Tell us about the Built NY experiment
23Hey @Snapster & @JonT- tell us about the Built NY experiment. There hasn't been anything else close to that, and I'm really curious how it came to be. If there's any lessons learned that you can share, I'd be interested in those as well.
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I'll second that.
I just got my 90, not sure what the heck I'm going to do with them. Probably let he-who-must-be-obeyed roll around in them and throw them around some more. (He's 3)
The look on his face when I dumped the box out and told him to jump in the pile was one I'll cherish forever. Thanks meh.
@givemeyoursoul The joy my wife & I received from opening a box that had 30 pieces of neoprene was well worth the 8 bucks spent. I can't even imagine how that would've been multiplied with a kid having fun with a triple order of laptop & tablet sleeves.
@jose602 ... I'm still curious as to how many bought the 20 in a box for $9.00..
@unkabob I had to. When I went to buy my share, the 30 option was grayed out. So in order to join in the fun I had to get 20...
@Willijs3 ... That sucks!.. Better luck next time for sure.
@givemeyoursoul My 4 year old had fun counting them over and over again.
@Odi I've had mine for a couple days and still haven't counted. I really don't want to find that I got 75 of the 90 I ordered. I have to admit I got a good selection of Kindle, Ipad and everything else tablet/netbook/ereader sleeves. Reminds me, I want to check what the fuss was about the organizers. Off to check Amazon. Great site to comparison shop and read reviews, but BUY stuff from Amazon? Meh.
@unkabob I woke up in the night and bought the 20 in a stupor not noticing the price. But hey it's still a steal and many will get neoprene gifts when the present season arrives.
@smoo99 ... Agreed, no disgrace.. still a good deal.
Received my 30. Contrary to my expectations, the Apple sleeves were not the majority, and I had far more Kindle sleeves. My wife grabbed one with a zipper for storing assorted junk, my son has one of the twist-top ones for his Nexus 7. I'm sure I'll find people who want some of the others.
What does the twist top look like? I got 90, but only 3 styles (sizes) and 5 different prints total. I must have been near the end of the run when the folks were getting tired.
@v It's a vertical oblong and the open end closes with fold over corners so that as you look at it flat with the opening up, one corner folds toward you, and the other folds away , hence twist-top... Like this- for demonstration purposes only:
@PhysAssist I don't think I got any of those in my 60. They are all zippered or open topped, except the thin covers for the Kindles which look more like an old scool book cover.
@atravis6 I think my 30 had 2 or 3, but they're not that nice anyway.
Received my 30 but haven't opened it yet.. Kinda fearful of what might pop out at me (been this way since my first hamburger at Jack in the Box).

Why did it have to come in a cubed box..?
Opening my box of 59 was the most fun I've had in a long time! Some of the larger items were wrapped, so I got to open packages inside my package (: And I traded with another Meh-er for the one thing I wanted that few people got, and it should be coming today ::happy dance::
@atravis6 Before I head off into the forums, I thought I'd take a shortcut and ask what your coveted Built beauty happened to be??
@modmamajama The cargo series electronics accessories organizer. I just received it a few minutes ago in the mail. It's bigger than I thought it would be, which is perfect!
@atravis6 By the time i saw your request, it looked like you two had come to an agreement so i left it alone. Glad you got one.
@djslack If you have any extra cargo electronics organizers, I'd love to trade a couple of whatever (I have ~80 left with a good selection) for one of them. This goes for anyone who has an extra cargo organizer. Email me at teck matrix at gmail dot com
@venussuz I'd go for one. Have a fine selection of kindle covers of various sorts.
I was curious about this myself. I did a little Google sleuthing and decided to look up words like lawsuit or cease and desist along with Built NY, thinking maybe there was a lawsuit filed against them and they couldn't sell these anymore. I DID find a lawsuit from fall/winter of last year that was filed against Built NY by a maritime shipping company. However, I couldn't get any details because the case was that recent and sites that had them were subscription based. I also see that Built NY no longer sells any of these types of products, now focusing on lunch, wine, and baby type bags with the only trace of these products left in their clearance section.
All of this makes me wonder if something happened between Built NY and the maritime shipper on their slow boat from China where the shipper liquidated the stuff they were shipping for Built NY for non-payment or something. Might be a stretch, but that's the kind of stuff I came up with by connecting the dots.
@BrentD The thousands of polka dots?
@BrentD Built NY started out (far as I know, at least) as a wine accessory sort of a company... not just the totes, but they also made a couple of pretty neat corkscrews. I have one, it has two different 'bits,' one traditional worm and one that's more of an auger, each better suited for different situations. I always assumed they realized that there was a much greater profit on sewing a piece of neoprene into an envelope, and just fucking went nuts with the idea. Was kind of sad to see that happen. Interesting what you found out…
@BrentD why would the shipper have an over abundance of kindle wrappers?
@BrentD thank you for this very interesting investigative work
@brhfl My wife swears that she saw a Built NY coat, of all things, made out of neoprene. She missed buying it & to this day still regrets the decision.
@MrHappypants Oh my, 'regret' is not a word that comes to mind upon hearing that. Unless, say, she wanted to be a wine bottle or Kindle for halloween…
@brhfl I'd say she has an obsession bordering on un-healthy with neoprene.
@MrHappypants How many wet suits does she own?
God, I wanted that so badly. I love Built NY. Thanks for rubbing salt in my wounds.
@sarahtarah Ditto. Thanks for making me sad Meh-ers. On a Friday, no less!
@hurtsdonut @sarahtarah When I feel sad on a Friday, I start a "Fuckit Friday" list. (trademark @bluedyn). You should give it a try. :-)
Ordered 20 but got shipped 40. Found uses for like 5 of them I guess eBay the rest?
@takedownchris Consider giving them to Goodwill or The Salvation Army. That's where my extras are going and it doesn't hurt me one bit.
@Willijs3 tax deduction good idea
mine came yesterday (ordered 90) still have to sit down and sort and count, but ultimately they are going to end up as a Boy Scout fundraiser (my scouts collect all kinds of random and sell it at the local flea/farmers market) last year I got them 120 snow shovels at 20 cents each. didn't do so well in August.. lol. Also curious as to how these came about.
I'll bet a dollar that part of the experiment was shipping less than ordered to see the effects. I only count 89.
@joedel263 I really don't think they are that shady. When you have over 100,000 of those cases to sort into orders, there's bound to be a few counting mistakes, especially for those who ordered multiple thirty-packs.
@PurplePawprints I was totally being sarcastic..
@joedel263 Oh! Well, that's good then. I just didn't want anyone to think they'd do something like that because they've always been so awesome about any order mishaps.
@joedel263 That sounds like a Midwest type of fundraiser for the Boy Scouts.
@PurplePawprints ... Pretty good defense for a group of mouth breathers who enjoy screwing with you on 'Tease me Tuesday'(that was a joke too).
@luvche21 we're in bitter cold New England.. it's a Venturing Crew so they're a bunch of (co-ed) teenagers who don't want to sell popcorn. We just happen to be sponsored by the local county Fair that holds the flea/farmers market on the off season, so it just kindof worked out.
Mine arrived the other day. Seeing how fast my mom snatched up a few and ran, I'll consider it a few bucks well spent. I expect to see her circle back around in her birthday next month for more.
My mother side the kindle fire ones don't fit her kindle fire.
I ordered 2 x 10 pcs, and only received one box of 10. Still, there are several that I will put to good use, and still hopefull that another 10 show up one day.
I've been having fun with my crazy 180 (over two accounts). There wasn't as much variety as I would have hoped for but I'm still happy with what I got.
The fun part is figuring out what to do with all of it.
The 42 flower iPad covers are going to my niece and nephew's school for the iPads they have in the classrooms (that are presently unprotected). So I feel pretty good about that.
And my brother is taking a bunch of the plain black kindle sleeves and tablet cases to protect various electronic and audio equipment. I think they're the perfect size to hold microphones and effects pedals.
I'm still figuring out what to do with the rest though, so I'm eager to see what other people are doing with theirs.
For me this is more fun than getting a fuku, so I hope Meh will have more offerings like this in the future.
I ordered 60 and got 50. So, I'm cutting 20 in half so I can still boast that I received 60 "pieces". Don't ask me what the hell I'm gonna do with them after that...
@andrewkl That would leave you with 70 pieces.
I order purchased 60 and my son who lives in a different state bought 30. We plan to drive someone crazy by send them several of these anonymously over time from multiple locations. We just have not picked who it will be yet.
i have to pick my 90 up at the post office - they refused to deliver due to the weight.
I ordered on box of 30. Very happy when 32 arrived. We're using them for everything.
You guys are far more positive than I on the usefulness of your neoprene, I think.
I got a bazillion Kindle Fire things. A literal, figurative, legitimate, absurd bazillion. In flowery patterns and stuff, too.
Now... I totally enjoyed getting and opening my ridiculous box of neoprene, as well as the bewildered look on my wife's face, but from a completely treating-this-like-a-real-purchase standpoint, of my 30 total neoprene space-takers, I squirreled away 3 for myself, and have found legitimate so-and-so-needs-one uses for 6 more. That leaves 20 purposeless neoprene thingies, and not one is a 13" or 11" laptop sleeve, which is kinda what I was gunning for.
@Crixus I ended up with a 14 inch macbook air sleeve that I won't use, but nothing for my 15-16 inch thinkpad. Lots of kindle fire ones though. I'm taking many of them to my brother's house and he'll probably grab 3-4. I suppose some of the rest will become lame gifts given to people I don't like. >:)
@Crixus But was it worth $8 to you to get just the 3 you are keeping for yourself? The laptop sleeves do seem to be in short supply compared to everything kindle, that's for sure. I didn't get any either.
@kazriko ... Or barely know.. Hey! I fit THAT bill.. Send one! Send one!
I got 30 in 15 different styles, and one of them will be used for my gf's new Touch and 13" fits my laptop. Thanks meh! The others will find good use as well, if nothing else, Goodwill.
@gangerolv That's a nice variety! I ordered 180 and I only got 10 different things. I got 42 flowery iPad sleeves alone. (But I'm OK with it because I'm giving them to a school and they won't go to waste.)
@christinerenee - Yup; we got 50 of that very same case. Nice case - but would have loved to have gotten more of a variety.
@christinerenee - Turned one inside out, slid in a stack of 5 of the white foam pieces that come in them, & sewed it shut. It flies like a frisbee & our gang of wuffies is having a magnificent time chasing it. [img]
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@scfd0766 That's great! I was thinking about all those foam pieces and trying to think of something to do with them.