Heimplanet

The Old, the Young & the Sea

Heimplanet — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 20:37:01 +0000

We are proud supporter of a film project, which just started. The official website to our first movie project “The Old, the Young & the Sea” went online today. Follow the crew around, while they do their research, connect with the local communities and start capturing the amazing culture along the Atlantic coastline. They will travel from France, all along the coastline to Portugal and our tents will be with them. We are glad to be part of such an amazing project!

We wish you a great time while traveling. Join the moment and make yourself at home, wherever you go!

www.oldyoungsea.com

www.facebook.com/TheOldTheYoungTheSea

From Dresden with love. – Mein Lieblingsteam and the rally to Banjul.

Heimplanet — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 19:00:02 +0000

A couple of weeks ago, we received an email from Patrick Schulz who told us his story about a remarkable project and his motivation to participate. – It is about an adventurous rally through Africa with the focus to help people who live there.

It took us a moment to understand what they were actually up to. Patrick and his girlfriend Lisa decided to participate in this rally which would start in Dresden, Germany and would lead them over Dakar to Banjul in Africa (you can check it out here: www.rallye-dresden-dakar-banjul.com)

The plan: they would buy a car and all necessary equipment to make it down to Banjul in Africa. They would travel 7,500 km and cross 7 countries to help the people of Gambia and Banjul.

The rally “Dresden – Banjul” organized by Breitengrad e.V was held for the first time in 2006. The idea is to help people in Gambia and support them very directly, by going there. Every team organizes a car which they will travel to Banjul, Gambia with. They will use every extra space to bring as many needed items down there as possible. Once they arrive in Banjul their car will be sold in an auction. The Money will be spent to support different projects on side.

Patrick contacted us to ask us for our support for “Mein Lieblingsteam” (please check http://mein-lieblingsteam.de). They needed sponsors and supporters to realize their adventure. And they needed a shelter to sleep in, during their trip. They needed a tent.

We were very impressed by their idealism, energy and spirit and so we decided to help them to stay dry and save during the night and to support their adventure with one of our tents – The Cave.

We wish Patrick and Lisa all the best for their adventure and hope they will have a save trip down to Banjul.

We are proud supporters of “Mein Lieblingsteam”!

Farewell!

Follow their trip at http://mein-lieblingsteam.de/blog_5.html

Review of Cave Away 2011

admin — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 09:25:15 +0000

Cave Away – It all started 16 weeks ago, on 10 June, when kopfbunt went to the Baltic Sea to strike THE CAVE for the first time during its trip through out Europe. Within these 16 weeks THE CAVE travelled thousands of kilometers, visited the sea, the mountains, festivals and car races. And most importantly it has been a shelter for many people, old and young, male and female.

Not everything worked out perfectly. Two factors always played an important role during Cave Away: the weather and the postman. The summer wasn’t always blessed with sun and hot temperatures but all our participants had a great story to tell. Even if they weren’t able to use the tent.

THE CAVE has been to Austria, Sweden, Denmark, Netherlands, and all over Germany. Besides the three times THE CAVE couldn’t been used because of bad weather or delivery problems, everything worked out perfectly. We have some great photos, the feedback of the participants was really helpful and I think we speak for everyone involved in the project: We all had a great time and enjoyed Cave Away 2011.

After kopfbunt went to the Baltic Sea and enjoyed sundown and sunrise on the beach, THE CAVE had to prove its strengths for the first time during the Hurricane Festival. But Jan reported the tent was reliable and was able to stand up to wind, rain and festival visitors. From one extreme to the next, THE CAVE travelled to the Saarland and became part of a youth camp, organized by Theo. More than 130 kids were able to marvel at the tent, “which looked like it came from another star”.

An 1/8 mile race track, a bunch of cars, squeaking tires – and THE CAVE right in the middle of it. In the fourth week Cave Away took place in Finowfurt at Race 61. Although the weather was not the best again, Kai reported THE CAVE was a warm, dry and comfortable shelter, surrounded by thousands of horsepower.

On 8 July THE CAVE crossed the national border for the first time. Roitsch took our tent to Sweden and set it up in his new home in Lund, THE CAVE was his first piece of furniture. But he also presented the extra-ordinary tent to the Swedes on the beach. For the next step Cave Away stayed in the north and went to Rømø in Denmark with j_funk. And j_funk came up with a nice statement “THE CAVE offered me the opportunity to travel wherever I want to by knowing that I can pitch up a home at any time”.

In the 7th week Cave Away had to take its first setback. madita wasn’t able to experience the tent, she wanted to set it up at the Searock Festival but because of stormy conditions the whole festival was cancelled. The next stop was far more successul, vitruvo travelled to Texel, the Dutch island in the Northern Sea. Within dunes THE CAVE cut quite a figure and caused a stir between the ordinary tents.

From one island in the Northern Sea to the next one. UARRR and ivymaedchen spent a weekend on Sylt, the North Frisian Island. After a while UARRR got bothered that he had to explain THE CAVE to all the people who passed by. A task most of our participants had to deal with.

The next stop on the Cave Away tour was the German capital, Berlin. Paulchen set up THE CAVE in the middle of the city, within an innercity garden. He enjoyed the noises he could hear while spending the night in the metropole.
Week 11 was another setback, the parcel service was not able to deliver THE CAVE. We are sorry for Anni, that she couldn’t experience our tent. Cave Away went through a bad patch and Sebastian was also not able to use THE CAVE because of stormy conditions during the Bundesgartenschau in Koblenz.

During the first week of September Cave Away toured to the northeastern island Rügen. medialermurks set up the tent in the middle of a forest and shot some beautiful photos. Johnny Rainbow preferred it more urban and stayed in Hamburg, or to be more precisely: he stayed above Hamburg.

Because of bad timing by the parcel service, our last participant Eva wasn’t able to take THE CAVE to France. So, sayhooray had the honor to take THE CAVE on its last trip during the Cave Away tour. And what a finale, within mountains sayhooray experienced maybe the most extreme trip. Especially visually the trip to Austria was something special. The last stop showed us once more that the idea of Cave Away was successful, sayhooray had to experience a thunderstorm on 2500 meters altitude but also a beautiful second day with a campfire in a valley of the Austrian Alps. Maybe camping was invented for exactly these purposes.

When we read all the stories, take a look at all the pictures, we must say that Cave Away was a total success. Seeing you spending some amazing nights in our tent, makes us more than happy. We have to say thank you to all the participants and all the people involved in Cave Away 2011. We are already planning on something similar for next year. Maybe not exactly the same thing but something we all can enjoy like Cave Away.

Cave Away couldn’t be described better than with the words of our philosphy: Embrace the difference, join the moment and make yourself at home, wherever you go. Thank you all for being part of it!

Heimplanet beim Hell & Dunkel Open Air 2011

admin — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 17:14:17 +0000

Vor ein paar Monaten klingelte bei uns das Telefon, am anderen Ende Mike:

“Hey ich habe von Eurem Projekt gehört ….sehr spannend was Ihr da macht …. tolle Geschichte…und Ihr kommt ja aus Krefeld….wir haben auch ein Projekt…..wir machen ein Festival….wir sollten mal was zusammen machen.”

Selten klingelt das Telefon und man wird so positiv überrascht. Mike und sein Bruder Timo haben 2007 eine Eventreihe gestartet, die der Anfang ihrer ganz eigenen, spannenden Geschichte war: „Kunstgeschwister“ hieß die Reihe damals und so heißt heute Ihre Eventagentur. Seit dem waren die beiden fleißig und haben mit viel Leidenschaft Parties gefeiert:

„Wir sind ganz einfache Jungs, gestalten unsere Events bedacht und mit Leidenschaft zum Ganzen, mit viel Liebe zum Detail und immer mit einem Auge bei der Kunst: Das sieht man auch an unseren Artworks. Bei uns geht alles immer sehr familiär vonstatten, nicht nur wir beide sind Brüder, auch unsere Künstler und Gäste werden so behandelt.“ (via kunstgeschwister.de)

2009 wurde die nächste Veranstaltung in den Kalender aufgenommen, das „Hell & Dunkel“ Open Air in Wachtendonk.

Wenn am 03.09.2011 das Hell & Dunkel Open Air Konzert zum dritten Mal in die Blaue Lagune zwischen Wasser, Strand und Wiese nach Wachtendonk zieht, werden Kindheitsträume wahr. Dreht Euch mit, im Takt zur Musik, auf einer persönlichen Zeitreise mit Gleichgesinnten und guten Freunden – bitte einsteigen, in das Hell & Dunkel Open Air-Karussell!

Die Kunstgeschwister richten Euren ganz persönlichen Vergnügungspark aus. Auf zwei liebevoll hergerichteten Floors, die sich sowohl Open Air wie überdacht präsentieren, darf sich ab 17 Uhr nach allen Regeln der Kunst ausgetobt werden. Auf dem Karussell, im Wasser, an Land, auf der Tanzfläche unbedingt – oder wo immer Euch nach ist. Dieser Tag wird unvergesslich, von Hell nach Dunkel!

Und genau hierbei wollen wir die beiden unterstützen und werden den Campingplatz mit ein paar Zelten ausstatten.

Und Ihr könnt nun für Euch und eine/n Freund/In ein Festivalpaket gewinnen. Dazu kommentiert einfach diesen Artikel und markiert Eure Begleitung im Facebook-Kommentar. Den Gewinner werden wir nächsten Montag bekannt geben.
Und das gibt es zu gewinnen:

- Festival Ticket (Samstag)
- Zelt “The Cave” (Freitag – Sonntag)
- Zeltplatz (Freitag – Sonntag)
- Eintritt an der Blauen Lagune (Freitag – Sonntag)

WICHTIG: Das gesamte Paket gilt für den Gewinner + Begleitung
Viel Glück…möge der Sommer endlich kommen! Hell & Dunkel Open Air 03.09.2011

hell-dunkel-openair.de
bei GoogleMaps

The Bright – 9000 Miles Tour

admin — Sun, 14 Aug 2011 16:18:22 +0000

Every year in July, Berlin becomes a melting pot for fashion, skateboarding and the industry that surrounds them. In the last three years Stefan and I used this time to find inspiration and to get an idea how the industry works.
2011 was special. Early this year we contacted the founders and organizers of the Bright trade show , to see if we could somehow integrate our tent concept of “The Cave” into their show. Their reaction and support was great. With the help of O_Pur we set up three of our inflatable tents and created the “Heimplanet Oxygen Tents”, just to make sure the temperatures of up to 30°C and exhausting nights would not have to much of an effect on the visitors performance. 5 min of rest and a doses of pure oxygen can help a lot. We really want to thank everybody at the Bright, for their support and great way of organizing this show.

30 min before the end of the show Rob turned up at our tents and told us about a project he is been working on for a long time and asked if we would be willing to support them with tents for their tour. After a few explanations it was pretty obvious, we would:

9000 miles, nine cities and nine artist

9000Miles is a creative tour consisting of nine people in one bus – driving around Europe for the better part of this year’s summer. The bus is populated by three musicians, three visual artists, a cameraman, a photographer and a journalist: all of whom have little or no idea where they’re going and what they can expect to find when they get there. Any spare room is taken up by spraycans, drum machines, keyboards, paintbrushes and other tools. What we’re looking for are walls, stages, clubs, couches, bridges and most of all: kindred spirits. This project is all about crossing borders, about going somewhere you hadn’t been before and actually meeting people instead of just interfacing with the world through a social network. We are in it for the fun, not the almost political game of being an artist in the 21st century.

Participating artists:

ASQUIDCALLEDSEBASTIAN – STEVE LOCATELLI – STANISLAS LAHAUT
RUBSKI – A.C. – HYPERCUTZ – BEAT DRUNX
THIRDDIGIT – JAN OPDEKAMP – NADIA ‘CYMO’ OUSSEHMINE

9000MILES TRAVELLING TRAJECTORY (Dates are flexible):
EINDHOVEN: 29/07
BERLIN: 30/07-02/08
PRAGUE: 03-05/08
VIENNA: 06-08/08
BUDAPEST: 09-12/08
ZAGREB: 13-15/08
MILAN: 16-18/08
BARCELONA: 19-21/08
PARIS: 22-24/08

9000miles.be
facebook.com/ninethousandmiles
9000milesblog.tumblr.com/

First teaser video:

We wish you a save trip and a great time traveling. Join the moment and make yourself at home, wherever you go.

Summer 2011

admin — Tue, 31 May 2011 13:46:17 +0000

The summer finally arrived in Germany. We are so excited. The tents will arrive soon and we will start sending out “The Cave” to all the people who pre-ordered one.

Last week we started our summer project Cave Away. So far a bunch of amazing applications were handed in. We are excited who will get “The Cave” for a weekend and hopefully has a great story to report afterwards.

On top you can see some photos of “The Cave” set up in Portugal, the place where the magic started. We got goosebumps when we saw the following video: Portugal, Surfing, Having a great time with friends – There is no place like Home.

ISPO Munich 2011

admin — Fri, 04 Mar 2011 17:09:29 +0000

When you are new, small and unknown it is very difficult to get the attention you need, to establish your business and your idea.  You are depending on the support by the press, key figures and of cause your potential customers. But why should they trust you? Why should they care? You are new, small and unknown.

What you need to break this circle is some reputation, you need someone who says you are trustworthy and you are doing well and you have a good and innovative product.

For us, that someone was the ISPO BrandNew Award and its jury.

For more than 10 years, ispo BrandNew has been providing the perfect presentation platform for new (and often crazy) ideas. The idea of supporting young innovators in presenting themselves and their products to an international audience was close to knolls heart, who at that time was the ispo project manager.
Crocs, Blutsgeschwister, Nixon, alprausch… the list of companies, whose success has taken off after their appearance in the ispo BrandNew Village, is impressive. Today ispo BrandNew is a household name with dealers and industrial decision makers alike. The name stands for quality and an international expert jury. Those features are characteristic for what ispo BrandNew is today: a global sports trend indicator. This is also made obvious by the number of international sports industry managers who can be seen strolling through the BrandNew Village every year. In the last few years the development and popularity of ispo BrandNew has gathered enormous momentum.

When we entered the competition in October 31st 2010, we had just finished the redesign of our whole tent concept and started working on the first prototypes of our inflatable tent. The ISPO BrandNew jury meeting took place on November 31st. So there was only one month left to develop a reliable and well working version to present.
At that stage Stefan spent a lot of time in China with our production partners to work on that version. He arrived just in time – two days before the jury meeting – with the ISPO sample on board. It was the first time that we actually had the chance to work on that version together and it was only one day left to get to Munich. I took the first plane on Monday 29th to Munich and delivered our prototype to the ISPO BrandNew jury. – Luckily everything worked out just fine.

The time at the ISPO was great and very exiting. The feedback was amazing and we are looking forward to the next month. We will bring our tent “The Cave” to as many shops as possible to give you all the chance to experience it yourself.

We want to thank everyone at the ISPO BrandNew Award and especially the jury for their great support and this very important first push by selecting us as a finalist, which hopefully defines the starting point for Heimplanet.

Lets have a great summer and lots of good nights in tents, the only 1000 star hotel.

Portugal

admin — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 15:16:01 +0000

Two years ago (2008), Stefan and I decided to start our own business. Two days later we agreed to do some research on tents. We had just remembered an idea we talked about in 2003 during a surf trip in Portugal, while camping on the beach. We were exited about the idea but we wanted to keep our involvement low – wanted to treat our idea as some kind of a side project – it was not the last time, something turned out to work a lot differently.

After days of researching, drawing, brainstorming, and discussing, we identified different ideas and concepts we wanted to put to a reality check. Some turned out to be way too expensive, some just impossible to realize and others not reasonable enough to make a real difference to already existing products. After a very frustrating day of research there was just no idea left, none of them seamed to work. The project seemed to have reached its end before it actually started. One month of work for nothing? I called Stefan that day and presented the frustrating results, but he reacted very calm:

“Just relax, have a beer or two, we will find something that works.”

And we did. Thinking of all the ideas that failed worked like an idea blender. It was that night our idea of an inflatable tent started to appear and bornintents was born.
Now, 23 months later we past a lot of these difficult stages and we hope we learned something from every single one of them. One lesson we learned for sure: Never give up, there is always a solution and someone who knows it, sometimes you just have to travel further.
We now entered the final phase of our product development process. Stefan just arrived in China. He and our designers will now take care of the final steps.

Thank you all for your great support and helping us grow, we really appreciate it.

Our Videos

admin — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 12:22:38 +0000

Since the initial start we have been documenting our way from bornintents to HEIMPLANET with the video camera. A visual prove that you can actually make it, from the idea to a real project. Enjoy the videos!

Time to start a liberation act

Stefan² – two guys named Stefan trying to liberate themselves by starting their own business. We documented our project and every single bit of it.

From the idea to the first funding

This time it´s about our ideas where we found the inspiration and how we try to manage the first step to get a funding for our start up.

We will build the tent

Green light for the development of our prototype. Supported by a team of designers and a construction company we will try to develop a new and innovative tent.

The tent prototype

The development of our first prototype and the ups and downs of our project.

Solution Tour II

admin — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 14:21:44 +0000

We call it the “Solution Tour” because it shall bring a solution for our project – the production of our inflatable tent. This is the second part, be sure you don’t miss Part I.

More photos of the Solution Tour on flickr.

Friday, 10. Sept. 2010

The plane had one hour delay so I reached Qingdao not until 1.30. The receptionist in the Hotel told me my reservation was already canceled. They said I was late so they gave the room to someone else. Luckily I was picked up from the airport so I received help and within 1 hour we found another hotel. After 5 hours sleep I was picked up again to go to the factory where we had a meeting. At 3.00 pm – after the meeting was over – I went back to the hotel and took a short rest. Today I had a free evening but I was really exhausted so I walked to the waterfront to take a few pictures gad dinner and went back for a sleep.

Qingdao is also quite a nice city. Qingdao was the host for the sailing competitions during the Olympic summer games 2008.

Saturday, 11. Sept. 2010

Weekend finally – and I was heading to the stop most north on my way through China, Beijing. Since the next meeting is not until Monday I had some time to explore the city. So I went to see the Tiananmen Square.
Beijing really has a different appearance then other big cities in China I have visited before. Here you really can feel the history in lots of places. After I took some photos I went to the “silk street“ a massive temple of plagiarism. Then I felt it was time for my first Beijing Duck. It was incredibly good. I had to wait for more than an hour because the restaurant seemed to be a very well known place. Then a waiter dissected the shiny and steaming duck right in front of my table. At first he cut off the skin with the grease film of the duck’s belly. The skin is prepared with a mix of different herbs and sugar and was golden brown. Then he cut out tiny peaces of flesh. All the small peaces had a little bit of grease and skin on one side. They brought me some tiny vegetable sticks, sauce and very thin pancakes. I had no idea what to do with it. After one waiter was looking at me for a while he came to assist me. He took the chop sticks and made a small kebab of all the ingredients. It really tasted very delicious. At last he showed me what to do with the ducks head. He pealed out the brain and I ate it. It tasted very soft and pasty but not bad.

Sunday, 12. Sept. 2010

I slept a little to long for the fact that I only had one and a half days in Beijing. But I needed that sleep. Today was on my list: The Forbidden City and the Hutongs small little alleys.

The Forbidden City is located directly at the Tiananmen Square and houses more than 600 years of Chinese history. That was the place from where Ming dynasty for example ruled the country. The Forbidden City is said to be the largest palace complex in the world. Outside the old palace area has grown a modern international metropolis.

After I had walked through the palace museum the whole afternoon I felt tired and wanted to relax in the Park of Heaven Temple. This park was also created by the Ming and is supposed to belong to the most perfect things the Ming have created. I walked a while then took a bus and walked again because there was no metro station around. Unfortunately it took some time to get there and so I finally arrived there after sundown. The park was still open but besides some chinese people singing and dancing in the dark there wasn’t much to see. It seemed the park is very nice at daytime and I think I will have to put it on my list for the next visit – whenever that is. Having picked a restaurant from the lonely planet I went to a part of Beijing which has lots of small alleys. The people here call them “Hutongs“. Some of them are next to a lake and it appears to be a quite well known bar and party area at night. I probably was asked more than 10 times if I want to go to a lady bar I only was looking for a good Pizza. After I had eaten way to much I went home and was very happy to lay me down. It didn’t take long to fall asleep.

Monday, 13. Sept. 2010

Today I was picked up to go to the next meeting. It was a one hour drive in the north of Beijing.

After a first introduction we had lunch in a close restaurant. They ordered a lot of food for me which we again weren’t able to finish. Also they always ask me if I would like a beer for lunch. The cliche of the beer drinking German is as alive as ever in China. When we got back to the factory they said we would have a rest and then have a look to the products and the work shops. So I was brought to a room with two beds and we agreed that we would continue about 2.00 pm. I really enjoyed my little nap. I have seen it a lot that workers sleep in the factory after the lunch break but I never was asked to do the same yet.

Tuesday, 14. Sept. 2010

During my last days in China I have only one night stays. One night in Xiamen, one night in Shenzhen and finally one night in Hong Kong. On Thursday I will leave Asia at 10.30 pm for Dubai and then Hamburg.

And every time I have a late check-in after 24.00. I think these days will be quite exhausting and will make me enjoy my upcoming weekend even more. I already looked up the weather forecast in Germany – about 15° C and rain all the time. A perfect weather to stay in bed and recover from my long and stressful journey.

Today I had to go to Fujian, a city which is 1 ½ hours (by car) away from Xiamen, normally. Somehow today the traffic was very heavy so we needed three hours. I was picked up at 9.00 so as we got there it already was lunch time. Here in china all the people have lunch at 12.00 am. I did not experience one exception in my days traveling through the country. My flight was at 10.00 pm so there was enough time to have a meeting after lunch and getting to the airport without a rush.

I arrived in Shenzhen at 0.30 am and half an hour later I checked in at the hotel. The hotel seemed nice at first and when I stepped into the elevator and realized my room is in the 24th floor I already was looking forward to the view I might have from there. In fact the view was not bad but my joy was clouded by that terrible smell that came out of the bathroom. I don’t know what they did (or what they did not do) that it smelled so badly. I think it came from the dirt water pipe. Luckily I was tired enough to fall asleep anyway.

Wednesday, 15. Sept.2010

As I woke up the first thing I realized was that terrible smell out of the bathroom. So I just wanted to leave that hotel as fast as possible. At 8.30 am the driver of the company was already waiting in the lobby. It was a nice surprise for me that he chauffeured me to the factory where we had a meeting with a Mercedes S-Class. After a long and constructive discusiion another driver brought me to the Shenzhen airport where the next driver was already waiting to take me to the next meeting in Shenzhen. This was the last meeting on my trip.

I have booked a nice hotel in Hong Kong, Kowloon for tonight and will reward myself for the long and journey in the least three weeks that will hopefully lead us to the desired results. For me it was a great time and I learned a lot about the Chinese, their culture, their mentality, their pragmatism. I visited a lots of places and ebnete the way for future projects. Now it’s on us to make the best out of it.

I’m really looking forward to spending the next 24 h in Hong Kong exploring the city. I think I will walk around trough SoHo and Lan Kwai Fong a little. There are a lot of bars and restaurants – it’s supposed to be a festival for your senses. Definitely I want to take the historical Victoria tram up to Victoria Peak to enjoy the view over Kowloon. I’m sure it will be incredible at night time. Basically I just want to relax. After 11 flights in the last 17 days I just don’t want to rush anymore.

Thursday, 16.9.2010

In this moment I am on my way from Kowloon to the airport. As I’m sitting in the airport bus pulled out my computer to see from which terminal my plane is departing I just wanted to have a look at the network status: I think in the network window never were more wireless networks shown than this time. It must be more then 30. Finally I found the “webus network”. I couldn’t believe it – they have a free network on the bus to the airport. So I use the moment to send you a last “Hallo” from Asia and some pictures I made today. Next stop Dubai.