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

Supply Chain Shakeup // September 14, 2026 From prototype to Target shelves, inside Nori’s 10-month development timeline By Melissa Daniels Nori Below is the latest edition of Modern Retail’s Supply Chain Weekly newsletter, which goes out on Mondays at 10 a. m.

ET, and dives into all things logistics and supply chain during a tumultuous time for the retail industry. To receive this weekly in your inbox, click here. Nori, the fabric care company known for the viral Nori Press handheld iron, spent most of 2025 turning into an omnichannel brand.

It scaled up its Target presence nationwide, grew sales on Amazon and crossed $30 million in gross revenue, representing 50% growth from the prior year. 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 nationwide in more than 1,800 Target stores for $89. 99, with a 900-door 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 ship