Glowing Backpacks: Hoboken Entrepreneur Launches Fundraising Campaign

Mixing safety with style is a difficult proposition, but Hoboken resident Elton King thinks that his company, RA Reflective, has the formula down.

King recently launched a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign to garner capital to produce retroreflective backpacks and beanies, composed of the same material that construction workers use to ensure that they can be seen at night.

“There is no other reflective fabric like this on the market,” the online campaign page states. “[It’s engineered] to maintain low key in casual settings while still providing the user with optimal visibility… It can easily be seen from across a pitch black football field.”

Learn more about the online fundraising campaign here.

King told Patch that the Hoboken community has been very friendly towards his business ventures.

“My friends at the Hoboken Running Company have been very supportive of my endeavors,” King said. “When I just moved to Hoboken, they were the first friends I met, and they welcomed me as one of their own even though they didn’t even know me. The community here is awesome and I can’t see myself leaving this city.”

“It’s important that reflective products are fashionable because it encourages people to wear them,” King added. “I remember as a child, my parents would make me wear reflective gear to school so I would be safe when I walked home from school at night. What they didn’t know is that I would stuff the ugly reflective gear in my backpack as soon as they left because it was embarrassing to wear.”

Photo and video courtesy of RA Reflective