The only thing I hate more than schlepping around electronics is schlepping around accessories and dongles for those electronics. And even when I’m not traveling it’s still hard to organize everything in one place and resist the temptation to just throw all my cables into a drawer.
Which is exactly why my interest was piqued when I saw Bento Stack. It’s a stacking case designed to hold all your Apple (or technically any brand) accessories.
The design was inspired by a bento box, meaning it has a ton of different compartments divided between two different stacking layers so you can fit all your accessories. Each compartment is specially designed to hold things like cables, AirPods, power adapters and even an Apple Pencil.
The case itself has a hard shell and comes in Apple-inspired colors to match your devices, like silver, space grey and rose gold.
The diagram below should give you a good idea of what each layer looks like and how they stack on top of each other.
While it’s designed to be used for both travel and organization at home, it seems a little bulky to be a good travel companion unless you’re taking a really big bag. But that may be personal preference – my girlfriend said she’d definitely travel with it, since she’d “be carrying all the stuff inside anyway”.
You can also take out a layer if you want to make it temporarily less bulky. Personally I’d keep it at home right on my desk to replace my messy cable drawer. The silver color matches perfectly with an iMac, making it a great desktop companion.
One downside – the layers don’t “lock”, so the only way to keep the whole thing from falling apart is a rubber-band like silicon strap that wraps around the whole thing to keep it closed. Again, not really an issue if you’re keeping it on your desk, but a hassle if you’re traveling with it and need to keep putting on and taking off the silicon trap.
The device was created by Function 101, a new startup design firm focused on consumer accessories. They’re launching Bento Stack on Indiegogo today, with a final retail price of $50 and discounts for early orders.
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