PonyBabe Pants | organic cotton/bamboo blend
Kickstarter can be a great way for a new fashion brand to get proof of concept and gauge market demand without making a significant up-front investment, but even more importantly, backers are essentially “investing” in the company by pledging, since perhaps the company wouldn’t be able to produce a final product without reaching its pledge goal. For consumers, it is a great way to put your money where your mouth is with regard to supporting small, independent, and sustainable businesses, and quite powerful since you’re doing so without even having seen the product yet (which is also a challenge, let’s be honest).
You’re saying to the designer, “hey, I believe in what you’re doing and want to support you from the very beginning; I want you to be successful, or at least get a chance to be…”
Ultimately, it’s a pretty low-risk investment, since you’re not charged until the project is fully funded, and at that point, you are pretty much guaranteed to get a return on your investment when your “reward” ships. Whether or not you actually like the item is another story altogether, and the actual “risky” part of the investment.
I haven’t funded a Kickstarter project yet, but I’m definitely seeing more and more that are worthy.
Remember the brand I previously mentioned that was featured on Kickstarter, Sotela, which raised $20,000 towards their $15,000 goal and has now moved onto to “traditional” retail selling via their own site.
Now, there’s Pony Babe – which I’m a little more excited about (Sotela’s “the last dress you’ll ever wear” message didn’t resonate with me) given my affinity for slouchy lounge wear LOL
PonyBabe will be sustainably manufactured in NYC and the designer, Rachel, is completely transparent about where her fabric, trims, and even mailing envelopes come from. The idea behind the collection is “the 24-hour outfit” : four pieces (pants, tank top, cardigan & wrap), in four neutral colors, to “mix, match, layer, and repeat.”
I love the pieces, the message, and the ease of the collection. Maybe enough to fund the project (to get those pants!).
What do you think? Do you Kickstarter? Have you ever funded a project before? Why have you, or why have you NOT?
Yes I have. Osei Duro. I had ordered from them before and loved their printing and what they were doing in West Africa (they were the only company I knew who were doing that at the time.) I have to say the gifts were not what I would have chosen for myself out of their collection, but were lovely anyway. I actually just tried to support the pony babe campaign, but didn’t work. I will contact them directly to let them know.
oh, wonderful! i love osei duro’s prints as well. the ones that are rather neutral that is 😉
let me know what you hear from pony babe – if you get everything worked out.
I supported PonyBabe’s campaign and I’m always happy to support clothing campaigns that interest me. I think this one is really great and I love how casual and chic it is.
I’ve funded a few (design books/photo gear) and I don’t plan to do any more unless it’s a personal friend. Some of the projects take quite awhile to manufacture and ship. I don’t like having this pending charge hanging out there and sometimes my needs/size/interest, etc have changed by the time I receive the gift. I’ve also come to realize some projects (but not all) aren’t necessarily startups and they should be able to get capital on their own without me merely preordering an item well ahead of time. On one hand those can be quite safe in regards to quality but on the other hand I can also just make a note and purchase when available on the market. Some of the innovative travel attire or wearable tech projects interest me but it’s too risky with my body type and no reviews/returns. That said if I see an interesting idea I do keep an eye on it and sometimes consider purchasing from their online store once they’ve gotten going post kickstarter.
that’s a good point about some of the projects not necessarily “needing” the pre-orders. but even so, it’s a good way for a company to tell what the demand is for a new product, or try out a different direction…