No doubt you’ve noticed how today’s children are less and less focused. Surrounded by smartphones, apps and video games, there’s been a quite an increase in behavioral issues. 

All we have to do is giving them the possibility to train their brain while having fun... It’s the bet O P P I ® made, which is launching its first toy collection: PIKS. It’s a funny balancing toy, with multiple combinations, which improves (among others) children’s concentration and creativity, while being fun and colorful.

Piks is a balancing toy, which offers countless possibilities of combination! The goal is to create the most impressive and the most original structure, by placing rubber cones and woo­den boards and being careful that nothing collapses. Example cards are available to guide children making towers, buildings, animals, characters,... as well as let­ting them freedom to express their imagination!

The magic and fun part of Piks is also related of how it has been designed on the choice of materials. Rubber cones and wooden plates (made of ash) has been a strategic choice to be structural solutions for each of the material but also to be a fun challenge for kids. 

« By placing the cones and plates on top of each other, the rubber holds the wood in place, allowing for a myriad of construction possibilities: ver­tical, horizontal, twisted, combined, you name it! »

Because playing is a serious topic, Piks isn’t just a toy! Carefully designed, Piks offers many great educational skills and benefits for kids.

In fact, the creation of Piks has been inspired by educational benefits of playing linked to atten­tion deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

« We really think that our research and design process ad a great value to our toy. For Piks, for example, we have been inspired by the benefit of playing in some kids behaviors issues and more precisely on kids' concentration disorders ».

« Toys are the first objects that our kids have in their hands so they provide an immense opportunity for development through fun. Our belief is that these objects should convey important values and skills and be conceived using the best educational knowledge possible.  To do this, we truly believe that dialogue between the fields of design and education is mandatory. »

Children are free to express their imagination, but there are many other assets: the game also stimu­lates attention, decision-making, creativity and skills development. Each cone is created in the aim of challenging the construction balance while ha­ving fun, which encourage children to test new assemblies. They turn into real artists and they are highly focused without even realizing it!

The story of O P P I ® starts few years ago when one of its two founders, Hansel Schloupt, decided to embark on this project. Passionate about research and functional design, Hansel studied industrial design at ELISAVA and enters at ECAL/Ecole Cantonale d’Art de Lausanne ECAL where he focused on designing child products. The adventure seduced his brother, Bastien Schloupt, who made this project more concrete.