'east'+'nole'

Eastnole is a fusion of two concepts: the direction of the sunrise and the beauty of the sunset, encapsulated in the Korean term "nole" (노을).

As a sufferer of chronic pain myself I know what it's like to wake up and go to bed feeling in pain. Sometimes you feel like all hope is gone and accept that to be your life.

But with Yoback, tomorrow is another beautiful day to restart your life pain-free.

It’s mad for us to think that an idea we had on a train in Sri Lanka and scribbled onto a napkin in a bar in Vietnam ended up helping hundreds of people around the world with their back pain. Watch the interview with Gary, the founder or read our story below.

The idea for the Yoback first came after my partner AhYoung and I were travelling on an incredibly crowded train in Sri Lanka. AhYoung managed to get a seat, but I had to stand (or sit on the floor) for the entire six-hour journey.

I've had back pain for almost two decades, despite only being in my thirties, so at the end of the journey my back was screaming in agony. All I could think of was how much I wished I had one of my many back-stretching tools from home.

Unfortunately, they were all too big to travel with.

When we returned home, inspiration struck. What if we could create a portable tool to alleviate muscle aches and pains?

There are so many devices out there, but they're all designed to stay at home, but back pain (and other pain) follows you everywhere!

That's when the concept of Yoback was born—a handy gadget designed to help people like me with persistent back issues.

The journey to create Yoback was challenging, to say the least.

Our initial design was far too heavy and broke easily. We partnered with two manufacturers (getting scammed out of £3,000 in the process!), but neither could produce what we were looking for. Yet, we remained persistent.

We finally got it right after three gruelling years, five engineers, a supportive manufacturing partner, and twelve iterations.

Knowing nothing about business and e-commerce, I needed to learn about website design and marketing, so I joined a mentorship programme to learn everything.

The problem was the calls were at 2 a.m. and I have a full-time job.

After six months of no sleep, we launched a crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter in November 2021.

The response was overwhelming; we received support from 334 backers across 21 countries, exceeding our initial target by raising over £22,000 from a modest goal of £3,000. We even beat our target in less than 24 hours!

We shipped the Yobacks to our backers in June 2022, and since then, it has helped over 1000 people worldwide! Even my chiropractor thinks it's great and sells it in his clinic!