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All 12 Pins Have Been Unlocked + 3 Freebies to All Pin Backers! 

Our Kickstarter is over, but if you can Pre-Order Pins a discount compared to retail price with the goal of shipping before the holidays!

You helped us unlock all 12 pins (well 10 x pins and 2 x keychains). We also unlocked a few freebies pins and stickers. They have proven so popular, we are also making them available to Pre-Order. 

We started this campaign with our Spinning Chameleon Pin (above) to help people communicate if they were feeling overwhelmed in crowded environments. See our About Us section at the bottom. We wanted to answer these three questions:

1. What if while you're spiralling, you could communicate how you're feeling? 
2. What if a student was struggling, but they had trouble expressing their emotions?
3. What if while you were having a panic attack, we could help calm you down? 

Did you know our Character pins have back stories? We love the stories because who knows, maybe one day this can become an animated series and inspire a generation of kids 🤩 Read the stories in our Update #6 or click this link. 

How to use the Astronaut's Weekly Planner Oversized Pin

If you thought the Calmer Chameleon's Spinning Pin was special, Ami the Astronaut's Weekly Mood Check-In Collectors Pin with tiny sliding rockets is out of this world 🚀 cue 80s style toy commercial. Standing tall at H 100mm x W 100mm (about 4 inches) this Oversized Pin would make for an amazing gift 😎

Keep it on your counter, office desk, or backpack. Reflect how you felt the whole week, maybe uncover a trend you hadn't noticed before, or use it with weekly journaling. Finally, a useful tracker you'll actually love to use that's easy to share with your friends, family, and teachers that'll pay off 10-fold. Hope you love it. Read the full explanation here.

Goblin Mode /ˈɡɑː.blɪn ˌmoʊd/ is a term to use when you want to gift yourself a day of unapologetic self-indulgence. It can be used as a powerful relief during stressful times, and can embody the idea of owning who you are, taking care of your needs, and living more authentically. It was popularized as a means of coping with the COVID-19 pandemic and was eventually made Oxford Dictionaries' Word of the Year in 2022. Sometimes we all need a day to go into Goblin Mode, just slip your partner this super cute pin when you need a goblin day for yourself. 

Our 11th and 12th Pins are Keychains, and here's why

I suffered a pretty bad panic attack earlier this week. It’s wild how when you’re spiralling, you can forget all your usual tools and protocols. Nothing was working. I ended up running into my shower to trace the square tiles just to refocus and to use as a guide for box breathing. It was scary.

It reminded me how important tools like our box breathing keychain and pocket sized labyrinth can be and I’m glad we’re producing these last two tools for all of you. We tested them this week. They were impractical as a pin. We then carried them around as a metal plate (think credit card) we slipped into our wallets and bags, but we forgot them at home sometimes. The keychain made the most sense because you might need them at a moment's notice. If you ever get a minute to meditate, practice gratitude, or find yourself in a sudden panic attack, we'll be there for you. 

'Making of' our pins

Pins with High Utility 

These pins are carefully thought through to be both Useful and Cute. To get here, we surveyed 117 fans and tested our spinning pin with 80 fans for feedback. Like with everything we do, this is inspired by our Companion members.

We're Producing Stronger & More Elegant Hard Enamel Pins

We decided to manufacture using hard enamel in most cases. Even though hard enamel pins take longer to make, for example with a complex design like our Calmer Chameleon* pin with 8 different colors, it means your pin gets baked 8 times versus just once, making these pins stronger and last longer. Hard enamel pins add in a polishing process and you get a different kind of sheen and elegance. Official Disney, Pokemon, and Collectible pins are almost always hard enamel.

* Calmer Chameleon Spinning Pin is actually an even more complex pin because it's actually two multi-colored hard enamel pins with a center spinning clutch. We're working with a specialist manufacturer to bring this to life.

There are a few cases where we will use soft enamel because that process allows us to create the Tactile feeling necessary for the tool. Needless to say, each pin is being thought through in detail.  

First Pin in Production Already!

With positive feedback from teachers, universities, and employers of its potential usefulness, we put up the funds ourselves to manufacture the prototype!

We tested our prototypes at Shore Leave Con last week with Actresses Teryl Rothery (Stargate, Virgin River), Amanda Tapping (Stargate, Sanctuary), and fans like Holly.

Timeline

• August 1 - Kickstarter Campaign Begins
• September 2 - Campaign Ends and funds are collected
• September - Surveys are sent out
• October - Pins manufactured (new pins can take 32 days if it all goes smoothly, and we have some very unique pins)
• December - Pins start shipping in batches with a goal to get it to you before the holidays

About Us

Hey 👋 we're Lawrence and Welles and we run The Companion, a company with the mission of revolutionizing mental health alongside our advisor & partner Amanda Tapping (Stargate, Sanctuary). We've had the privilege to interview amazing people including Richard Dean Anderson, Michael Shanks, Christopher Judge, Jonathan Frakes, Marina Sirtis, showrunners Brad Wright (Stargate SG-1, Atlantis, Universe), Naren Shankar (The Expanse, Farscape), and Frank Spotnitz (The X-Files, Man in the High Castle), and others - see our videos. 

Why Mental Health Pins

This summer we attended a convention to meet our wonderful members for the first time. Unfortunately, the event had a massive breakdown in organization and communication. We witnessed first hand the huge number of overwhelmed fans and staff, a lack of support systems, and all made worse by an incredible heat wave. 

So we wanted to do something about this, for both fans and organizers. How can we make a difference? 

Inspired by London's "Baby on Board" badge for pregnant women, we think pins can be a way for fans to quickly communicate certain needs in overwhelming and crowded settings like conventions, festivals, theme parks, markets, hospitals, airports, and even crowded trains & buses. 

And as our campaign has evolved and we've spoken to so many wonderful fans, we've evolved our full 12-Pin set to include tools to help with anxiety, build healthy habits, and (fingers crossed it doesn't happen) panic attack tools to help you.

Interested in The Companion or our other mental health projects? Some links...

Our mental health book with Amanda Tapping

The Companion Website & Livestream Calendar

Our Merch Shop

Socials: Instagram, Twitter (X), YouTube, Discord

📣 Big Shoutout: We couldn't have done any of this without our generous partners and advisors Amanda Tapping, Brad Wright, and The Companion Members who support us with an annual membership.