PROGRESS THREAD (James F) Startup #3 - FEND Streetwear Clothing

[JamesF]

After a lonnng hiatus; I am back my fellow fastlaners.

In short; I am working on launching FEND (a streetwear clothing line). You can checkout (and even contribute ) to the Kickstarter campaign I just launched here: FEND on Kickstarter.

For those curious about my previous 2 "failures".
Here are the two progress threads:

• Startup #1 - Fendza (an employee scheduling web app)
• Startup #2 - Freelancify (a full-out Elance/oDesk like site built from scratch)

I know what you are thinking: this guy just jumps from idea to idea too fast. He doesn't give it enough time and singular focus for any idea to develop into fruition. Truth is: There was no passion for either two except chasing money. Even with both of them fulfilling almost every law that MJ has in his book; there was just no personal satisfaction.

Please keep all questions about moving on from Freelancify to it's thread (which I will be updating here shortly) and I will be more than happy to answer any questions. I'm going to try to keep this progress thread to strictly talk about FEND.

With that said; in the past few years of pursuing fastlane ventures; I have learned a tremendous amount both in business and personal life. I have learned soooo much about startups and 10,000 ways not to do something. So for reach post and update here; I will be sure to post any lessons I learned previously that I am applying at that moment.

Thank you all for following my new journey! and I hope to both gain and give knowledge to all of you once again. Thanks for the support.. and outlet.

[JamesF]

There's already quite a few things that I've done with FEND. So here's a quick list:

1. Launched a Kickstarter campaign. I am so freakin' stoked about this, it being my first time getting something approved and hope to raise some much needed money. Unlike my other startups; this isn't just internet based. It's an actual product line. So even with being a web designer; I can't launch something with almost zero dollars as I have done before with sweat equity. If you want to give an aspiring fastlaner a step closer to success; any contribution will help! Go here: FEND Kickstarter. Be sure to leave a comment on the project!

2. I created the e-commerce store using Magento shopping cart. There's not much there as I haven't added any products or anything yet. I also created the Facebook and Twitter accounts. Another key component was a blog attached to it. Feel free to explore FENDStreetwear.com; scroll to the bottom links and you can checkout the About Us and other pages. All in all; it took me about 3 weeks of spending time after work to get this website and etc. up.

3. I launched HotDropHipHop.com. I made this site entirely from scratch using Ruby on Rails in about a month's time after work. (something I self-taught myself, you can read my personal blog post here). I will be updating this site daily with video content (mainly in the hip hop genre and general viral and funny stuff). This site was created to be the main driver to promote FEND in a massive way. If anyone if familiar with WorldStarHipHop; HotDrop was built in hopes to one day becoming as big as it. Feel free to ask any questions about this site and it's development, etc. I did implement a very basic CMS type thing for me as an admin to add videos, thumbnails, etc. fairly quickly. Good care was spent on the on-page SEO structuring for this site and will have many more features such as user accounts, etc.

4. Created the first hat prototypes. Learned a lot about creating hats. It takes a lot more money and time/focus than initially thought. But it's very satisfying when you can wear your own finished product. Oh man, what a feeling. I've gotten some really good feedback from peers and looks from people out in public.

[JamesF]

So onto to some meat and bones: Marketing.

How James do you plan on marketing this thing? You know EVERYBODY has tried doing a clothing label before, right?

I documented an overview of my attack plan on the Kickstarter campaign; so I'll copy and paste it here into this post. Feel free to give your opinions/suggestions/critiques/whatever on it.

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Why We Won't Fail:
Everybody and their Mothers are trying to start a clothing line, right? Well, what separates us from the rest that usually fail? Two main places where most people fail:

• Crappy products. Either doesn't look good enough or provoke enough emotion (usually cool to wear) for someone to wear, and/or the clothes are cheaply made with no attention to detail.
• Poor marketing. Marketing is to startup as gas is to a car. To me personally; it's 10% product and the other 90% is about how you get your product out there. Ideas Are Nothing, Execution Is Everything. Passion fuels execution.

We have a very solid internet based marketing plan in place that takes advantage of the powerful speed of viral content and sharing. (please see the Risks And Challenges section below for more details)

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Risks and challenges Learn about accountability on Kickstarter

#1 Challenge: Market penetration. We make some great designed clothing but FEND doesn't pick up traction. Clothing is a tricky product because with any fashions; people wear clothing to portray something. Whether that is to show off, look good, show financial status, fit in, etc.


Solution: To overcome this; two things must be accomplished (and both must be executed with tremendous determination and perfection).


1. Clothing must be so outrageously good looking that the brand doesn't matter and the first-mover/early adopter (and even some early majority type) people pick it up and wear it. This will make the early and late majority start to take notice of the brand. Once at this point; this is where it gets tricky, because the people who are in the early and late majority stages usually only wear brands after it's been "proven". In other words, the brand of clothing must be "cool enough and socially acceptable" for them to be seen wearing it.


2. To penetrate and get over the "it's a cool brand to wear" hump; it needs social proof. It needs their peers to praise the brand with confidence. This is where it boils down to well executed marketing.


Our plan is to provide a "cool" website that will be shared amongst millions and viewed daily by millions all in the exact target market that would wear our clothes. It needs to become a very popular website and almost a household name among the target market. Once this website gains reputation as the go-to; then placing ads, sponsorships, and things that praise FEND on the site which will in turn make FEND gain social proof and be "cool" to wear.


I have had great success in both building websites and YouTube videos that accomplished and cleared million+ unique visits and views. By also adding and encouraging a social sharing layer, the site should exponentially grow. They say it takes 7 times to get in front of someone's eyes before they start recognizing a company or brand; we plan to get in front of their eyes 20 times without spam or shady tactics.


I am guesstimating this website to take about a year or two to really gain traction. Of course, during the same time the website is constantly pushed; FEND will be pushed in other outlets as well: celebrities, pinterest, trade shows, high follower instagram accounts, etc. etc.


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[SeanKelly]

Best of luck.

-Sean

[JamesF]

Thanks Sean!

[tincho1492]

Good luck James! Keep us updated.

[FastNAwesome]

Great to see you back on track.

I like your designs very much. It's also one of my dreams to have a fashion line (in different niche) so this is very inspiring.

I also have a friend who made some real good money with streetwear. His clothes and print quality are average and wear out quickly, but the designs kick ass, so people buy over and over.

Now as design is your strong side + you seem to pay attention to quality too, this could really take off.

[JamesF]

@tincho @fastnawesome - Thank You!

[JamesF]

Taking some good quality pics of the hats today and posting the items up on the ecommerce site. I have a few good 6500k daytime lights around the house that I'll use, have to find and learn to make a good backdrop/setup to get some really quality images of each hat.

Also; doing some of the daily maintenance work on HotDropHipHop by adding in more videos that can be published throughout the week. I am looking into options of automating or outsourcing this part.

Doing quite a bit on pushing the Kickstarter campaign page so I can continue to raise a successful funding. If I can raise the $2,500; it will be a tremendous boost in getting FEND off the ground. About to reach out to my network of emails and such: meetup group members, fraternity brothers, co-workers, etc.

Setting up a special Thank You page on the blog section for the backers. Sending them thank you emails and collecting their contact info for the rewards section.

[Greystone]

I like the logo, it's easy to remember and you can see it from 10 miles away. Strong identity.

Best of luck! Keep us updated.

[JamesF]

Thanks! It took so long to finally decide upon the logo and color...

[JamesF]

Today I put up the Thank You page for any Kickstarter backers.. I started shooting out messages and emails and postings to people I know. I think I should of waited closer to the 15th payday, lol.

Here's the blog thank you page link: Thank You Kickstarter Backers! | Streetwear Blog by FEND (it's running off wordpress, slightly tweaked design to add in the company red colors)

[Brander]

James you young buckaroo, whatever happened to you? Don't tell me you'll go offline as well and in fashion too? For f sake will everyone stop copying me , LOL.

There was no passion for either two except chasing money. Even with both of them fulfilling almost every law that MJ has in his book; there was just no personal satisfaction.

Please read "Wishcraft" by Barbara Sher. After 12 years of online ventures in saas, at 38 I am finally following what I am naturally drawn to. Granted, it's easier when you can afford to.

I am excited for you! Subscribed...

[JamesF]

@Brander - thanks man! Do you have somewhere where I can read your story or journey; I'd def be interested..

[Brander]

Just add me to skype - my handle is on the left.

Something that might help a bit concerning your brand building efforts:
The Ad Contrarian: The Facebook Monster: Best of 2012

Apart from recognition campaign with the video site you might also consider something that reroutes buying traffic for your competitors.

[CaughtInCustoms]

Hey James,

I have a printing company in Houston, we specialize in full customization of apparel lines. Let me know if you need any help... or a printer.

[JamesF]

Apart from recognition campaign with the video site you might also consider something that reroutes buying traffic for your competitors.

Wow.. that is some extremely wise, Great advice! Thank you very much.. it has my mind churning with ideas.

[JamesF]

@CaughtInCustoms - Your first post huh?

[JamesF]

January 9th, 2013 Update -
With the help of my GF; got some decent product pictures of the first 5 snapback hats. I am in the process of adding those products to the site now: FEND Snapback Hats.. We used three CFL bulbs at 6,500K and 1300ish lumens. We bought and ironed out some muslin cotton as a backdrop.

Overall; I am satisfied with it. Could use more, stronger lighting next go around.

I am also a bit worried about the Kickstarter campaign; I have shot out messages to most of my network and haven't had any new backings since it launched. I do have one close friend who is probably going to contribute a bit on the 15th, and I have some older fraternity brothers to hit up.

Either way it goes; as time gets closer to the campaign ending, if it does successfully fund or not; it's not going to stop me. I'll just have to try and hustle harder to make this dream come true. I'll use it as motivation.

[Stu_Hefner]

I like your snapbacks. I'll be purchasing. My rapper friends can promote your brand. Quality is great, website is great. But what's new? All your websites have been great!

Are you planning to compete with Worldstar in regards to your hotdrophiphop blog?

Edit: I have a large hiphop twitter base and lot of rapper/music network as well as my local scene and battle rap. When you are ready to push all your marketing efforts, I'll promo your brand as I like what I see so far.