A high percentage of people will, at one time or another during their childhood, have made a pillow fort. Those who never did missed out on an entertaining experience, as the simple act of creating a hideaway that’s off-limits to everybody else is bags of fun – even as an adult. Which is where Squishy Forts provides a helping hand for kids of all ages.
Squishy Forts is the brainchild of Ross Currie, who had the idea during a Startup Weekend event in Perth, Western Australia. Like many others, Currie was trying to tackle the problem of the “tablet babysitter” by creating the perfect app. But unlike everyone else, he decided instead to focus on something real, physical, and not limited to images on a touchscreen.
His solution was to leverage the longstanding pillow fort phenomenon by creating a product that helped, rather than hindered, a child’s creativity. Squishy Forts was the result, conceived as a construction kit to aid the building of solid and sturdy pillow forts.
Squishy Forts come in the form of sets of foam pieces, with large square cushions and upright supports the main components. Each piece has rare-earth magnets sewn into them, which allow whoever is building their pillow fort to beat gravity and create impressive standing structures. When not in use, the pieces can be turned into either an ottoman or sofa using the shaped cover provided with each set.
Squishy Forts is currently being funded via a Kickstarter campaign and those who are keen to back the product in this way have only until Dec. 24, 2013 to do so. After that, the level of interest will likely determine whether the product goes on general sale through the existing Squishy Forts website. Having far exceeded the campaign goal bodes well for the project, with initial deliveries estimated to begin in March, 2014. Remaining Kickstarter pledge levels for Squishy Forts sets range between AUD149 (US$132) and AUD999 (US$891).
The Kickstarter campaign video is embedded below.
Source: Squishy Forts via Kickstarter
