Being in the fashion crowdfunding industry and creating a crowdfunding campaign allows readers to peruse your offering for free! That being said, if exposure for you happens in the process of teaching readers how to be better crowdfunders — great.
The fashion crowdfunding industry is growing in popularity, largely due to the fact that most of us have a personal style and though we may lack the talent to make the clothes we want to wear, we know our fashion sense perfectly in our minds — if not reflected in our closet!
Also fashion crowdfunding as a vertical is gaining traction in crowdfunding because of how well suited it is to utilizing the “sourcing” piece of crowdfunding.
Create it, Back it, Make it
One benefit of crowdfunding fashion startups is that a piece of clothing will go into production only after it receives backer critical mass. Once the threshold for minimum amount of backers is achieved, the piece goes into production — no waiting for Fashion Week to tell you what you should buy!
There are a few sites out there that are doing this to great success. Betabrand is known for its super-comfy line of clothes, a personal favorite for many not only because owning clothes that can be taken from day-to-evening wear just by adding a few accessories is one less fashion headache. Plus, come on, who doesn’t want to wear a party dress that feels like your favorite pyjamas?
You Get a Percentage of the Take
A great benefit of many of these sites is that if the crowd upvotes your product and it’s selected for production, you get a percentage of the take.
Boutique Appeal vs. Cookie Cutter
Nobody likes to see him or herself coming and going with off-the-rack selections. For designers, this means whereas once they needed mass manufacturing commitments, now orders can be “boutique” size and designers are not cut out of the production process just because orders are tiny — and unique — by typical industry standards.
Designers Minimize Risk
Additionally, designers who forego the retail model aren’t beholden to powerful manufacturers who require designers to estimate demand in advance. In the current environment, guess high or low and it’s the designer who suffers the financial loss. Since not many are in the position to suffer those consequences, you can see how innovation can get quickly squashed.
Fashion crowdfunding sites that we’ve seen and read about include: