WE’RE COMING UP TO OUR FIRST YEAR ANNIVERSARY AND WHAT A CRAZY YEAR IT’S BEEN!
After five years of product development and testing, and countless hours of hard work to perfect the design of Oneiric Base Layers, we were finally ready to release our hard work into the market May 2016.
We’ve officially been in business just under a year and are excited by all the incredible accomplishments and milestone we hit in our first year in operation. To celebrate, we’d love to share with you some major successes to-date, what’s next for Oneiric, and a special offer for our current and prospective customers.
Instead of doing the top 10, we decided to mix it up a bit - here's the top 9 accomplishments we're very proud of:
1. FOUR PITCH COMPETITION WINS
Winning money in four pitch competitions not only gave us some much needed start-up funding ($62k), it gave us the confidence that we had a good idea and a sound business. The competitions included Ignite Capital, GTAN|START, Unlock Your Big Idea (UYBI), and Fierce Founders Boot Camp.
2. FIRST COMMERCIAL RELEASE
Our first commercial release demonstrated how Oneiric works. Since it is such a unique concept, producing a video that explained and demonstrated the features worked exceptionally well. You can watch the commercial here.
3. PRESS COVERAGE
We started out targeting popular hockey blogs and local publications for coverage. After being featured in local news, we were finally covered in national publications including Canadian Business Magazine, National Post, TSN Radio, and Globe and Mail. All coverage can be viewed on Our Press Page.
4. NHL ALUMNI ENDORSEMENT
Our first NHL endorsement by NHL All-Star, Theo Fleury.
5. RECORDED A SUCCESSFUL SEGMENT ON DRAGONS’ DEN
On May 2nd, we recorded our segment on CBC’s Dragons’ Den – a nerve racking and uncertain experience. Our episode aired November 2016 and gave us the marketing boost and awareness we needed as a new brand. If you’re interested in what happened after we scored a deal on-air, check out the article we wrote on Medium.
Convincing sporting retailers to carry your product in a crowded marketplace with very little validation was not an easy task! We thank some of our very first partners that believed in the product right from the beginning – Rim Park Skate Shop, The Skater’s Performance, Precision Blades, Crow’s Sports and Just Hockey Source For Sports. Oneiric has now signed on 40 dealers across Canada (Alberta, Ontario, and British Columbia) and will be available in a major hockey chain in the US (announcement coming soon!). Current dealers are listed on our Retailers Page.
7. LAUNCHED OUR #ENDTHECHAOS AND #ENDTHEWORRY CAMPAIGN
We launched our first brand awareness campaigns focusing on the convenience and safety aspects of Oneiric. These videos got thousands of views on YouTube and through social media, helped spread the word on Oneiric!
8. RECEIVED OUR US PROVISIONAL PATENT AND NOTICE OF ALLOWANCE IN CANADA
This was a long and very expensive endeavour! This was definitely one of our biggest and most exciting milestones we hit this year.
9. ADULT SIZES COMING SOON!
Due to the demand of our youth line and overwhelming interest, adult sizes are now in production and will be available for purchase in July 2017. We are currently accepting pre-orders online at shop.oneiric.ca
SO WHAT'S NEXT FOR ONEIRIC?
While we are eager to bring our next product to market, we are really taking a step back and focusing on establishing our current products. We received some great feedback from version 1 that we’ve incorporated into version 2 (coming July 2017). Although we’ve experienced some incredible accomplishments in our first year, we have experienced unimaginable setbacks, challenges, and disappointments. We still have a long way to go, but are super excited by the journey.
To our amazing customers, partners, and mentors we thank you for such an incredible year and can’t wait to see what our second year brings! To celebrate our first year, we are including a special gift with the purchases of Oneiric Base Layers in the month of May. We are sold out of several sizes online, but will be restocking in July. If you’re size isn’t available, please email info@oneiric.ca to reserve your size.
Shop online at shop.oneiric.ca.