Industry watch: Meet Ally Dayon, founder of Cliik

Personally, I am fascinated by founders’ stories. I love seeing the passion in peoples’ eyes when they speak about their product, and find it inspiring to hear the steps that went into building a brand, from the first lightbulb of an idea up until launch day.

When I had the chance to chat with Ally Dayon about his new brand, Cliik, I jumped at the opportunity. Ally’s founder story is unique because Cliik isn’t his first rodeo. At 23 years old, Ally left the real estate brokerage job he hated and dove right into his first venture: Brunch. By combining a slipper with a sneaker bottom, Ally perfected the hotel slipper you can wear anywhere.

Two years after launching Brunch, Ally sold the company and started looking ahead. When we discussed pivotal moments in his career, this sale was his #1 pick. In Ally’s words, Brunch was his first child, and by letting it go, he had no idea what he was going to do next...but he figured it out.

Let me introduce you to Cliik: the creative home-storage company Ally hopes will infiltrate everyone’s home. Just like the name implies, Cliik’s organizational products (made with Tritan, a BPA-free durable plastic) stack together with a satisfying “click,” transporting consumers back to their childhood, playing with magna-tiles.

That’s the goal of Cliik: to create products that make you forget that organizing is tedious and feels like a chore. With its bright colors and retro-futuristic design, you aren’t sure whether the Cliik products are from your grandma’s kitchen in the 80s or the Jetsons’ Skypad apartment.

Ally did his research while building the brand. He went to every box store you could think of and noticed that people were spending money on organizational products. From food storage to travel packing, he realized that COVID-19 has impacted how people invest in their homes.

One Ally had conceptualized the first draft of Cliik, he started to interview industrial designers…not one, not two but 28 industrial designers. Finally, he came across his favorite industrial designer out of the bunch, and fortuitously, his office was 3 blocks away from Ally’s apartment. If that’s not fate, then I don't know what is.

The initial Cliik prototypes were very raw. There was no labeling system, magnets, or stacking options, but Ally liked what he saw. Working with Little Troop on branding, and turning to vintage Italian toy companies for inspiration, Cliik morphed into a full-fledged brand.

Cliik is not just another container brand. Sure, the first products might be containers, but Ally made it perfectly clear that this brand is so much more than that. By tapping into the nostalgia of your childhood, Cliik is reinventing organization into a fun activity you could do with your parent, child, or sibling.

Because this is a Thingtesting article, of course I had to ask Ally about other brands and founders he looks to for inspiration, and he came prepared to answer:

Ally Dayon is many things: a creative entrepreneur, a lover of 1-syllable brand names (Brunch, Cliik, you get the gist), and the man changing the way we organize our favorite things. Ally has big plans for Cliik (I’ve been sworn to secrecy but I promise you’ll be impressed).

Cliik's creative storage solutions can be purchased online through cliikhome.com as well as through boutique grocers and design stores both nationally and internationally, including Pop-Up Grocer, Happier Grocer, Perrotin Gallery, YOWIE Hotel, and more.

Happy launch day!