The New Kickstarter Record Holder Is A Cooler That’s Pretty Freakin’ Cool

A new Kickstarter campaign has the record for the highest level of funding achieved in the crowdfunding site’s history. The Coolest Cooler has pulled in more than $10 million so far, and all it had to do was capitalize on the joys of camping with Bluetooth speakers and a rechargeable blender.

The Coolest Cooler’s Kickstarter campaign raised $10.6 million in funding, and it still has more than two days to go. More than 50,000 people have backed the high-tech camping accessory’s Kickstarter campaign as of this writing, making the Coolest Cooler a record-setting fundraiser.

The new record holder breezed past the Pebble Smartwatch Kickstarter, which previously held the record for most-funded Kickstarter campaign with $10.27 million raised in 2012. The Pebble Kickstarter initially had initially asked for $100,000 in starter funding, but wide support from tech lovers pushed it to the record spot while essentially putting Kickstarter on the map.

The Coolest Cooler, by comparison, asked for only $50,000 in funding.

“I’m honestly overjoyed to be in the same ballpark as some of these other amazing crowdfunding products,” Ryan Grepper, organizer of the Coolest Kickstarter campaign, told Mashable on Tuesday. “Who wouldn’t like to beat a record? But that’s just not my goal.”

What was Grepper’s record-setting goal, then? The creation of a camping cooler for the 21st century. The product behind Kickstarter’s new record is an aptly named cooler that packs high-tech features into a familiar package.

The Coolest Cooler packs an 18v battery-powered rechargeable blender for all those wilderness margarita-making sessions, as well as an LED lid light to make sure you grab the right ingredients when it’s dark out. It’s also got a removable, waterproof Bluetooth speaker for when you want to party out in the wild. The aforementioned 18v battery charges the Bluetooth speaker and the blender, of course, but the new Kickstarter record holder also packs a USB charger that will power a tablet – or your iPhone, if you’ve been having battery problems.

The Coolest Cooler has a number of other features, of course – including a gear tie-down, extra wide rolling tires, and a bottle opener – but those aren’t the things that help one set a Kickstarter record. The heart of the device is the melding of camping with all of the things you hope to escape while camping, and the people love it, if the internet’s response is any indication.

More than 40,000 backers pledged $185 or more to the new record holder. An additional 2,015 backers kicked in $225 or more, and 242 people have pledged upwards of $1,750. If you’d like to get in on the action and push the record mark even higher, you should know that it takes a pledge of at least $165 to get an actual Coolest Cooler unit. If you want to go higher than that, your Kickstarter reward options include KEEP CALM AND BLEND ON t-shirts, party cups, blended drink guides, and multiple Coolest units.

Those pledging $2,000 or more will get a special treat. The Coolest Cooler inventor will fly out to those Kickstarter backers’ hometowns and bartend at their next event.

Setting a new Kickstarter record isn’t as easy as it might seem, though.This record-setting campaign is actually the Coolest Cooler’s second go at Kickstarter. Grepper first tried in 2013 with a goal of $125,000, but he fell more than $20,000 short of his Kickstarter goal. Grepper retooled his approach seven months later with a more mature product design, and that campaign went on to smash the Kickstarter record.

The Coolest Cooler hit its fundraising goal within 36 hours of going live, and it hit the $1 million mark less than a day after that. For aspiring record setters, Grepper has a few words of encouragement.

“I would love to see more creative people put their ideas before the crowd,” Grepper told Mashable. “It’s certainly exciting to break a record, but I would be the no. 1 fan of whoever is closing in on me.”