About us

This year is significant for us mainly because we are celebrating 10 years on the market. In that time we have managed to make significant progress, introduce new products and avoid many tonnes of waste. However, the first half of the year has been somewhat quiet due to the ongoing pandemic. Events are limited and many have been cancelled. So the organizers and we are trying to find another way and instead of big open airs like the Pohoda festival etc, more smaller events are being organized. So come summer, the festival season is already livelier and nicknacks eliminate the waste again. We ended the summer by making our dream come true and organized the first NICKNACKFEST for NICKNACK staff and friends with a packed program to celebrate our 10th birthday. We are expanding our Brno team and Prague production and working on process improvements. There is a lot of interest in our new HOT CUP and shot products and cities and micro-regions are joining the switch to reusable plastics. Returnable cups are increasingly part of everyday life and are appearing in cafes, amusement parks and even at the dentist. We are constantly trying to inform the public about the importance of the circular economy and participate in events such as PechaKucha or give interviews to Hospodářské noviny and other media.

After the most successful season, we are starting with a new product. HOT CUP is coming to the scene, and it comes in three sizes. As the name suggests, the new HOT CUP is ideal for coffee, tea or any similar beverage and thanks to the lid we don't have to worry about the drink getting cold quickly or spilling it. To be closer to our customers, we expanded our operations at the beginning of the year and opened a washing and storage centre for nicknacks in Prague. But then comes the global pandemic and downturn. There are no events, the consumption of single-use plastics increases and this creates a huge amount of unnecessary waste. This makes no one happy - not us and not the planet. We warn the general public about this threat and in cooperation with us Forbes, Radiožurnál and the Made in Brno podcast write about the problem. After the initial shock, we are using the pandemic to improve our production process and look forward to a hopefully happier season ahead.

We are having our strongest season yet and we are at the top. We have 1.5 million nicknacks circulating at festivals and events in one weekend. One of the events this summer is the legendary Prague Harley Days, for which we produced a special edition nicknack. Our cups cannot be missing at any event, so we are massively increasing our production capacity. To keep up with demand, we are updating our website, where we are adding an enquiry form for even better convenience and ease of ordering. At the same time, a video on the development of NICKNACK is being produced in collaboration with an advertising agency, which you can watch here. We close the year with participation in the traditional Christmas markets in Brno, where we introduce new sizes of nicknacks with a volume of 0.25L, in which visitors enjoy grog or mulled wine at the markets.

NICKNACK continues to grow and we are recruiting new team members . We are expanding our portfolio with a fourth cup with a clip, sized 0.25l. We have a lot of customers in the Moravian-Silesian Region and therefore open a new washing center in Ostrava. We establish cooperation with the football team SK Slavia Praha, which introduces reusable cups at its matches. We are improving the IML technology, the printable area is larger and the cup is upgraded. We hold a presentation at the Business & Zero Waste / Yes or No? Conference, presenting the concept of reusable cups. We are partnering with the Ministry of the Environment (Enough of Plastic campaign). We partner with the FESTAS Association and attend all membership meetings, where we meet with festival promoters and participate in individual steps and decisions. We have a fully robotized workplace with a new ecological injection molding machine that significantly minimizes the ecological footprint of the cups' production.

We changed the visual design of our website's product section and added a new product: a 0.4l cup. We shot a new ad. An interview with NICKNACK was featured in the Forbes magazine. We expanded our warehouses and the team in our washing centre. We established new cooperation in Hungary and the Netherlands. The cups were used also at the Banát festival in Romanian mountains. Zoos, football teams and companies were joined even by cities and towns. In Litomyšl, records were broken thanks to NICKNACKs. NICKNACKs reduced waste consumption on dozens of conferences in the Czech Republic and Slovakia and we participated in Nouvelle Prague for the fourth year. Instead of relaxing after a busy summer season, NICKNACK dressed up for rock and went on tours with bands such as Kabát, Dymytry and Horkýže slíže. Kryštof's successful mega-concert at Prague's Strahov stadium and the ending of Divokej Bill's tour proved that the cups belong also to halls and stadiums, from where the fans bring them home with the bands' T-shirts and CDs.

We expanded our team. Our office grew bigger with more employees. The production was of even higher quality and eco-friendlier thanks to the new Japanese injection molding machine. We cooperated with leading festivals in the Czech Republic and abroad and our clients included additional big and small breweries. We appeared on Czech TV screens in the show "Gejzír dobrých nápadů" and people slowly stopped asking: "What are these cups?". We shot our first video at the Pohoda Festival.

NICKNACKs were used at the Czech pop band's Kryštof tour, starting the beginning of our very successful cooperation with the leading Czech band. We expanded our presence in Slovakia, Poland and elsewhere. NICKNACKs started to be used also in other countries and we spread news and pictures of cups via Facebook and Instagram.

We went to the legendary Pohoda festival in Slovakia. We were there to enjoy the music while NICKNACKs did their own business (totally 100,000 pieces). The most beautiful reusable cups in the world were created. Visitors to the ZOO Dvůr Králové were absolutely delighted. We entered NICKNACK phase 2.0 as we started to use a new print technology – IML.

NICKNACK heard "Na zdrowie!" toast for the first time as Polish brewery Kampania Piwowarska poured Tyskie, Zubr and Lech beers into the cups. Our clientele started to grow – we delivered the cups to sport stadiums, trade fairs, clubs and cinemas. Another official letter came. Our reusable cup with a clip was recognised by the Czech Patent Office. And we celebrated the birth of a new family member – the 0.3l NICKNACK.

We started our machines and launched serial production. We signed deals with Pilsner Urquell, Colours of Ostrava, Hip Hop Kemp and Swedish Rockstadt Falun. Media took notice of us. And what's more, we received certification from Alicante that "NICKNACK has been registered as a new industrial design for the whole EU".

We launched our NICKNACK prototype with a clip. We established the company H2D s. r. o.  We showcased our product at local events around Brno. Organisers and participants enjoyed it.

We visited festivals and enjoyed music. We waded through an ocean of disposable single-use cups. We thought of how to get rid of them. We came to the idea of requiring a deposit for the cups. We looked for inspiration around the world.