8 years ago the Amsterdam-based bicycle company VanMoof started shipping bicycles to its customers. And since that time, they struggled to find a quality shipping partner that wouldn’t damage the bikes in transit. 

They tried every varietal of shipping company, but the problem persisted. And since their goal was and is to sell 90% of their bikes online by 2020, they knew that they needed to solve this problem.

So here’s what they did. This is a great story.

They noticed that their bicycle boxes were about the same size as a large flatscreen TV. And since flatscreen TVs seem to always arrive in perfect condition, they decided to print a TV (along with an image of their bicycle) on the box.

Here’s what that looks like (via QZ):

The result? They immediately saw a 70-80% drop in shipping damages. That’s all it took. I love that.

Since I know that a lot of you are cyclists, I thought you might appreciate this little hack. Their bikes are also quite stylish and reasonably priced if you happen to be in the market. (I am waiting to hear back on whether they ship to Canada.)

There’s something powerful about seeing/hearing cities being depicted in film, TV, and other kinds of pop culture. It creates familiarity and does a lot to drive the brand of that place.

But how often are you just seeing one city disguised to look like another? Actually quite often.

Here’s an interesting video that talks about how the 3rd largest film production city in North America never actually plays itself.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojm74VGsZBU?rel=0&w=560&h=315]

I know that there are real economic benefits to being a cheap place to film movies, but I would love to see Canadian cities play themselves. There are also big benefits to that.

Thanks to Scott Bonjukian at The Urbanist for sharing the above video this morning.