Picture this. You buy your new computer, choose a fancy new monitor, grab some peripherals, and your new gear is on its way. Then you realise, you don’t have a mouse mat. There’s too much choice on the market.
Where do you go? What’s good? What feels nice? Luckily for you, those questions won’t go unanswered.
Quokka Mousepads, an Aussie company, here for all your mouse mat, desk mat, and playmat needs.
Let’s take a look and the system, products, and even customer service.
What is Quokka Mousepads?
Based right here in Australia, Quokka Mousepads is aimed at providing Aussies high-quality, affordable mousepads, desk mats, and playmats. Since they’re onshore, Quokka Mousepads employs Australians all over the country, so you know you’re supporting local when you buy from Quokka.
Quokka Mousepads has eleven different mousepad sizes, and you can customise almost everything. They do bulk orders too, so if you’re looking for some custom branding for your business, they’ll help you out.
Quokka Mousepads
Many gamers, developers, and desk workers have many needs when it comes to their mouse or desk mats. Do you want it to cover most of your desk? Should it just fit the keyboard and mouse? Quokka Mousepads have plenty of sizes for you to choose from, with eleven in total. You can guarantee there will be a size you love. I personally went for the 800×300mm size. I like the way there’s a bit above and below my keyboard and mouse, but it doesn’t take up my entire desk.
With this size in mind, I wanted to create something that was minimalistic, and yet fit within the rest of my setup. I have a white cherry blossom keyboard from Corsair, and a pink mouse from Razer. So I wanted something that would compliment these peripherals.
Choosing your design
If you’re not comfortable creating a custom design, Quokka Mousepads has you covered. There are hundreds of on demand designs you can choose from.
This takes some of the guess work out, but you still have so much choice, I would just want to buy them all! One thing I noticed Quokka Mousepads doesn’t offer is the addition of RGB to your creation. With this in mind, I decided to keep my plain black RGB mouse mat, and add the custom Quokka Mousepad over the top. Because of this, I went with the thinner mat. Yes, that’s right, you can choose the thickness of your mouse mat. Most people would go with a 2mm desk mat for general work and casual gaming. With the extra desk mat, I ended up with something closer to 3mm anyway. Then there’s the 4mm thick mat which is thick, and perfect for a permanent setup.
Once you have your size and design, you can upload it to the website. I love this interface. It was easy to upload my design, adjust where it sits, and make sure nothing is being cut off.
Choose your stitching
The final choice you need to make is stitching.
Do you want no stitching? All black? Or colours? With my design, I decided to go with coloured. Once you’re happy with all your decisions, place your order and sit back and wait for your masterpiece.
Quality, stitching, packaging, and customer service
As soon as I placed my order, I realised I uploaded the wrong image—yep I’m one of those people. I sent a reply to my order and got a response almost immediately. I was very impressed with the customer service. They were able to easily sort me out and assured me the correct design would be printed. I’m a big stickler for customer service, and I appreciate really good communication. This alone would make me a returning customer to Quokka Mousepads.
On top of the great customer service, the product is fantastic. The first thing I noticed was the shipping and packaging. They come in these neat little soft recycled plastic bags with cute drawcords.
Next is the super high quality—yes, I made sure my design was over 300dpi for maximum print resolution—and the stitching is beautiful. I never doubted getting the coloured stitching, yet the end result was more gorgeous than I could have imagined.
I’m glad I went with the thinner design over the top of my black RGB mousepad, and this worked out perfectly.
I think the colours and design look amazing with the white cherry blossom keyboard.
Not just mousepads
Whilst we can assume from the name that Quokka Mousepads started with simply mousepads, they longer manufacture just those. Now there’s mouse mats in all sizes, desk mats, and even game mats for heaps of different trading card games (TCG). There are custom playmats for games such as Magic: The Gathering, Pokémon, Star Wars, Yu-Gi-Oh! and many more. Like the mousepads, you can customise your own playmat. You’ll need to get a template for this one however, since there’s no TCG templates in the system. There are plenty of templates floating around the internet for all kinds of TCGs.
That’s not all
You know what one of the most annoying things in the world is? Having a brand new, shiny, pristine desk mat, and then you spill coffee all over it… yeah you know what I’m talking about. It’s a horrible feeling where you just think “*sigh* I will buy another one”. Did you know you no longer have to fork out $$$ for a new mousepad. Most mousepads these days are washable and Quokka Mousepads are no different. Whilst you can wash them in the machine, the Quokka Mousepads team recommends hand washing to ensure “the image will last longer”. Fill up a bucket or sink with soap water and scrub the coffee, or tea, or chocolate out of your mat. Hang it up to dry and you’re good to continue gaming.
Finally, one of the things I love about Quokka Mousepads is they are relatively affordable. The size I ordered above is only $48.95 AUD. Everyone can score 10% off their first order by subscribing to the Quokka Mousepads mailing list. Head to the website and sign up. If you’re lucky, you might even get a spin-the-wheel pop-up for even more discounts. Good luck!
