A No-Nonsense Pannier: Mark Kohr Talks about the Donkey Boxx



Donkey Boxx

Have any of you come up with a stellar yet simple product idea lately? Yeah, me either. The human brain is a great organ, but it rarely creates truly useful inventions. Mark Kohr’s noggin is different, though. Kohr is quite creative -- an inventor at heart. And that’s probably why Kohr saw a potential product idea after creating a DIY pannier box for his bike.

Kohr, creator of the Donkey Boxx, developed a concept for a simple, no-frills bike pannier that bike commuters could use and not worry about. Since thinking up the original idea, the product has evolved from a simple, makeshift cardboard box carrier, to a sturdy bicycle pannier made from recycled plastic.

Courier Magazine recently spoke to Kohr for a feature that appeared in the March/April issue. Read the full interview below and get additional insight on why Kohr created the Donkey Boxx, how he started his business and why he values sustainable, independent businesses.

Courier Magazine: Why did you start the company and where is your business located?

Mark Kohr: My wife and I really enjoy bicycles. We have two children and recently moved to Berkley, Calif.

CM: What inspired the idea for the Donkey Boxx?

MK: When we moved to Berkley we got rid of one of our cars. We really enjoyed using our bikes to basically do the things we had to do. We would go to the farmers’ market. And here, in Northern California, we have this amazing profusion of really beautiful artisan food. So, you get incredible tomatoes. I would get food and all these different things -- a ton of stuff. One thing I would notice that would get me kind of bummed out was that my tomatoes would get crushed on the way home. This was because they were in bags and the weight of the produce would push down, and it would push the sides of the bag and kind of squeeze on the tomatoes. So, I thought, well, I’m just going to get a box and I’m going to put it in the bag of the Xtracycle. I did, and it worked really well. The produce sat in there and I didn’t get the cracking of the tomatoes, and so forth. So, I started to refine the box and I thought, why don’t I make one to stack, and made one that would sit in the rack entirely.

CM: How did you find out about the Xtracycle?

MK: A friend turned us on to the Xtracycle, which is a long bike. It’s an attachment that you can put onto any bike – a mountain bike or a road bike. It lengthens the wheelbase and provides an area where there are bags. But they aren’t traditional bags. They are kind of like hammocks where you can put grocery bags on both sides of the back wheel so it is loaded low, and in the back and it can attach to the bike. So, it’s not a trailer. You have a bit more versatility and you’re more articulate as a rider. I know the Xtracycle guys because they are in Oakland, Calif. So, they have become friends of mine.

CM: What was the first pannier you created constructed from?

MK: {At first} I thought why not make a pannier out of cardboard -- a DIY situation that people can use that wouldn’t be very expensive. I explored the idea and then it rained. I knew it wasn’t going to work. While it {the cardboard box) is a great thing, people do need that extra layer of durability. So, I started exploring the corrugated plastic and that’s when I first started thinking about the postal bin.

CM: How did you find a company that would create the Donkey Boxx out of the plastic you preferred?

MK: I ended up, through a series of events, working with a company in Minnesota called Minnesota Diversified Industries (MCI) {http://www.mdi.org/}. They make those postal bins that you see all over America. It’s a really a great company because it’s not-for-profit and the company hires people with disabilities, and the material is 80 percent recycled. That all really appealed to me because it’s exciting to make stuff in America.

CM: What did you do before making the Donkey Boxx?

MK: I worked as a music studio director for many years and it was really wonderful. That’s what I did for a living and what I still do to an extent.

CM: Why did you want to try something completely different than what you previously did?

MK: I was experimenting with making a business that would essentially just be me. I kind of jokingly would say I’m working with sort of a Chinese business model. What I mean by that is the manufacturing model that people do all over the world, which is they’ll design something and they are not going to try and make it. They will just provide the money for an order and the order will be delivered, and they will deal with distribution marketing. I thought well, maybe I will play with that idea and see if I can pull it off, but I didn’t want to go to China. I really wanted to see if I could pull it off here in America. I really don’t make any money from Donkey Boxx. I get orders every week, probably every other day-ish depending on how much advertising I have going on.

It’s basically me and then in Minnesota there is the company that {makes the box}, MDI. And I’ll order 2,000 of them or 1,000 and they will make them, and then right across the street there’s another company. They have a big warehouse and they fill my orders and they send them out, and then I have the site and my business license is in Berkley, Calif., where I live with my family. I basically get orders that come across the net and then I fill them.

I’m producing fresh images and getting those out there and then upgrading the website. It’s something that I’m not doing enough and I need to kick myself and do more. I’m considering having them make, and I just need to run the numbers, some orange and yellow ones -- to increase viability. And I think also because of increased visibility cars on average would give them a little bit more space.

CM: What was the creation process like?

MK: The big thing was that I was investigating making them for the Xtracycle. I was making them for a real limited number of bicycles -- a real small number. There aren’t that many {Xtracycles} out there. So, based on making {it} for a very small market, I thought, this is insane.

{So, then,} my strategy was – this would be a great thing to have for everyday use. People who use their bikes for everyday use, they need something that they are not worried about. Because I feel like, bags, and so forth – they are great – but they are a little more precious. You need to take them on and off. And cyclists start carrying around all this stuff that might not be suited for the way {they want} to present their self as you move to where ever it is -- to the office, to the store, or sports thing, whatever. They might not suit that engagement. When I put the box on the Xtracycle, I made sample boxes inside the cardboard. The thing I really liked is that I wasn’t worried about people stealing these things. I don’t have to carry it with me when I go. I kind of let it be the truck for your bike. I thought also, for some reason, I was trying to create something with a low entry point. It would be the cheapest thing out there. I knew I wasn’t making a basket.

CM: What are some of the features you added to the product?

MK: I wanted something different and light. And I wanted something that could deal with heel strike. That’s why I made the heel strike tool. I also made it so it could be easy for shops, and something that’s easy to attach. They {the boxes} also have a taper to them -- there’s a slight taper to them at the bottom {which was inspired by a certain brand of motorcycle metal box}. They take a low load in toward the center.

I tried to add a little slope across the top so if it rains the water would go fall off like on a roof. They are not watertight but if you are riding {in} the rain your stuff will stay relatively dry. It won’t get soaked. There might be a little dribble here and there.

CM: Who orders the Boxxes? Commuters or couriers?

MK: I’m not quite sure. I get a lot of individuals. I get some shops. Adventure cycling – they are a company that sells gear and bike maps, and they also have summer trips they have organized. They recently bought 200 for some family trips they are doing this summer. They were looking for something so that the families could do one of their trips – they are doing a trip {to the} Eerie Canal this summer – and they wanted something that the kids could put on easily and that they could decorate. Something they could put stickers on and paint, they could poke holes in it – they could do whatever they wanted. And another thing that the Donkey Boxx kind of lends itself to is the surface that can take stickers and spray paint.

CM: Is there anything you’ve learned from starting the business and anything you want to do going forward?

MK: I think that now, if I were to try to do another thing, where I’m making something, I would do it as a Kickstarter campaign. I think Kickstarter is a fantastic platform to do marketing, to do market testing and make a good where you get your capital -- your money -- to produce upfront without any interest cost from a bank. You are going right to the source. It becomes a really great way to lower your risk. I am huge supporter of alternative currency systems and crowd source financing. You need to run your numbers. You need to know how much it’s going to be to ship out. And you need to know who your manufacturer is before hand and how much it’s going to cost, for your quantity. You need to have all that stuff worked out and then you put your campaign out there.