From prototype to Target shelves, inside Nori’s 10-month development timeline

But this year, much of the company’s focus shifted behind the scenes as it raced to meet a 10-month development timeline for a new product.

Co-founder and CEO Courtney Toll said the company met with Target buyers for its line review in September 2025, when they asked the company to develop a new steamer product. And Target wanted it ready by July 2026.

“Having seen some early success with the Nori Press, our iron, in Target, they said, ‘This has done so well in the ironing category, but steaming is at a much higher growth,'” Toll said.

The steamer, called the Nori Cloud, ultimately launched in 900 Target stores for $89.99, with an end cap display hitting mid-September.

Adding a new SKU was a major lift for the company, which had four employees when it started the process. But Toll said the team didn’t want to pass up the opportunity even if it meant navigating a tight turnaround and a series of engineering and manufacturing challenges.

“This was such an all-hands-on-deck effort, especially given the size of our team,” Toll said. “But when a mass retailer gives you a challenge, especially when it’s already an established relationship, our goal was to make it truly as easy as possible to have them give us that shelf space.” 

Building a better product

Nori worked with the same prototyping team for the Cloud that it did for the Nori Press, Toll said. But this was a trickier journey, she said, as the Press was a brand-new form factor. Developing a steamer meant competing with existing products and solving key pain points.

“We’re not just making something new to compete. We have to make something better. And that’s a lot harder,” she said.

Toll said the team’s biggest challenge was solving the pain of “spitting” and “leaking” common among household steamers. She learned one of the biggest challenges in product development was how, “if you fix one thing, you break another.” For example, when the steamer got hot enough to boil the water quickly, the handle could get too hot.

It took at least six rounds of sampling and prototyping to land on the ultimate design, Toll said. The final design uses a small oval-shaped plate that heats up quickly, set inside a larger oval that helps steam the product.

Making manufacturing work on a tight timeframe

Another challenge in developing the Nori Cloud was the 10-month timeframe itself, Toll said. Once the company settled on a prototype, it still needed multiple rounds of testing with its manufacturer to “finesse” the product. Toll said there were at least seven rounds of back-and-forth, with the test items going right to her New York City apartment for testing and feedback.

There was also the final step of obtaining UL certification, a process used to ensure safety requirements. This can have its own unknown timeline and require back-and-forth between the certification team and the manufacturer. “You really can’t control the destiny of their testing,” she said.

One decision that helped keep the process on schedule, Toll said, was working with Nori’s existing manufacturing partners. The company also sent its lead engineer to China to oversee production, knowing that the Nori Cloud would land directly in mass retail without the “luxury” of DTC feedback first.

“With these mass retailers, it can be like the golden ticket is getting in the door. It’s getting in the door, but I think you realize that these retailers plan a year ahead, and you need newness,” she said.

Changes in trade policy also helped Nori hit its timeline. The company had baked tariffs into its assumptions, but the U.S. Supreme Court’s reversal of widespread tariffs in February gave the company more flexibility, Toll said. It also meant the company would get a refund to reinvest back into the business. Toll said Nori considered selling off its refund for pennies on the dollar for a quick cash infusion, but wound up receiving its full refund in June.

Put together, the savings on tariffs meant the company could air-freight its first shipments to reach Target in time. “Once tariffs were taken out, it did allow us more flexibility to make decisions and say, ‘All right, we can fly this if need be,'” she said.

This week in tariffs

• Nintendo appears to be one of the few companies explicitly tying discounts to tariff refunds. This week, the company ran a “customer appreciation sale,” promoting 30% off various games and bundles, and stated in a press release that the sale was “made possible in part by tariff-related refunds.”
• Copper is the latest material that could be walloped even harder by tariffs. Commodity analysts are waiting to see if the White House implements a 15% tariff on refined copper products, after putting a 50% duty on semi-finished copper products last year. But the AI boom is also driving copper costs up, with prices already up 15% in 2026, as CNN reported.

What we’ve covered

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Back-to-school season is a critical period for many retailers, which prepare months in advance to make sure they have enough trendy products in stores. For American Eagle Outfitters Inc., back-to-school season has been a mixed bag, as MR’s Julia Waldow reported. During its second fiscal quarter earnings call on Wednesday, AEO Inc. reported that comp sales at its Aerie brand were up 19% year-over-year, while comp sales at American Eagle were down 1%. On an earnings call, Jennifer Foyle, Aerie and American Eagle’s president, said that American Eagle was seeing “sequential improvement” in its all-important denim category, but also “needed to pivot.” It did bring in more low-rise styles for the back-to-school season, which seems to be helping. What we are needing to work through right now is just some of the older fits and really just rebalancing our inventory,” Foyle said.

What we’re reading

• Retailers bet on AI for supply chain, ‘smart’ shopping – Retail Dive
• NRF walks back peak season slowdown call as September set to top 2026 imports – Sourcing Journal
• Trump’s trade war with Canada is making even sprinkle makers nervous – The New York Times