The Motorcycle Fair

It was time again, on 27-30 January, after a year hiatus, it was back - Sweden's biggest motorcycle fair.

No, KORI did not participate - we are not there yet, but we went there and we got the chance to meet them all. We had to meet to get to know the industry and we got a taste of what the season will be able to offer.

Some of them we met:

SMC - a great organization for all Swedish Motorcyclists!

SVEMO - What would motorcycle sport be without Svemo? Swedish Motorcycle and Snowmobile Federation.

Bilsport&MC - the insurance company that understands the motorcyclist.

Motorrad - Our Swedish edition of Europe's biggest motorcycle magazine!

Bike - A sporty, yet wide motorcycle magazine for all of us who love to ride motorcycles.

MC-Nytt - Sweden's oldest motorcycle magazine to highlight the joy we experience as motorcyclists.

AlltomMC - magazine with genuine passion for riding bikes in all forms.

See "on-two-wheels-movie" where motorcyclists talk about their feelings about the bike - always great to hear! Freedom. Joy. Adventure.

The MC Fair really gave us butterflies in the stomach. Much-needed under the circumstances!

And finally came 2011...

...or rather, all of a sudden it was the 2011!

We really do not want to say that something has gone according to plan so far .. The year started with that we lost our father (and grandfather). After many years of impressive and inspiring battle with cancer, he has now left us. It still feels new and difficult to understand.
We cut down a gear but KORI has nevertheless helped us to get back to everyday life.
KORI helps us to think ahead. But we should not hide that we have so far gone through crying, swearing, tired evenings and strange gut feelings.
Nervousness and excitement about KORI has turned into awe.

KORI the brand

But what does the word KORI mean?

From the very beginning, we produced the figure KORI. A spirited Alert curious figure who symbolized the wild, adventurous and surreal feelings surrounding a motorcycle. The long ears represent freedom and responsiveness. The curious eyes and childish but cocky expression stands for the mischievous and confident feeling that conveys the motorcycle. There was a fellow who eventually needed a name.

We were searching for a name that would convey our feeling - feeling of freedom, pride, mischievousness, curiosity, flexibility, spontaneity, adventure covetousness ... At the same time, we wanted to highlight the profound relationship that is found between the individual and the motorcycle, which is a special relationship, difficult to put into words ...

Trying to summarize all this in a single word, or even a name soon proved to be anything but easy. We wanted to get everything without really saying anything!
Finally one day we asked ourselves some swenglish "what exactly is the "Core" in our product and our brand?" And suddenly we had the answer in front of us:
- It's "Cor" it's all about!

Kori name originated from the word "core" = "the central or most important part of something"
We took the word core and lifted it to a new dimension: Kori, a mischievous and a bit cocky wave with a scoop of freedom, joy, curiosity and spontaneity.

Today is our figure our internal mascot that reminds us of who we are and what we stand for. It is still hard to straight up and down to put actual words what Kori really is and stands for, Kori is a feeling ... It's about to experience Kori. It's about finding their Kori ... The one who has known the feeling also know what we're talking about.

Word linguistic meanings:
- In Finnish, the word basket / bärredskap
- In Serbian, the word usage.
- On Indonesian / Malay, the word door.
- The Slovenian / Czech, the word corridors.
- In Hungarian, the word age.
- In Korean, the word connection
- The Bangladeshi is "kori" a plural of "kora" and that means "ourselves."
Neija Kori = we do it our selves. Help Organization in Bangladesh.

Kori also:
- A first name (USA) that can be used by both men / women.
- A nickname (France and England) for the name Corinne originally from Corinna / Korinna meaning virgin / maiden.
- A village in Central Africa
- A city in Japan
- A people in India that is strongly associated with weaving and textile industry.
- An African word for valley in the desert where water collected during rainy periods. Hence a kind of gathering place for animals.
- A large African bird in Africa (Kori Bustard), one of the largest flying birds.
- Kori has also previously been the name of an Indian currency (up to 1947)

The preview...

We now started to realize how good and unique KORI's back protection really is!
KORI's cage. The Flexibility - the customizable storage option that is just there, regardless of where, when and how. Protective properties that, without problems, can be compared with the  best back protectors on the market today. Manufacturing and quality from Anderstorp ... in Småland - next door to Anderstorp Raceway - the coolest Grand Prix circuit in the Region.

This, we wanted to celebrate. On the 6th of December 2010, we invited to the party.
We wanted to showcase KORI and we wanted to convey the KORI-feeling now.
- Congratulations Niclas, he won the raffle on the preview!
Niclas will thus get one of the first produced back protectors.
Thank you for a very enjoyable evening!

And then came the fall...

It was time to tie the bag.
One of the hardest things have been to find materials to the protection that met our requirements to get into the highest degree of protection. In the autumn we were a couple of trips up the SP Technical Research Institute of Sweden before we found the right combination. The cover plate is of sandwich construction materials with different properties - a lightweight and supportive combination with very good impact absorption!

Real summer feeling

A total of four prototypes were sewn up for a tour around Sweden during July 2010. During the trip, we tested and evaluated the function and design of the prototypes. On Kori's part, we got a lot of valuable input and confirmations. Thanks for a great trip!

Savior...

On a Thursday afternoon in late May 2010. After the late notification of defection from a sewing industry in Mjölby, we contacted Veronica Broman on Moberg's Factory for a request to save us out of the situation and develop our first prototype.

The day after we met at the factory in Anderstorp, Smaland.
Barely two weeks later, we got to see this first test.

Many thanks to Veronica and Moberg for saving us from that situation.

The clock ticked on ..

We proceed directly to april 2010 and at that time, for the first time, we showed our concept - for motorcyclists! We took our model in a home-made version and invited to the event "Be a part of this and influence". After fruitful discussions and good feedback, it was decided that this particular concept could be taken further. Many thanks to those of you who joined!

Then it was just to kick off the work to establish ourselves and to engage in the Swedish industry! Factories, material suppliers, and much much more.

None of us had done this before, everything was new and exciting!

.. then came a new year, 2010.

I had found the perfect concept...

I had received a Swedish patent...

I had given life to a new brand - KORI...

I had a desire to start something new! Something unique!

...so I founded the family company Kori experience, with the vision "We will launch a unique product and establish a new brand that focuses on the feeling, situation, relationship, and especially on the user!"

The Brand

I wanted to create a brand that would stand for more than just products. I wanted to create a brand that could convey the mischievous, curious and terrified feelings I had as a motorcyclist, as an entrepreneur, as an innovator, designer ... 

I wanted to convey the core in the emotions  - "the core feeling" - I wanted to convey KORI.

Many thanks (again) to those who helped me convey the feeling through both figurative and film! Michael Olenmark, Jenny Ekdahl, Nadja Maya, Maya Hansson, Samuel Hildingsson, Mikael Hildingsson, Axel Åkerlund (Creative Music), Johanna Löfgren, George and Ingrid:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsPgpg_eqOU

From an idea to a first concept.

During two years, the idea was developed further and in late autumn 2009, we had the concept.

- The perfect concept!

During this two-year period, we have developed, planned, pondered, laughed, discussed, decided, joked, negotiated, agreed, borrowed money, written business plans, written a new business plan, put up strategies, put up new strategies and mainly met an incredible number of people and organizations that in different ways helped us and influenced us.

Many thanks to you!

Then the feeling came...

The feeling of beeing completely free - completely flexible and completely spontaneous. The feeling of going anywhere at anytime ... but soon I realized that the feeling was not quite complete. From there, the idea came!

A cold spring day in 2007

We are approaching the same annual period, though today its 4 years ago. A cold spring day on dry pavement .. it was in 2007. First time on a motorcycle. A few months later, I sat on a custom motorcycle with a license that understood that the alphabet does not begin with a B but with an A (!) (in sweden that is)

Thank you Michael and thanks Bengt! Thanks Margaret and Helen!

Thanks - for the lending of motorcycles, equipment, lessons and patience!