The Very Good Bra was initially launched via a Kickstarter in 2018 as it was the only way to create something so capital-intensive and expensive, without a financial backer of any sort. Crowdfunding is also a great way to test the market, if you’re trying to launch something a bit strange - like a compostable bra - and you’re uncertain how it will resonate, if at all, with customers.
We live in an intent/action gap where 65% of people say they want to purchase from purposeful brands, only 26% follow through. People say they want it, so you push it out there, but you have no idea if people will buy. With a crowdfund, people have to commit to get you into production and receive their goodies, there’s a big commitment from both sides which is very respectful.Fortunately for us, the Kickstarter was a great success and reached its modest goal in the first 48 hours, and 350% of that over 30 days.
The great thing about using big platforms like Kickstarter and Backerkit, is that if you do well, it builds it’s own momentum and globally you can reach much further than you would solo. The tough thing about crowdfunding is that you can often rush into a Kickstarter without understanding the hidden costs and percentages. Our product came out about 50% more expensive than anticipated halfway through the campaign, and with the cumulative effect of all the percentages various businesses take, we ended up with nothing left despite a whopping campaign!
This is of course, all great learning for next time when you become super careful about costings and preparation pre-launch. The other wonderful thing about crowdfunding for something as tricky as a bra which comes in 26 sizes, is that you can, in effect, make to order. For a zero-waste brand like ours this is a huge bonus in terms of our ethos, as well as our finances. Of course I’ve learned to call us 'zero post-production waste', because at present our factory can’t recycle any of our cut-off materials during production, but we are looking for a commercial composting solution in China right now. However, our materials are so expensive that our factory is extra careful when cutting, in order to minimise waste, and I do sleep easier knowing that our cut-offs can at least go into compost, hopefully on the next production run in August/September.
This month we launched our second real baby crowdfund, direct on our site so that we can minimise the hidden costs and keep the cost of the bra as low as possible. It’s taken years to source some slightly less expensive elastic so I want that saving to be passed on to the consumer and not be eaten up by intermediaries. We had a great start, getting to almost 30% in our first weekend, and the wonderful thing is, that of 72 backers to date, 40 of them - that’s 55% - have bought a bra from us prior, either on the site or the Kickstarter, with 9 customers buying on both platforms. Repeat purchases are a great endorsement of the product, its fit and quality. We love it, particularly in a consumer base that is hell-bent on lowering it’s footprint. Typically our customer may only buy 2 bras a year, very different to the average consumer who will buy at least 4, all of which will end up in Landfill for a very long time!So we are currently at almost 30% of target with 27 days to go. We do need to lock in $20,000 of sales to press ‘GO’ with our factory, so we still need support! As a thank you, we have early-bird pricing on the bra and briefs and reduced postal rates of $5 domestically and $10 internationally (free shipping for orders over $150) until the campaign closes 18th August. At that point we close the books and whilst we will try and make some extras, it will be across the full size range so there is no guarantee there will be a spare in your size ;-)