New chess Products from Chess Gorilla

Hey everyone, This is Shelby from Chess Gorilla.  My brain has been in overdrive the last few months and I have a bevy of new products I have brought to market and would LOVE to get your opinions.  Give me all thoughts, there is no need to sugar coat things if you disagree with me.

I have brought out these new products:

1)  Chess Gorilla Backpack bag

2)  Chess Gorilla Tournament bags

3)  Chess Gorilla Clipboard magnetic Chess Set 

4)  Chess Gorilla Vinyl Chess Boards (Yes, you can do cool things with vinyl)

5)  Wood Grain mousepad boards (have 6 new colors)

I will post a different post for each of the products.  let me know of your thoughts.

I have 3 companies carrying Chess Gorilla Products right now.  You can find most of my new products on USCFSALES.com, Chess4Less.com, and Chessset.com.

Here is the backpack chess tournament bag:

Here is why we brought them out:

1) Straps on tournament bags are prone to break.

2) These are VERY easy to transport

3) Tons of space inside and out.

4) We upgraded the zippers to YKK zippers. These are the best zippers on the market and do not break.

5) We went and upgraded the stitching. We had a problem before with it and went a little overboard fixing it.

6) It has the very cool Chess Gorilla Logo on them too!

Chess Gorilla tournament bags:

Upgraded the zippers to YKK zippers.

Upgraded the stitching to make sure these bags last longer than all other bags on the market.

Tons of cool colors.

Got the Chess Gorilla logo on the outside.

The Clipboard Magnetic Chess Set by Chess Gorilla:

We brought this out due to a gap in the market. Here are some reasons you need to buy this product:

1) Great for when you need to use the carbonless scoresheets

2) Clip the game on one side and use the magnetic chess set on the inside cover for analysis.

3) Big enough for coaches to go thru games with multiple students.

4) Fits in most backpacks

Always great to hear from you, Shelby. *Good* chess bags have always seemed to me an untapped market so I'm glad to see you're making an entrance here.

One of the coolest things I did was mess with the Vinyl board designs that everyone is used to. You might ask, how can someone make a vinyl board better other than using better material?

Look at the board to see if you can tell the difference in them.

The thing is all standard vinyl boards are printed in 1 color prints. The squares match the notation and the outline on the board. When you get medium to lighter colors it is hard to read the notation and the whole thing just looks washed out.

What we did was take the board and put black notation and a black outline on the board. This brings out the color of the board and makes the notation easier to read. Does it cost me more money to have them printed this way? YUP!!!

But why not give you a product that is easier to use? Do you like the change or thing is a waste of time?

Looks very cool Shelby!

Yes, the silicone is easy to clean but due to the nature of the material they attract dirt and oils. And you might not believe me but the Silicone boards can crease and wrinkle if stored wrong.

thanks

Shelby Lohrman

The Chess Gorilla.

I'm planning to get a new travel kit. Bag, board and pieces. I'll see what you have. I also want to experiment with different materials for pieces and board. Silicone pieces vs hard plastic. silicone vs vinyl vs mouse pad board. I'm undecided (and overwhelmed... but the reality is I want to get each and compare).

A few comments... probably a bit nit-picky but I think you'll appreciate the feedback..

1. The vinyl board.. the aesthetic was immediate for me. Not sure I'm a fan of the font. I also think I prefer a single color. Grating me is the product image... e4e4e4... my OCD wants all the boards to be aligned the same way (I always align my money queen side up)... and I'd prefer to see a b c d (as opposed to h g f e). But this alignment probably keeps an alternating checkered pattern.

2. I often prefer no logos. I get it, this is your brand. What about just a word mark?

3. Upgraded stitching and zippers. Definitely makes me want to consider your brand.

//Grating me is the product image... e4e4e4... my OCD wants all the boards to be aligned the same way (I always align my money queen side up)... and I'd prefer to see a b c d (as opposed to h g f e). But this alignment probably keeps an alternating checkered pattern.//

It's impossible to please OCD people! 😁

Shelby -

You didn't mention your ACE website. Is that still viable? That is, will your new products be available there? And it's not clear whether you still have the V3 Ultimate Chess Pieces in stock?

Keep up the good work!

Brian,

funny you should say that on the notation. I was the same way till a few months ago. If you look at the boards made by the major suppliers out there, they all have the notation the same way as you like it.

I noticed a problem with it though. 90% of the people in the world are right handed. Yet the notation on the boards reads upside down for a right handed person. We could correct it and just flip the notation, but that is not fair to the left handed people out there. My way is a compromise. Have the notation read my way and it reads the same for people of both hands. Also, I only have a logo on my Bananas chess board. The standard vinyl and mousepad 2 color boards have no logo.

But I understand, chess players are creatures of habit. It is the nature of our industry.

Keep close, I have 2 different clocks under development and a new notation system that will blow your minds!

thanks

Shelby Lohrman

The Chess Gorilla

Russ,

Very good question that no one has really asked yet. Yes, I do still work with American Chess Equipment as an outside commission only based salesperson. We had a family "incident" where Mom got sick and lost 1/4 of her body weight and had tons of medical complications because of it. I needed to come home, take over the family business (Rochester Chess Center and www.ChessSet.com). This allowed me to develop more products and bring them to market that much quicker. Don't get me wrong, WE Games and ACE was a great place to work, but family comes first. You can always earn money, but getting that time back with loved ones is something you cannot replace. Mom is back healthy (relatively) for someone 80+ years old. Have been cooking for them and helping around the house as well as running the chess center.

On the flip side to this, I was able to develop some very cool things here in Rochester. I had to start up www.ChessGorilla.com to allow me to develop a brand for the chess industry. I have developed an upgraded tournament bag, a upgraded tournament backpack bag, "Knight" Lights, a ton of inexpensive gifts for the chess players and allow me to have a couple of amazing products in the development track.

My goal of all of this is to develop a brand ala Nike or Reebok for the Chess Industry. The closest thing we have is DGT. They make good products, but they are expensive and are about 5 years behind the curve. The main thing is to give the customer a product that will last AND look good.

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Doing well so far. I have stock on www.WholesaleChess.com, www.USCFSALES.com, www.Chess4Less.com, www.ChessUSA.com and www.ChessSet.com. I am working on some more websites to carry my products. Progressing very well in the short time I have been developing the brand.

Thanks,

Shelby Lohrman

The Chess Gorilla

Thanks Shelby (or should we now call you Chess Gorilla?!) -

So sorry to hear about your mother. I believe you did the right thing by going back to your family and to her. I know she appreciates it.

I do hope your new ventures are a success. You are always doing something innovative with your chess business. That's a good thing! I do like that you are continuing to offer a variety of colors in your vinyl rollup chessboards. I'm partial to the pastel colors, and light blue in particular. This because the less saturated (i.e., less dark) colors provide greater contrast to the chess pieces - particularly against the dark/black pieces. For example, this (paper) board, noting the contrast between pieces and the light blue squares...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZy5JSq816s

Also, I checked the sites you listed for the Bobby Fischer Ultimate Chess Pieces and noted they were available through www.Chess4Less.com, www.ChessUSA.com and www.ChessSet.com and, of course, Rochester Chess Center. But they do not appear to be listed on www.WholesaleChess.com or www.USCFSALES.com (at least, I was not able to find them there). It's a great plastic set !

As always, keep up the good work!

Chess Gorilla -

I note that the photo you posted above of your backpack chess tournament bag appears to be upside-down. That might be something you would like to correct. (Just saying).

This one is a good idea for those who study chess with books and want to follow the analysis with large 2D chess pieces. The "checkbook" style feels too small and too cramped to handle the pieces easily.

Chess Cookie Cutters???