Our first PAKU product launch was our māra tools in 2021, followed by Pū Rākau at the end of 2023. And in case you hadn’t noticed… it’s now 2026.
So what have we been doing?.........Plenty.
Alongside being busy humans outside of PAKU, we’ve been designing, exploring, prototyping, and working with some amazing people. Going wide with our kaupapa and asking big questions about where to head next.
But most of that work has happened behind closed doors… and it’s time to change that.
The best PAKU products have always come from involving the community early, Māori and Pākehā, young and old. Inviting kōrero, challenging ideas and building things with real buy-in from the people who actually use them.
We’re opening up the whole design process. Over the coming months we’ll be sharing regular updates. Not as a token gesture. But to genuinely shape what gets made.
We’ve got strong design instincts and some clear preferences about where we think this should go. But design is always stronger when it’s tested, questioned, and sharpened by real voices.
So how’s this going to work?
It’ll be simple and fluid. The plan is for us to post every few weeks, documenting the design process as it unfolds.
That means sketches, concepts, constraints, CAD, material tests, the wins and the rethinks and whatever else we can think of. Along the way, we’ll be asking for your whakaaro through comments, polls, and direct questions about the decisions shaping the project.
“Wait… what’s ‘the project’? What are you actually making?”
If we’re serious about involving our PAKU community, it wouldn’t make sense to make the biggest decision on our own. So before we even begin the deep dive we’re putting it to a vote.
We’re running a poll (links here and across our social channels) sharing the ideas we’ve been developing and debating for the past two years (and even further back). They’re all at different stages of development, but we believe all of them sit within our kaupapa.
And to make it even more interesting — everyone who votes and helps shape the direction we steer our PAKU waka will go in the draw to win a PAKU kete worth $100.
Cast your vote. Share your whakaaro. Let’s choose the direction together.
Click here to vote and be in the draw to win a $100 Paku voucher