Here at Sofeast we often work with partners to help support you and deliver the right results when you’re developing a new product to manufacture and bring to market.
The partners you see are grouped corresponding to the new product development stage you’d work with them during.
# Collecting applicable product compliance requirements
Compliance Gate can help guide you through applicable regulations. Particularly useful for simple products. To get in touch it’s best to book a free consultation with them.
# Setting the right contracts to protect your interests
Harris Bricken is among the best boutique international law firms, and their attorneys can set up agreements for safeguarding your intellectual property and your other business interests. You can contact Dan Harris about legal matters in China and other Asian countries.
# Designing the aesthetics of the product (industrial design)
Our clients have worked with a group of industrial designers and design houses with good results, and we are happy to recommend them (based on your product type and where you are located). Here are some examples of product design partners we work with (both design houses and individual designers):
- In Canada: the team at Waterloo Technical has rich experience managing projects with North American clients. Contact: grant.unsworth(at)waterlooti(dot)com
- In Argentina & China: Our own group’s Agilian Industrial Design studio, with team members in Argentina, and also China, handles many customer projects.
# Developing prototypes of your product
Here, the right fit will be highly dependent on your situation and specific needs. We collected a list of prototyping companies in China on this page.
We can also help you create prototypes ourselves if your product is electro-mechanical, since we have an in-house R&D team and some common prototyping equipment (various types of 3D printers, CNC machines…).
# Professional product presentation videography & photography
China Product Photo – Anton and his team provide excellent product photography and videography in China for websites and online stores.
Content2sell – we hear good things about this innovative Shenzhen-based agency that provides marketing and sales content for your product and comes recommended by people we know.
# Pre-selling consumer products
Kickstarter offers a great way to pre-sell your product, provided you already have a prototype. It is a way to confirm market demand and get advance payments.
Indiegogo is another crowdfunding site that may be a good fit.
Many of our customers have done a campaign on one of these sites, and then on the other one. It is much less work the 2nd time, but the amount raised might be higher.
The Crowdfunding Formula (TCF) can help you prepare a high-leverage launch campaign.
Oh, and don’t forget to start pre-selling even earlier (actually, collecting an email list and reservations, and getting feedback from the desired demograph on Prelaunch.
# Contract manufacturing
The Sofeast group includes a wholly-owned contract manufacturer, Agilian Technology. Agilian is based near Shenzhen airport and works on electro-mechanical products. The 20,000+ square meter facility includes engineering staff who focus on new product development and can handle prototyping, process engineering, quality and testing processes setup, etc. Once all is fully validated as ready for mass production, the production department takes the lead. Note: tooling and PCBA are partially managed in-house.
# App Development
We provide in-group app development at Agilian, where our experienced app developers have built applications for customers in a range of industries, such as connected IoT products, wearables, light controllers, etc.
# E-commerce distribution in the USA
One solution for e-commerce distribution in the US is East Coast-based Ship it Done is a 3PL warehouse with transparent pricing and a lot of experience of assisting e-commerce vendors in the USA. Their services include storage, pick and pack, fulfillment, and expertise in dealing with Amazon FBA, eBay, crowdfunding, and more.
Please note:
We have listed companies that we have worked with for a long time and/or were highly praised by some of our other partners — unfortunately, we do not respond to requests to be included in this list, which is strictly curated by our top management.