us. If you're reading this now, you've found UNROUTED early. Before the reveal. Before the launch. Before most people know we exist. Follow us on Instagram. Tag @unroutedltd when you're out exploring. Use #OffRouteOnPurpose so we can follow your adventures too. We'll share some of our favourites along the way.

We want UNROUTED to have a community around it, rather than an audience looking in from the outside.

And when the time comes to reveal what we've been working on, we want to give something back to the people who were here before everyone else.

We're not going to tell you what that means yet either.

Consider it our way of saying thanks for taking the route with us.

This is only the start

The thing we're developing matters enormously to us. But it isn't the finish line. It's the beginning of what we want UNROUTED to become. Useful things. Considered properly. Made for getting out there. Things we'd genuinely put in our own bags. We're probably going to get some things wrong along the way. We'll change our minds. We'll improve things. And we'll tell you some of those stories here too. Because building UNROUTED is part of the adventure. For now, we'll leave you with this:

Your next EDC essential?

We're working on it.

Watch this space.