The Best Memories Are Built, Not Bought.

The Cardboard Engineer started with a big cardboard airplane, two little boys, and an unexpected change of plans.

But really, it started long before that.

I've been making things out of cardboard for years—laptop stands, storage boxes, toys for my kids, and whatever else I could dream up. I've always loved it as a building material. It's inexpensive, easy to work with, surprisingly capable, and somehow there always seems to be another box showing up at the house.

Then, in 2024, cardboard took on a different meaning for me.

An Unexpected Beginning

At the time, I was a recently graduated mechanical engineer working on an R&D team at a large aerospace company.

It was the kind of job I'd imagined having when I was in school. I'd worked hard to get there, and I was getting to research and build new rocket technologies.

Then, just over 18 months into the job, I was unexpectedly laid off.

While I searched for what came next, I was home with my family. None of my kids were in school yet, so suddenly I had something I hadn't expected:

Time.

One day, my boys—6 and 3 at the time—and I started building an airplane out of cardboard.

Not a little model airplane.

One big enough for both of them to climb inside.

We built wings, a locking pilot's door, a passenger cabin, and whatever else we thought our airplane needed. Then we painted the whole thing.

It wasn't perfect.

It definitely wasn't aerospace-grade.

But it was awesome.

More importantly, we had an incredible time making it together.

My wife, knowing I'd always wanted to start a business, looked at what we'd made and said something along the lines of:

“You should start a cardboard toy company.”

It took a couple of years for that idea to become real.

But here we are.

Why Cardboard?

Because cardboard is wonderfully forgiving.

Fold something the wrong way? Try again.

Tear a piece? Make another.

Something doesn't fit? Take it apart, figure out what happened, and give it another shot.

I don't think confidence is something we simply give our kids. They build it by trying difficult things, getting frustrated, making mistakes, solving problems, and discovering they can keep going.

Cardboard gives them a safe place to practice.

The stakes are low. The possibilities aren't.

Build It. Then Play With It.

Our kits are designed around a simple idea:

Building should be part of the play.

Kids turn flat pieces of cardboard into something real with their own hands. Then the finished project becomes part of the toys and worlds they already love.

Build the garage. Then grab the cars.

Build something new. Then decide what happens next.

Somewhere in that process, a child gets to look at something that didn't exist before and say:

“I made that.”

That's the moment we're after.

What I'm Really Building

Part of my dream in starting The Cardboard Engineer is having ownership over my work and my time.

My boys won't be little forever.

I want to spend as much of these years with them as I can—building things together, learning together, and hopefully helping them grow into good men.

My hope is that this company lets me do exactly that.

And if the things we create help other families sit around a table, struggle through a project, laugh, figure something out, and make a memory together, then we'll be building something worthwhile.

The cardboard may be temporary.

What we build together isn't.

— Derek
Founder, The Cardboard Engineer