From seed to sprout.
Hey all you cool cats and kittens, Cody here from Big Cat Scarf Gang.
ANNOUNCING THE HEADY SCARF GANG KICKSTARTER
I wanted to take some of this extra time on my hands to update those of you who like to be kept in the loop of the goings on with Heady Scarf Gang. Some of you may have noticed me mention a Kickstarter project in some of my recent facebook posts. I'm pleased to announce that it's near completion and I only have a few more things left to take care of before we can go live!
For anyone who doesn't know what a Kickstarter is or how it works I'll outline some of that right here along with why it's the next step for HSG, and how it'll help us grow into a thriving clothing brand.
Kickstarter is what's known as a "crowdfunding" platform. You might be familiar with this concept from indiegogo or other similar websites. What makes Kickstarter unique, however, is that it's tailored to helping fledgling companies and startups gain the capital needed for product manufacturing in a way that's risk free for both the company and the backer.
It works like this. Company X wants to make unique skateboards. They've determined that they need $10,000 to make these boards. They create a Kickstarter campaign with a 30 day window and a pledge mark of $10,000. If Company X receives enough backers (pre-orders) by the end of the campaign window, the money that's been pledged by backers is released and can be used to manufacture and fulfill the skateboard orders to the customers.
But what if Company X doesn't reach their backer goal you ask?
The money is simply returned to the backer and Company X rethinks their product and their strategy.
So that's Kickstarter in a nutshell. Here's how it's helping HSG grow.
If you want to see ours prior to launch, follow the link below:
Any and all feedback is appreciated!
THE TRUTH ABOUT DROPSHIPPING
For the past two years this website, all of the products available for purchase on it, and all of the fulfillment has been 100% handled by third parties. Heady Scarf Gang so far has operated under a business strategy called "dropshipping." When we first started, it absolutely seemed like the right move at the time. The way it's worked so far is basically we just apply artwork to pre-selected products that these third party companies could take care of, list them on the website and let people order them as they please. If I'm being honest it all started so that me and my friends had cool stuff to wear together at shows and festivals. I didn't honestly take it all that seriously. And then people actually started buying stuff. The concept of being hands off in exchange for handing over most of your profits sounds like a decent deal. Until it's not.
We started running into issues with quality. We started running into issues with the wrong packages being delivered. Overall consistency of material. Delayed shipping times. You name it. I still believe that dropshipping can be a decent strategy for people just getting started out, but if you're like me, and you want to take it to the next level, you do better than that.
The only escape from the dropshipping trap is being able to take your manufacturing and fulfillment in house. This is a far cry from a set it and forget it webshop. You either buy the machinery required to make what you want to make yourself, or you partner with a specialized manufacturer who can meet the demands of even the most specific requests.
For the better part of the last year at this point, I've put most of my effort into converting Heady Scarf Gang from a set it and forget it webshop into a legitimate clothing brand that has presence. I've worked closely with multiple manufacturing partners to discover just what can be done with all-over print technology. I've found the formula for what I believe is the highest quality all-over print shirt money can buy. Levels of precision and material quality that dropshippers couldn't afford to provide if they wanted to.
We however, with your help, absolutely can.
THE NEXT WAVE
Once we reach funding, a lot of doors open up for us. The first door that opens up for us is being able to actually vend at events because we'll have the inventory to do so. The second opened door is that it allows us to (this is the one I'm really excited about) begin collaborating with other independent artists to make completely exclusive and limited edition merchandise. Once we have the capital to produce 100 limited edition hoodies featuring art from your favorite local artist, you better bet it's the first thing we'll be doing. A couple years ago a very dear friend of mine took me under his wing and taught me how to make money by selling my art. I want nothing more than to be able to do that for others too.
So there's the HSG 2020 roadmap.
Launch Kickstarter > ditch dropshipping > design limited artist merch > vend at festivals.
Oh, and if you want to help on a level other than just pledging, please sign up through the newsletter. Full disclosure. I need your data. Fear not, nothing personal will be gleaned, but some very important details about your interest in music festivals and cool clothing will be anonymously used to help me craft an advertising campaign that will help this thing get funded. If you have any questions about it feel free to reach out, it's pretty cool actually. You will be the seed to my custom audience. Let it sprout into a successful campaign and a successful year.
Thank you all so much for making it this far if you have.
Much love <3
- Cody