The pandemic was an interesting transition in time for everyone- some things became more efficient through video conferencing while others became less efficient.  In our case, product development came to a snails pace for 2 main reasons: 

 1. Factory work was limited in capacity many places, limiting the bandwidth to take on new projects.

2.  The ability  to quickly iterated designs slowed down as samples were forced to be shipped from department to department, place to place,  which created much less hands on collaboration.

These 2 factors became relevant as we worked to create our next product in our pipeline:  The bar bag.  And while we won't disclose too much about it, as there is certainly room for it as an offering down the road and we had some design elements we'd like to keep close to the chest -- ...after 2 years of development we ultimately completely scratched the project at the finish line because it didn't feel like the right time for it.  At this stage, we only had 2 or 3 products and a $400 top not portable bar bag just didn't sit right.

This single epiphany inspired an immediate pivot to flip the project on it's head and go the opposite direction:  Make the bag as simple as possible with one sole purpose... to protect and carry bottles.  Alas, the bottle caddy was born in a couple days.

While our design process isn't always a complex one at Aged & Ore, it always needs to make practical sense as both a product and the current life of the brand itself.

The Bottle Caddy is available here for purchase