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Two friends, one carton on a doorstep, and a turning point at minute 0:52.
Maybe one of our boxes is sitting in your kitchen right now. Nothing about it says where it came from: a garage in Paderborn, Germany. That garage is where the film begins.
The film is called Blockhütte: Beyond the Lunchbox. Amazon Ads made it for Rising Stars, a series about growing brands. Camera on, tell everything, including the part where it got tight. We said yes.
What is the video about?
Two friends who wanted a better lunch box. And everything that happened after that.
Malte and Nils have known each other since preschool. Later, Malte went into sales and Nils into automotive manufacturing. Lots of driving, lots of rest stops, lots of fast food. We both gained weight.
The fix sounded simple: cook at home and take it with you. But nothing we found was durable, plastic-free, and good to look at. So we built it ourselves.
Where did Blockhütte start?
We designed and tested the first box in the garage of Nils's parents. Evenings, after work, next to two full-time jobs.
On July 20, 2019, the first delivery stood on Nils's doorstep. One carton, two very proud faces. That is how it began.
Blockhütte moved to Hamburg in 2022. Paderborn is still where it started.
What happens at minute 0:52?
Two numbers.
The film puts them side by side. We started in 2019 with around $3,400 in starting capital (3,000 euros). In the year before filming, Blockhütte made about $6.5 million in revenue (six million euros).
That figure is the whole company, every country and every channel.
What lies between the two numbers is not a secret. It is work, and one stretch that really hurt. More on that in a moment. Watch the turning point at minute 0:52 on YouTube, or right here:
Why did the founders sell their cars?
Three months of stock was gone in about three weeks.
That sounds like a dream start. It was our most dangerous moment. With all the selling, we had simply forgotten to reorder.
When we noticed, the money was missing. Every new pallet of steel has to be paid for before the first box from it sells.
So we sold our cars. Malte's very nice BMW went, so that new stock could come in. That scene starts at minute 2:01. It is the part other people would cut.
Why show it? Because founder stories tend to get polished smooth. We are still two founders. No outside investors. Every decision is ours to carry. And this much we can give away: it ends well.
How do two people spend 16 hours a day together?
Well, says the film. Of 24 hours in a day, we spend 16 together. Voluntarily.
Nils is the one with the data, and the best grades in the whole school. Malte is the creative head with a thousand ideas, and the one who had to fight.
His spelling almost got him thrown out of school. The diagnosis came later: dyslexia. His line on it in the film: focus on your strengths.
That mix still carries Blockhütte today. One of us calculates, the other one dreams up. Together it fits.
What became of the garage?
In the film, we count it off. Blockhütte now sells across Europe, plus the US, Canada and Mexico. Amazon Ads describes an expansion to 14 countries.
The camera also follows us to Tokyo, where we prepare the next step: a launch in Japan.
There, Malte learns on camera that products for kids in Japan have to be cute first. Our answer is in the film, too. We would rather stay sturdy. Be different, be better.
One thing for readers in the US: orders from this store ship from within the United States. Engraving happens in our own facility in CA.
What means more to us than any map: over 2,900 reviews across our stores. And one line from a customer review that says it best: "I gave my other boxes away."
What does this have to do with your lunch box?
Everything. The film explains why our products are built the way they are.
Whoever spends evenings in a garage brooding over seals does not build throwaway goods. Built to last has been the standard since day one: the last lunch box you'll ever need. Three things stand behind it:
- Material. 304 (18/8) stainless steel, uncoated inside, so your food touches nothing but steel. Independently tested for lead under the US CPSIA, and we retest every year. The current report is on our certificates page, free to download.
- Spare parts. Every wearing part is sold separately. When a seal fails, you buy a seal. Not a new box.
- Safety net. A three-year limited warranty and 60-day free returns. The spare gasket is already in the box.
That is what goes into every stainless steel lunch box we make. Every insulated food jar and every water bottle, too.
Stainless Steel Lunch Box
The stainless steel lunch box for adults that survives a real commute. Two removable dividers...
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Has the mission changed?
No. The throwaway industry makes its money when trash is created. We make ours when none is.
At the very end of the film comes the sentence this is really about. Away from buying cheap and throwing it away anyway. Toward buying once, keeping it, and making it part of your life.
That is also why we engrave. A thing for life deserves your name. Nobody engraves throwaway goods.
In the US, we engrave in our own facility in CA. Order by 1 PM PT and it is engraved the same day. Before you type a name: engraved items cannot be returned. Here is how engraving works.
Where can you watch the whole story?
Here: Blockhütte: Beyond the Lunchbox on YouTube, 9 minutes and 21 seconds. If you like, leave a comment there. We read along and answer.
And where is this going? At the very end, a number for the next five years comes up. See for yourself.
More about the two of us is on our about page. Nils and Malte each have a page of their own. Blockhütte, by the way, is German for log cabin: a place you build once, properly.
Welcome to the Blockhütte.
