by NAIPO
CalmConcept by NAIPO
We are building the machine behind a very old gesture.
CalmConcept develops devices that dispense a warm or ice-cold towel at the touch of a button. Individually, fresh, without a warming cabinet and without laundry. Developed and tested for over two years in continuous operation in Hamburg.
- Developed in Hamburg
- Two years proven experience in restaurant operations
- Hot and cold from one device
There was no good solution. So we built one.
In Japan, a warm towel before a meal is a matter of course. In Germany, it's the technology behind it that's the problem.
Anyone who still wanted to offer it had three options. The warming cabinet, where pre-made towels sit for hours. The laundry cycle with cloth towels, pick-up, and fabric softener. Or importing a machine from Japan or the USA, without spare parts and without anyone to call.
None of these options fit into a German business. CalmConcept is the fourth.
Why a cloth, of all things?
A towel is the smallest conceivable service. It takes almost no time, requires no explanation, and arrives at the moment when the guest least expects it.
That's precisely why it works. Anyone who receives a warm towel realizes that someone has thought ahead. In summer, the same device with ice cubes, then ice-cold.
CalmConcept turns this gesture into something that a business can repeat a hundred times a day, without anyone having to go to the laundry.
What NAIPO is
NAIPO comes from massage technology. Developed since 2016 between Hamburg and Shenzhen. Massage chairs are the main product and the origin of our expertise: mechanics, materials, control, software.
This includes our own spaces. The first store was opened in Hamburg in 2020, in the middle of the pandemic, right from the start as both a retail space and a testing environment. Today, NAIPO can be experienced in over 40 cities in Germany.
The Plus X Award recognized NAIPO as Best Brand of the Year in 2025, in addition to the Red Dot and iF Design Award.
How CalmConcept came to be
At NAIPO, there is a principle that predates CalmConcept: we don't just develop our technology, we operate it. A sold massage chair disappears into the living room, and you only hear about it again if something isn't working. A chair on our own premises is used every day, right before our eyes.
This is exactly how CalmConcept came about. Anyone who operates their own spaces where guests are received and treated will eventually encounter the question of the warm towel. And they won't find a good answer.
It's no coincidence that a massage chair manufacturer builds a towel machine. They build it because they know the place where it's missing.
Developed in Hamburg, tested in operation
- January 2024The Kofookoo restaurant in Hamburg is integrating CalmConcept into its ongoing service. From now on, the guest decides, not the workshop.
- 2024The device also runs daily in our own store in HafenCity. We don't sell anything we don't use ourselves every day.
- January 2026Two years of daily operation at Kofookoo have been evaluated. Two years, in which every guest received their towel.
- TodayCalmConcept is used by Mr. Cao in Hamburg, by masseurs, and in clinics. And in a compact form on the sideboard at home.
Two years of continuous operation is no longer a prototype
A device in a showroom says little. One that runs every evening for two years in a busy restaurant says everything.
Kofookoo Hamburg operated CalmConcept in regular service from January 2024 to January 2026. In parallel, the same device ran daily in our own store in HafenCity. Two establishments, two workflows, the same question every day: Will it last, and will it disrupt service?
This period is why the devices look the way they do today.
What we develop by
Four principles. They explain why the devices are built the way they are and not differently.
- Fresh instead of from stockEach cloth is only produced at the moment it is dispensed. No one has touched it before, nothing lies warm for hours. This replaces the warming cabinet, instead of replicating it.
- Tap water onlyNo chemicals, no cartridges, no supplies other than the cloths themselves. What a company doesn't have to order cannot run out.
- Warm and cold from one deviceHot in winter, ice-cold with ice cubes in summer. A device that only fits half the year gets in the way for the other half.
- Into the drain, not next to itThe service has no second to spare. One button, one cloth, next. Anything that requires training will not be used in everyday life.
What's not on this list, we're not implementing.
One gesture, surprisingly many places
It started at the dinner table. But it didn't stay there.
Restaurants offer the towel after the meal. Hotels at the reception, when someone arrives after a long journey. Spas and beauty salons use the hot compress for face and neck. Barbers have always known the hot towel before shaving, just without a laundry basket behind it. Masseurs apply it before and after treatment. In practices, the main thing is that no one has touched the towel before.
And at home, the same principle turns a dinner into an occasion.
One idea became multiple devices
A restaurant with a hundred guests in the evening needs something different than a beauty salon with eight appointments. And both need something different than a sideboard in the living room.
That's why CalmConcept is available in several sizes. The principle remains the same for all: tap water in, cloth out, warm or cold.
Where this is going
In Japan, nobody asks why there’s a cloth. It’s simply there.
That is precisely the goal for Europe. Not as a Japanese quote, but as a self-evident part of how guests are welcomed, treated, and cared for here. A niche becomes normal when someone makes the technology so simple that nobody even notices it anymore.
That’s what we are working on.
Discover CalmConcept
All models at a glance, from the full-service device to the compact one for home use. You can try them out in Hamburg, at Am Grasbrookpark 1 and Ballindamm 2-3.
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