our story

Mt Kilimanjaro:

The mountain that inspired the Scrubba wash bag.
The Inspiration

The idea for the Scrubba wash bag was conceived in 2010 when founder Ash Newland took a 4 month break from his job as a patent attorney in Australia and decided to travel to Africa to climb Mt Kilimanjaro with a mate.  "During the planning stages for the trip, we realised that with all our cold weather and camping gear, we would only be able to pack a few changes of casual clothes.  This led to the issue of how we were going to wash our clothes every couple of days.  After mulling over this issue for a few weeks, I was led to the idea of washboards - they have been around for centuries and they work very efficiently.

The first Scrubba

A couple of crude prototypes were constructed just days before leaving Australia and Ash Newland spent each night after work in the week leading up to the trip drafting the provisional patent application. "As we didn't have a chance to try the Scrubba wash bag prototypes before the trip, the first use was in the small town of Moshi in Tanzania and we were astounded by how effective it was".  The concept had been validated, but the product was still a long way from hitting the market.

The world's smallest washing machine

The route to market

Following the success of the Scrubba wash bag prototype over the course of the 4 month trip, the prototype and intellectual property were further developed with the view to licensing the technology.  This approach changed in late 2011, when Ash Newland decided to quit his job with a large patent attorney firm to focus on bringing the Scrubba wash bag to market.  

"While we received positive feedback from potential licensees in Europe, we realised that we needed to prove the market for the Scrubba wash bag".  The company Calibre8 Pty Ltd was incorporated to put this into action.

Ash Newland
A first major step

The first major step to making the Scrubba wash bag a commercial reality was in January 2012 when the concept for the Scrubba wash bag was launched on the crowdfunding platform IndieGoGo by Calibre8.

 While funds of USD2,500 were sought to assist with tooling, almost USD22,525 was received in pre-orders.  

Scrubba crowd funding

"We were blown away by this level of support for our product, but this was quickly followed when we realised the enormity of manufacturing and fulfilling this amount of orders. This was accompanied by many sleepless nights as manufacturing and fulfilment issues arose and were overcome".  

Ash Newland
Now available anywhere

Fast-forward to the present, Calibre8 has expanded its warehousing to several countries to provide fast shipping options across the globe.  The Scrubba wash bag models have also developed with usability and durability the key areas of focus.  "Our distribution and retailer network is also continually increasing and the Scrubba wash bag is appearing on retailers' shelves around the world".

The Scrubba worldwide

While originally designed with backpackers in mind, the Scrubba wash bag has also become the best way to clean clothes for people on vacation, business travelers, students living dorm rooms or small apartments, campers, hunters, cyclists, kayakers or people going on cruises. Whether it is so you can pack light, avoid hotel laundry costs, avoid searching for Laundromats, avoid potential hygiene issues washing in a sink, use less water or simply to have the freedom to wash clothes wherever you want, there is an aspect of the Scrubba wash bag that will appear to all travelers. 

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