OUR ASSOCIATE MEMBERS
In our new series, the companies and organisations that
share our aims and values introduce themselves.
Until 1999 Aquapac was actually
called Aquaman. It all began
in 1983 with three guys chatting in a London pub and the story goes
that one of them said: “Hey, wouldn’t it be cool if you could listen to a
Sony Walkman while windsurfi ng?” (both the Walkman and windsurfi ng
were the latest thing back then). The next day they set about creating a
waterproof case that would make it possible.
They launched their Aquaman bag at the London Boat Show, and it
caught the eye of a visiting American distributor of marine electronics. He
asked if it might be possible to design a version to protect handheld VHF
radios. This approach led to their fi rst VHF radio case - the AQ2 - which
led on to a range of handheld VHF radio cases that boaters worldwide
still rely on today.
IT ALL KICKED OFF DOWN THE PUB!
Not long afterwards some bright spark at
Motorola invented the fi rst mobile phone.
Naturally Aquapac didn’t hang around, becoming the fi rst company in the
world to market waterproof cases for mobile phones.
Soon Motorola was overtaken by Nokia as the world leader in mobile
phones, and it wasn’t long before someone from Nokia was asking
the team if they would make a custom case that Nokia could sell as
an accessory. For several years Nokia was Aquaman’s best customer,
buying hundreds of thousands of their cases.
The Aquaman team then hired an industrial designer to help them
develop an all-plastic seal to replace the original metal clamp. The new
product was patented and christened the Aquaclip.
Next, they added waterproof camera cases and waterproof wallets to
the range. A lot of time and money went into developing colourful retail
packaging. The new Aquapac line went down a storm, and soon Aquapac
cases were to be found on the shelves of big boating and outdoor
retailers all over the world. Around that same time the company name
was changed from Aquaman UK to Aquapac International.
SMART PHONE PEOPLE
Internationally Aquapacs sell in more than 60 countries.
To date they’ve sold over 5 million bags – not bad going
for an idea someone came up with in a pub! The Aquaclip was selected
as a Millennium Product at the turn of the century, and the company has
won three Queen’s Awards for Enterprise.
Aquapac is a member of the Outdoor Industries Association, and for
some years now has supported the OWPG by sponsoring its annual
travel guide prize.
The range is still dominated by mobile phone cases but increasingly
the emphasis has turned to larger bags such as waterproof backpacks
and waterproof duff els.
WHAT NOW?
Aquapac doesn’t just supply
consumers. Its bags have always been
valued by emergency services from the London Fire Brigade to the Japan
Coast Guard. Aquapac now off ers a 40% discount to Search & Rescue
teams and the like. As indeed it does to all members of the OWPG!
THE PROFESSIONALS’ CHOICE
Aquapac off ers OWPG members a
40% discount on all their products.
Details of how to obtain that, and the
Aquapac contact point for OWPG
members, are on our website at
www.bit.ly/OWPG-Aquapac (linked
from the ‘associate members’ page).
When you access this, enter the
general 2018 member password.
Tim Turnbull | email [email protected] | telephone 020 7738 4466
website www.aquapac.net
Aquapac sponsors the OWPG Guidebook Award
autumn 2018 | Outdoor focus 11