Before you get too excited at the prospect of achieving investment through crowdfunding for your fashion project be aware that dedicated platforms for this sector don’t have the best history. It pays to do your research.
I was approached today via one of our Twitter profiles with the question: ” As Fashion Bloggers, can I ask what you think about the concept of pretail? Fashion’s new take on crowd funding.” – i.e getting the purchase of a product prior to making and delivering (pre-retail).
Click the image to view the Twitter conversation
So I immediately looked for the winners of this approach to funding; looking at the most successful Crowd Funded campaigns of all time, one stands out (for me) the Pebble Watch – this story is well covered however in brief they wanted to raise $100,000 yet raised over $10 million – more geek gadgetry than fashion but still a pretty cool product. If we look at the top 10, six of them are video games…
So which crowdfunding platform will give you the best chance to raise the cash you so desperately want? Do you go for the one that is just for fashion projects like Before the Label? Is this the right choice? Here you are limiting your audience to just that sector however, we’re a passionate bunch and are likely to invest more… Or do you go for the multitude of others?
The Australian Pozible with a dedicated Fashion section
Or where the action really kicked-off in the good old USA; where platforms such as Rockethub and Indiegogo also with dedicated fashion sections are doing really well, are outward looking (a more international approach). Or do we head to that monster Kickstarter (who have had quite a bit of investment from me personally…).
They all have their plus points with unique selling points (read, promotional options and restrictions).
I found a valuable post on how not to do a crowdfunding campaign Andrew Wilkinson of Plastic Hallway and of course the best approach by Catherine Clifford from the Entrepreneur Magazine.
I even found a platform that was raising cash for a Garment District in Seattle as has been done in Washington… now where in Scotland would be a good place to start? Or maybe we should just stick with wearable tech?