Forge launches!

Friday, May 30th. This is the date we officially unveiled our mobile application to the public. A lot of people don’t know, but this moment was two years in the making. What started with a dream, sketches on a notepad and rudimentary web maps culminated in an app - a real app on the real app stores!

Friend of Forge, Scott, at Lion's Head trailhead.

Going live was an exhilarating moment. We had been speaking about this day for months. Over Sunday afternoon braais we tried to picture what it would be like for other people to see our ‘baby’. Countless hours out on the trail getting lost (in the mind) in what this project could one day morph into. To be honest, whatever came after this moment was a bonus for we had achieved something that not long before seemed like a fantasy.

The first few downloads trickled in as our first Instagram post was sent out. The following day was our active launch - going out and speaking to people to tell them about the new app on the market.

We recruited a bunch of close friends, 10 in total and split up into pairs donning Forge branded T-shirts. The plan was to hand out ‘emergency cards’ which we created, which had QR codes to the app store on the front and a list of emergency contacts and a space for personal details. Each pair was going to hand-out these cards to hikers, runners and dog-walkers at Cape Town’s major trailheads; Lion’s Head, Platteklip (Tafelberg Rd), Newlands Forest, Cecelia Forest and Constantia Nek.

ICE Cards (emergency contacts on the reverse side) that we handed out. PS: Still got a few that we're keen to hand out.

The response was overall very positive which was reflected in the number of downloads and website visits. People were very keen to see what it was about and to our surprise, a few even thanked us for doing this and putting it together. It was a very heartwarming and gratifying process, engaging with the people you seek to help and them being not only responsive, but welcoming to what you were offering them.

Josh (Forge) not finding anyone on the day in the forests of Finland.

Overwhelming is how I would describe the couple of weeks that followed. We were flooded with emails of people’s requests, issues with the app, new ideas and even collaboration proposals. We were featured by the likes of Cape Town Etc. and Timeslive and were blown away when we received a request to talk about the app with John Maytham on CapeTalk!

The response has been phenomenal and we are excited to be heading down this path and we can’t wait to explore more, with you!

Trail runner downloading Forge on the fly!