NO Reception Club

Service: Product Design, Product Development, Surface Pattern Design, Graphic Design, & Illustration

The Getaway BAG + Sidekick Travel Set

We designed this travel set with No Reception Club, a small but mighty travel essentials startup. Their mission is to inspire parents to unplug and go on adventures with their little ones -- from Saturday "daycations", to overnight staycations, to week-long vacations!

The getaway bag

A travel backpack so organized that parents can use it with their eyes closed, and while balancing a little one on their hip.

We pushed the boundaries of organization, accessibility, versatility, and capacity in ways never seen before in a diaper bag, and without compromising on style or comfort.

Instant side access openings into the Main Compartment means you can get to what your child needs fast. But don't worry, the Main Compartment also opens from the top and front too.

The Essentials Compartment is spacious enough to fit multiple diapers, a changing pad, diaper wipes, and cream -- and is 100% compatible with the Sidekick, making this an unbeatable travel system for parents.

Customize your bag with our adjustable shelves exactly how you want them. The shelves enable you to create 1, 2 or 3 distinct sections. Because packing needs change based on your trip, your growing child, and your growing family, the flexible shelves help you adapt the Getaway Bag to your evolving organizational needs.

The Emergency Compartment contains inevitable "messes" that happen along the journey (think: diaper blowouts, muddy shoes, soiled clothing, wet swimsuits) and keeps them separate from the rest of your things. It's fully lined in odor-resistant, waterproof, easy-to-clean fabric. And when it's empty, the capacity simply transfers into the Main compartment so you don’t waste any space!

Front Parent Pocket for your small travel essentials (hand sanitizer, masks, tickets, travel guides) Includes key clip.

Top/Hood Parent Pocket for your day-to-day essentials.

TSA-Approved Laptop Sleeve fits up to a 16" Laptop, tablets, magazines. The clamshell design means you can avoid removing your laptop for TSA airport security.

The Getaway Bag's Shoulder Straps and Quilted Back Panel design maximize flexibility and comfort on a wide range of body types, making it easy to switch between parents of different sizes.

Stay hydrated throughout the journey with 2 expandable Exterior Water Bottle Pockets - one for you, one for your little one.

The Getaway slides conveniently over luggage handles to help you move swiftly with multiple bags.

A concealed Security/Passports Pocket is hidden discreetly behind the Luggage Pass-through, and is ideal for storing passports, cash, and other small valuables.

Size: 19.7” Height x 10.2” Width x 6.5” Depth.

Capacity: 24 Liters

Flight Ready: Meets international carry-on size limit requirements.

Weight: 2.7 lbs when empty; 3.4 lbs w/ dividers + lunch bag.

The Sidekick

A hip pack that helps you breeze through diaper changes on-the-go fits perfectly in the side pocket of the getaway bag. It is the perfect companion for any trip. Whether you’re in an aircraft lavatory, the backseat of a car, or the corner of a public restroom -- changing a diaper in tight quarters and on-the-go is challenging. Wear the Sidekick to keep your hands fully available to hold onto your little one and grab wipes one-handed, so you can complete that diaper change ASAP.

Traveling with a baby or toddler (or both!) can be pretty difficult, particularly when you aren't properly equipped for the journey. The Getaway Bag + The Sidekick is packed with intelligent features to simplify every part of traveling with your little one(s).

This hip pack’s back pocket is designed to hold a packet of diaper wipes, with a magnetic closure that enables you to quickly access wipes with just one hand… freeing your other hand to stop your little one from escaping!

The Sidekick comfortably fits 4-6x diapers (depending on the diaper size), 1x diaper cream, 1x hand sanitizer, and 1x changing pad (included). The interior slip pocket holds a couple day-to-day essentials (e.g. phone, keys, credit card), while keeping them separated from your diaper items.

Size: 6” Height x 11” Width x 2.75" Depth.

Capacity: 3 Liters

Weight: 0.5 lbs

Environmental commitments

Long-lasting design

We've designed the bag to include the highest quality materials, including: Fabric: The fabric is a 300d Recycled Polyester fabric made from 100% fashion industry textile waste. The textile waste is de-polymerized and broken down to behave more like virgin polyester. So it is higher-strength and higher tenacity. It has very good color fastness. All of these characteristics are unusual in a fully recycled fabric. Straps: The way that we attach the shoulder straps to the main bag with webbing reinforcement allows for a much stronger seam. Additionally it allows for good flexibility for a variety of body shapes and sizes (key for moms and dads to use the same bag). Trims: All of our zippers are YKK (no generic zips). The buckles are UTX/Duraflex and made of metal instead of plastic. We picked these for a good mix of strength and sophistication.

Sustainable materials

No Reception Club is highly focused on using sustainable materials wherever possible, including: Shell: 100% Recycled Polyester Leather: 100% Vegetable-Tanned Leather trim Lining: 61% Recycled Polyester, 39% Nylon Packaging:

In addition, we sourced and designed a polybag shipper for No Reception Club that is 100% recyclable and is made of 100% pre-consumer recycled content. We reduced packaging by combining the polybag (for protection in shipment from the factory) and shipper envelope (used to mail the product to the customer), typically two separate pieces, into one.

The Process

From start to finish, we collectively spent 14 months as a team working on creating the Getaway Bag and the Sidekick. We took the time to diligently go through every step of the development process to ensure the client was 100% satisfied. Our development timeline overlapped entirely with the height of the global pandemic making the process not easy or fast. However, through countless outdoor design review meetings, video calls late at night with our incredible factory in Vietnam, and 5 prototypes, we are all very proud of the final products!

Bags Introduced to the Market on Kickstarter: July 13th, 2021 - August 15th, 2021

Research & Design: March - October 2020

Gemma + Daniel from No Reception Club approached us in June of 2020 after they had already conducted extensive 1:1 user interviews, carried out a detailed quantitative survey sent to parents nationwide, and had begun a comprehensive study of popular diaper bags, backpacks, travel bags, and travel accessories in the market today. Their findings: 1.) parents were not satisfied with currently available options, and 2.) there was so much room for innovation within the cross-section between diaper bags and travel backpacks.

So when they approached us they already had a strong concept laid out in a small diagram. We were excited by the concept and jumped in to expand on their market research, create mood boards and help identify and prioritize features to include. Gemma and Daniel had so many ideas and are the best kind of client. We guided them to features that are smart, innovative, cost effective, and creatively executed. They were thoughtful, decisive and interested in a true partnership of ideas. We trusted them and they trusted us.

From July - October of 2020 we created various sketches and worked with No Reception Club to decide on the overall structure of the Getaway Bag, including: (i) how the Getaway Bag would open up into the Main Compartment; (ii) how it would generally look on the outside; and (iii) its approximate overall measurements.

With the exterior landed, we moved into designing the interior. We first figured out the best design for the adjustable shelves and how they would work inside. We then designed solutions for what ultimately became the Emergency Compartment and the Essentials Compartment. Through multiple sketches and conversations as a team, we designed solutions for the remaining features of both products, including the parent pockets, laptop sleeve, luggage pass-through, lunch bag, and changing pad.

Pattern Design: September 2020 - January 2021

In September 2020 we began working with No Reception Club on the custom graphics for the lining materials. The brief was to create a pattern of vignettes of parent and child groupings exploring the world together. Our goal was to capture moments of connection. We had three rounds of sketch reviews to get input from No Reception Club before ordering a strike off from the fabric mill. We did one final round of edits to clean up some of the areas that didn’t print well and received the final fabric strike off in January 2021.

Prototyping: November 2020 - May 2021

This was the longest and most exciting stage of the process. Using our technical package ("tech pack"), our factory in Vietnam created and sent us the first prototype in November 2020. We subsequently worked closely with the factory through an iterative process that involved creating, reviewing, user-testing, and providing detailed feedback on each prototype over the course of 6 months. In the end, 5 prototypes were flown around the world for our team to review.

This stage was by far the most impacted by the pandemic, requiring many late night video calls with our factory, diligently tracking packages (thank you, DHL), outdoor design review meetings-in-masks, and many backyard try-on-sessions with parent-friends with different body types. 14 months in the making from end-to-end, we were thrilled to approve our 5th and final prototypes in May 2021.

Bags Introduced to the Market on Kickstarter: July 13th, 2021 - August 15th, 2021