One of the strange effects of founding a hammock business is that whenever a story involving hammocks or a picture of a hammock makes its way into the viral internet I’ll often begin receiving texts and emails from friends asking if I’ve seen it.
That exact situation happened earlier this week, when I was sent the picture below by a few people in a short period of time:
(I don’t know who owns the original rights to the picture other than the website which appears on it, so if anyone has issues with my reposting it let me know and I’ll take it down. FOUND: The original post with the photo can be found on JoyfulAbode.com - cheers to Emily for sharing a great hammock idea with the masses!)
Like many of you, I immediately loved the picture when I saw it. Never content to have just one motto or tagline, there are many extensions to TLG's core message of ‘Life Is Better In A Hammock’, and two of those are the ‘Hammock Everywhere’ and ‘Trees Optional’ themes you’ll hear often from us. So it turns out that this picture, oddly enough, is a truly great example of what the Trek Light lifestyle represents.
On Monday I re-posted the photo to our Facebook page with the caption “Where there’s a will, there’s a hammock” (another favorite saying around here) and it immediately started getting re-posted. It turned out to be our most shared Facebook image ever – over 100 individual shares and 200+ likes and counting in a very short time. Sure, it’s got a cute baby in it, but it’s obviously the hammock creativity that captures people’s imagination and causes the reaction.
As the comments started coming in, one of them was so unexpected it immediately caught my attention: “You should sell that! Great idea!”
Guess what? We DO sell that, and we always have.
Recreating The Internet: Step 1, Find A Baby
I immediately realized that we needed to recreate this picture showing people how easily they could do this with one of our hammocks – all I needed was a table, a hammock and a baby.
Two out of three ain’t bad, but definitely wasn’t going to cut it in this case. So, I had another of those great ‘man, my job is weird’ moments where I sat at my desk thinking about where I could get a cooperative baby model on short notice. Luckily Jason, my right hand man around the office, has a close friend with a baby so just a few minutes and what I’m sure was a strange phone call later I sent Jason off with the simple mission of recreating the internet.
And, in case you missed it on our Facebook page earlier this week, here’s the great result:
The idea that you don’t need two trees to relax in a hammock, that you can be indoors, under a table even, is what causes the overwhelming “Why didn’t I think of that?” reaction we saw in so many of the comments. It opens the imagination up and makes people realize that if they can turn a kitchen table into a great hammock spot for a baby that there’s probably a million ways they can get creative and hang a hammock for themselves. It’s that open door into a new world, a light bulb going off the same way it did for me the first time I took a hammock camping. And the reaction I saw, along with the viral spread of the image, is a great example of why Trek Light Gear exists and why I believe our mission resonates with so many.
Or, if you prefer, Trek Light Gear Motto #523: Free your hammock, the rest will follow.
A huge thanks to our new favorite hammock model, Adi Mae, and her mom Angela Tretter for helping to make this picture come to life on such short notice.
Please do us a favor and share it! You have our blessing to save the image and post it wherever you can. Hopefully some day down the road it’ll be this picture traveling in the fast lane of the internet making people smile and forward it on. I’m sure I’ll be hearing from more than a few friends when that day comes.
UPDATE: Better yet, in addition to sharing the image, if you've got all the necessary ingredients at home (table, baby, Trek Light hammock) why not take your own shot at recreating the internet Trek Light style and share your pictures with us on our Facebook page? We'll even give our favorite a $25 Gift Certificate! Submit your photos by 12/31/12 and we'll pick a winner after the New Year.