Aerohart is a Boston-based company that makes metal EDC-style objects inspired by flight, whether by airplanes or butterflies. Their business model is untraditional: Company founders Steph and Seb Emerson (of whom no details exist online) design something they like, then Kickstart it so that they can get paid to make a batch of them. In this manner they’ve done over a dozen projects.
The object of theirs that we’re looking at today is this butterfly-inspired Flutterbox. CNC-machined out of aluminum, it has an absurdly overengineered hinged lid system that sort of turns inside out.
There are people for whom this type of mechanism scratches an itch, and the Flutterbox was successfully Kickstarted last year. For the campaign they sold them below-cost, by their own admission, at $57 a pop. Now that the campaign’s over, they’re selling them for $300 each.