Since the dawn of cell phones, cell phone cases have been a high-demand accessory. They offer the opportunity to customize, protect, and in some cases add utility to a device you’re carrying in your pocket anyway. Because of this, the market for phone cases and accessories has been saturated by high-quality and low-quality products alike. Finding a good one can be so easy it becomes difficult to decide. The founders of Mous started out with a simple mission: “pushing the boundaries in design and engineering to create products that last for the tech people use everyday”.
Founders James Griffith and Josh Shires found that there were really two types of phone cases: the ones that felt nice on the phone because of their sleek design but weren’t sufficiently protective and trustworthy and didn’t last long, and the ones that were protective and durable enough to be trustworthy but added uncomfortable weight and bulk. In 2014, they founded Mous to do something about that problem, and brought on James Day, Will Mullen, and Lacy Hutchinson.
To learn more about the design of existing phone cases and find how to innovate, some of the team spent time in China before finally setting up shop in London and expanding the company to over 60 members. Once they tested and demonstrated their first self-developed phone case material, Mous raised over $2,500,000 in crowdfunding to continue the project.
By 2020, Mous has sold over 1 million products and expanded into other accessories such as wallet-cases, case attachments using patented magnetic design (ie a slim, removable cash/card holder that clings to the back of the phone case), case-compatible mounts, chargers, screen protectors, and cases for AirPods.
The lesson to be taken away from Mous is that even in a saturated market there is room for innovation. Often times, a heavily flooded market is lacking in the right type of product (hence there are so many different things- there isn’t one a lot of people like). This is not always the case, but in this case, the perfect case had yet to be designed.
You can see Mous test drops and learn more about the company here:
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