Nomaquito’s company history began 14 years ago with the tropical sleeping bag. Of course, the idea for the tropical sleeping bag came about a few months earlier, but in February 2010 we started implementing it in the new sole proprietorship. The first two were sold in June 2010.
Managing director and owner on a trip to Thailand/Malaysia in 2010 ©MatthiasKaufmann
The biggest initial obstacle was the procurement of the components, especially the impregnated LLI mosquito nets. Because these usually go in container volumes directly to the malaria areas, but not to Central Europe. And certainly not in small quantities for a few tropical sleeping bags.
In the years that followed, this always remained a challenge and spurred our creativity. Through additional products such as mosquito jackets and, since 2023, the mosquito sarong or mosquito cape, but also the direct sale of the nets and the growing awareness and popularity of our products, we have continuously increased our sales.
For the first few years, thanks to family contacts, we worked from home with seamstresses in Hungary – who really did a great job. The increasing volume forced change here too. In addition to tropical sleeping bags and mosquito clothing, we also offer our own cabin sleeping bags in 3 sizes (children, standard adults and XXL).
Consequently, the next step towards more professionalism with an underwear sewing shop in Hungary. When they lost interest after 3 years, we tried to move to Germany near Rostock during Corona, but ultimately ended up in a sewing shop in the Czech Republic. This completed the work in 2022 due to age and inflation. An unfortunately failed attempt to have our products manufactured with a migrant project in Schorndorf near Stuttgart led us into the saving hands of the Nakon company in Schweinfurt, which has since then been producing for us again in the Czech Republic.
Unfortunately, the production costs there are not affordable for the market prices, so we have already put our feelers out to China. We already source many of our raw materials from China and I, as the managing director and qualified Sinologist (Chinese Science), maintain quite good relationships and have appreciated the quality of many Chinese products for years (even if many people will smile about it). In the next few months, the first products from China will arrive for sale that have undergone further modernization. Information will follow soon! We work with a company near Shanghai that, like us, specializes in outdoor equipment.
Since 2018 we have been operating under the name Nomaquito UG (limited liability) and in 2019 we registered Nomaquito as a brand name with the German Patent and Trademark Office.
For almost as long, we have maintained close contacts with recommendations from tour guides and trekking providers and promoted their tours. We first used our shop, then in collaboration with a friend from India, his specially created platform. Since this had to be rebuilt due to database problems, we have been using our own facilities again. The safari operator and entrepreneur Amos Pendaeli from Tanzania, whose Destiny Hope Foundation we have been supporting since last year, has been there right from the start.
For our birthday, we wish that the plans with China work out and that we can continue sailing for a long time with a little more peace. If you know and appreciate our collaboration or have simply had a good experience with our products, you are welcome to leave us a few congratulatory stars on Google (we have many on Amazon – we are happy to accept them too but not that much on Google). You can place the Google stars here: Google Reviews for Nomaquito THANK YOU!
