How One Of The Biggest Crowdfund Products Of All Time Failed

When Kickstarter first launched in 2009, it brought with it an absolute deluge of crowdfunded product ideas and potential startup companies. Crowdfunding was the biggest thing since sliced bread, with people throwing money at campaigns to see their wildest dreams made manifest. Thousands, millions of dollars were raised by all kinds of products, and some of them even managed to go on to be made and sold.

Perhaps one of the biggest success stories in the history of Kickstarter campaigns was the Coolest Cooler, a product campaign that ran in 2014. Despite seeking only a five-figure crowdfunding goal, this humble idea for a party-centric drink cooler managed to break into the multi-million territory with thousands upon thousands of backers. Truly, few other Kickstarter projects were as poised for success as the Coolest Cooler was, which is why it's so unfortunate that the product eventually flopped. How did such a meteoric rise result in such a crushing fall?

The Coolest Cooler was the brainchild of Portland, Oregon resident Ryan Grepper. The Coolest Cooler, as the name may imply, was a drink cooler, the same kind you'd find at a beach party. However, this wasn't your average, everyday drink cooler. The Coolest Cooler kept your drinks frosty, but in addition to that, it also featured a removable waterproof Bluetooth speaker, a USB device charger, helpful party prep tools like a cutting board, tool storage, and bottle opener, and even a rechargeable battery-powered blender. The Coolest Cooler was meant to be your one-stop party central, the ultimate centerpiece for a proper rager.

The Coolest Cooler's original crowdfunding goal was a relatively modest $50,000. With pledges from over 62,000 backers, though, the product rocketed well past its funding goal, securing nearly $14 million by the end of its campaign. In addition to the Coolest Cooler itself, high-level backers would also receive T-shirts, reusable cups, and a nifty user's guide. Backers also got to vote on color variations and potential upgrades for future versions.

Unlike many Kickstarter horror stories where the creators overpromised and under-delivered, if they delivered anything at all instead of just taking the money and running, Grepper had every intention of delivering the Coolest Cooler to its backers in its promised state. Unfortunately, after the campaign ended, problems began to arise.

Grepper swiftly encountered problems with manufacturing the coolers en masse, and as those problems continued, costs started to mount. These manufacturing problems were severely exacerbated by the trade war between the United States and China that hit its peak in the late 2010s – large tariffs on Chinese imports meant that products manufactured in China would cost exponentially more to get back to the United States.

Only around 20,000 Coolest Coolers were successfully shipped to buyers before Grepper was forced to close shop and liquidate his assets, leaving the vast majority of campaign backers unfulfilled. Grepper promised to issue refunds using the liquidated assets while offering apologies that the project fell far short of expectations.

The failure of the Coolest Cooler has served as a poignant reminder that crowdfunding a project isn't the same as buying it. Whatever can go wrong often does, and backers must be careful about what they pledge their money to.