Peak Design Becomes the 2nd Largest Crowd-Supported Brand in History

With the conclusion of their latest crowdfunding effort, Peak Design—makers of essential carrying equipment and innovative camera accessories— ascended to new territory as one of the top crowdfunded companies of all time. Earning over $6.5M from more than 26,000 supporters in the company’s latest crowdfunding effort, Peak Design officially became the overall second most crowdfunded brand, next to watchmaker Pebble Technologies.

Over the course of six years and six consecutive campaigns, Peak Design has collectively raised more than $13.7M via crowdfunding efforts. Guided by their love of the outdoors and photography, Peak Design has unveiled a breadth of beautiful and thoughtfully engineered carrying systems through community pre-sales on Kickstarter. Launched in 2010 by Peter Dering, a young engineer with a penchant for travel and photography, Peak Design tested its ideas on Kickstarter to a resounding response that resulted in the 2^nd largest crowdfunding campaign at the time and served as the official launch of the company.

“I’d never heard of a go-to-market strategy when I set out to build this company. The entire calculation was far simpler. I spent 10 months thinking about a specific product to solve a specific problem. Confident I’d done that well, I just figured that I’d magically get people to buy them. Luckily, Kickstarter came around just in the nick of time, and I never even had to consider a strategy. It was a no-brainer for someone doing what I was trying to do.”

In 2015 Peak Design broke into the top 12 Kickstarter campaigns of all time with the unprecedented success of the Everyday Messenger Bag: a successful redefinition of the classic messenger bag guided by the company’s roots in photography. This summer, the company was back with a full line of packs that included two backpacks, a sling and a tote, under the expanded Everyday Bag Line. Feedback for the bags has been nothing but superlative, with even a CNET review editor being approached on the streets of New York by passersby ogling over the unreleased backpack.

“The Everyday Messenger campaign was incredible for a number of reasons, besides the obvious. It allowed us to market to people beyond the realm of photography. It provided us a conduit to a whole bunch of new customers. Also, selling a product that retails at $250, and having it sell far and wide brought our company to a new financial echelon. That’s opened a lot of doors for us.”

Peak Design has been featured in Forbes Magazine, The New York Times, Outside Magazine, and several other media outlets for their leadership and pioneering Best Practices as entrepreneurs developing what it means to be a profitable crowdfunded company. The company’s Everyday Bag Line is expected to be shipping to Kickstarter backers in December and available nationally shortly after that. For a limited time, the pre-sales campaign has been extended on Indiegogo InDemand for people who may have missed the original campaign.

Review Feedback

“If there is one thing we can be sure of about designers behind Peak Design’s newest camera bag, it is that they are perfectionists.”
-Digital Trends

“[Peak Design’s Everyday Backpack] is the fine tailored suit of backpacks”
-CNET

“Peak Design is one of the few companies in the carry world, at this time, doing real innovation and that is readily evident in this bag.”
-Carryology

“The most intelligently designed bag I’ve ever seen.”
-Core77

“The people have spoken, and they really, really like this camera bag”
-Outside Magazine

“Great design is the last thing this backpack lacks”
-Fstoppers

About Peak Design
Peak Design began as a professional-grade camera accessory brand dedicated to engineering thoughtful solutions to improve the way photographers transport and manage their cameras. Born out of a successful Kickstarter project in 2011, Peak Design has returned to crowdfunding 6 times to bring over 30 innovative, durable products to like-minded photographers and adventurers. The company’s most recent Kickstarter project, the Everyday Backpack, Tote and Sling, won over $6.5MM in funding, making Peak Design the 2^nd most crowd-supported brand in history. The San Francisco based company now designs products not just for photographers, but also travelers, commuters and the creative class. For more information visit peakdesign.com