For many people in Buenos Aires, having to walk down numerous flights of stairs, catch a lift, or walk down long corridors, merely to open the front door for a friend before retracing the steps back to the apartment, is an everyday chore. Nicolás Ferrario (Nico) and Juliana Raffo (Juli) have come up with a simple and fun solution – Baja Rubén.
A small orange head, about the size of a hand, Rubén can be tossed from the window or balcony down to the person waiting to enter the door. A key fits snugly and securely in his mouth, meaning that the journey no longer exists.
Made from carefully selected materials, none of which endanger the catcher, every Rubén is hand made by a couple of women in Los Toldos, a town in the province of Buenos Aires. Machines are not used because Nico and Juli want each one to be authentic and artistic. With increasing demand, the creators are looking at doubling their work force in Los Toldos, where the idea of Rubén was born and where they want him to continue coming from. The 300km journey that they have to make to bring each batch to Buenos Aires, although being slightly tedious, is all part of the fun for this enthusiastic couple.
Despite having carried out a few earlier projects, such as Los Toldos Canta, a musical ensemble of local musicians from the small town, this venture has brought new challenges to Nico, who is from Rosario, and Juli, who comes from Los Toldos. Getting hold of materials, finding a workforce, selling their product and the logistics of running a small business were all difficult tasks, but they have loved every minute of it. “Its like playing,” says Nico, 28. “Its a business that isn’t a business,” as Juli, 24, puts it.
Rubén started out as merely an idea amongst friends and slowly progressed, thanks to the encouragement of others. The first hundred that were made were given out to these people for all their support in helping Rubén come into existence. The next step was finding people who would sell their product.
“One day we filled a bag with Rubéns and we started to wander around Palermo,” recalls Nico. “We went to all the shops, without knowing how to go about it and the shopkeepers ended up teaching us.” There are now more than 20 shops in the capital selling Rubéns, although Nico points out that they are cheaper to buy direct via the official website.
While maintaining relaxed relationships with all their distributors, they realised that another ideal place to make them available would be in locksmiths’ stores, the hub of the key universe. They also discovered a freight service called Flete Rubén, which now stocks a small number in their trucks to offer to people as they move into their new apartment.
Nico stresses that the traditional way of tossing a key from a window, wrapped in a towel, or on the end of a piece of string, is dangerous. Not only might the key injure the person waiting to catch it or indeed an innocent bystander but it may also land on another balcony, or be stolen on the way down by an eagle-eyed neighbour. Initial ideas of including a zip for the mouth were dropped, due to the fact that the zip could in turn cause injury. They settled upon using a stuffing for the head, which is of a type of material that when the mouth is pushed shut, it stays shut and the key does not fall out. There is talk of using Velcro, but Nico is concerned about its durability and hardness.
Although they want to stay true to Rubén’s routes, they constantly dream of accessories which they could bring out. The main development, although very much still in its infant stages, is to create a device with which to return Rubén to the owner when a person is leaving the building, as opposed to arriving. They would also like to broaden the availability of their product, although they want production to remain local. Nico is aware that although their beautifully designed website is very appealing, it is all in Spanish and therefore people who do not speak Spanish cannot relate to Rubén. “Rubén Goes Down”, Juli jokingly suggests the product would be called in English, but this is a literal translation and does not have quite the same ring as Baja Rubén.
Having sold a thousand since December, when Rubéns first became available, they are hopeful and dream of taking him to further lands. Despite registering the name, the product cannot be copyrighted, because in Argentina if something does not have a mechanical basis, the patent cannot be bought. This does not bother Nico and Juli, who acknowledge that ideas get used by other people all the time. They do not have visions of being millionaires and are happy to keep things running between friends. They were the first to actually produce something which numerous people have talked about for years and this is enough to make them smile.
Rubén is a portero (doorman), although not in the strict sense. There were two types of portero that existed until Rubén entered the scene – either a person sitting all day by the door, or an electronic buzzer which can be activated from the apartment, opening the main entrance door without the need to leave. There are problems with both of these, as the buzzers regularly break and the person sitting by the door rarely shows any interest in actually letting anybody in. Rubén does not break and his sole desire in life is to let people in.
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