Has anyone done a KickStarter for their Leather work?

[ToddW]

cool..

I used Hermes as an extreme but "really" not my style with a few exceptions..  but the point is definitely valid in a very high end wallet or bag at great price.  Not in the segment I will be creating or selling but Tecovas and Thursday Boot is what I wanted to strive for.  Great quality, Great Leather, Great Style at a Good Price..  They built a brand and got to volume.  All started somewhat in a garage or by a few friends and grew the brand into something big. I don't need big, but need some strong volume..  My research has shown all had a Kickstarter when they were ready..  If you google "Thursday Boot", they launched their business on Kickstarter.  They targeted $50K in sales and hit over $200K.  Boots are made in Leon (as is Tecovas).  I don't have that grandiose plans but using it for a model for what I want to do. 

[JayEhl]

You're on the right path.  History is littered with people who didn't plan!

[chuck123wapati]

2 hours ago, ToddW said:

cool..

I used Hermes as an extreme but "really" not my style with a few exceptions..  but the point is definitely valid in a very high end wallet or bag at great price.  Not in the segment I will be creating or selling but Tecovas and Thursday Boot is what I wanted to strive for.  Great quality, Great Leather, Great Style at a Good Price..  They built a brand and got to volume.  All started somewhat in a garage or by a few friends and grew the brand into something big. I don't need big, but need some strong volume..  My research has shown all had a Kickstarter when they were ready..  If you google "Thursday Boot", they launched their business on Kickstarter.  They targeted $50K in sales and hit over $200K.  Boots are made in Leon (as is Tecovas).  I don't have that grandiose plans but using it for a model for what I want to do. 

How many kickstarters are successful? And what happens if your not one of them? Not being negative but this is an important part of the decision also isn't it?

[Tugadude]

4 minutes ago, chuck123wapati said:

How many kickstarters are successful? And what happens if your not one of them? Not being negative but this is an important part of the decision also isn't it?

It is absolutely a legitimate question.  According to this article 39.3% of campaigns receive full backing.  And as I indicated, many receive that many times over.  And some fail, just like any endeavor.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/235405/kickstarter-project-funding-success-rate/#:~:text=As of December 2021%2C the,gone into successfully launched projects.

 

[Tugadude]

I think it is also important to note the following:  This was taken from the article I linked.  My underlining.

Supplementary notes

Every Kickstarter project must be fully funded before its time expires or no money changes hands. A project on Kickstarter is counted as successful when the funding goal has been reached within the given time limit.
Project creators have to be permanent U.S. residents to be eligible to start a Kickstarter project but projects can be backed from outside the United States.

[ToddW]

It is a valid question.. more than half don't get funded.  My view is that you get out what you put in.  Looking at the ones I referenced, the photography and video work was professional.  Kickstarter brings the audience and exposure, your product still has to be good and the prep work to highlight it has to be professional.  Crappy pictures often indicates crappy products.  Stock and Barrel and Thursday Boots took it serious and the results showed through.  At the end of the day, Parker at Stock and Barrel sold wallets which are plentiful and 400 units moved.  I would question whether Etsy could move 400 wallets in a short period.  With that said, there are a ton of huge failures.  Elio Motors tried Indigigo (think) which is another company doing kickstarter funding.  They had a 3 wheeled car that claimed to get over 80mph selling at $6,800 and never did anything.. I think they had $17M in orders..  

Anyway, my aspirations are not that big.. I would like a 400 unit order when I am ready..  I would hate failing but doesn't seem to be a cost penalty for failing.  I would be more afraid of the 4000 unit type of success..

[Handstitched]

As mentioned before , its not for everyone after reading all the info,  but I'll stick to my own ( perhaps old fashioned way)  way of doing things .Never intended to ' mass produce'.   A bit off topic,  sorry about that, , but  the only Godsend for me  is EFTPOS . ' Square ' .

They have a multitude of tools that can be utilised to boost business.    Never wanted it before as I was a  ' cash only'   operator ( bit of a technophobe) , but a friend got me into it, and now I rely on it. It was around 20 - 30% of my sales when I  first started, but lately, its been 70-90%     WOW !!

I can thank covid for that,  thats one positive I guess, (pardon the pun)   .     

HS

 

[chrisash]

The thing is that even when successful in getting the money, you still have to build a team that is capable of taking the company to self supporting in quite a short time, quite a big difference between managing one or two workers and building a bigger company, and although you get the initial marketing to a small number of readers/ investors, you now have to have first class marketing and Brand making on your own

[ToddW]

All good points..  I didn't get into this wanting to do high volume stuff.  I got into this for the love of leather and to be able to make what I wanted.  When the idea came to me that "Hey, I want to do this instead of my day job.", I started to put pen to paper.  I started buying better tools.. Now looking to buy bigger tools.  I am not looking to get rich but i am looking to live at or around the level I am today and that math says I need to do high volume.  When you talk about hiring an employee or two (outside my wife that works for free), you need to do even higher volume.  Really didn't mean for this thread to turn into hand sew vs machine sew or low volume vs high volume...  This equipment gets pretty expensive and the size of the equipment quickly pushes you out of a hobby room in the house.   I thought the Kickstarter topic was interesting to me to see the responses but still curious about the ones that did it.  Parker at Stock and Barrel generated 400 wallets and never did another one that I can see.  Was it more than he wanted to do?  Did they take too much?  I did email him and didn't get a response so thought I would post it here..  Anyway.. I appreciate all the responses.. Was happy to see it grow to 2 pages of responses.    

[Spyros]

On 1/31/2022 at 1:37 PM, ToddW said:

Its a place where startups go to fund projects.  Its "kinda like" a go fund me but really project driven.  I bought a steak dry ager as well as a pizza oven.  Usually, its an early stage product that might need some refinement.  The project either funds and the person builds it or it does not and no money is collected.  It is a bit expensive as Kickstart takes a lot as well as the credit card processing.  Typically the product is deeply discounted making it a great deal and people buy.

Here is a wallet Parker did at Stock and Barallel.

 

 

I think he mentioned in one of his videos that he can make 5-10 wallets an hour (not these particular ones but similar).  He makes them machine stitched, clicker cut, no lining, no edge paint, simplest designs possible.  That's how you make money from wallets, and to be fair most people don't want a hand stitched wallet or even understand why they might want one.  They just want something that looks nice to put their stuff in.

Personally I make handstitched wallets for myself and family only, I would never bother to try and sell one unless someone was prepared to pay a crazy price.  I made one for my sister recently and it ended up being 17 pieces... I was battling 2 days to finish the damn thing

Edited February 1, 2022 by Spyros

[Gulrok]

21 minutes ago, Spyros said:

I think he mentioned in one of his videos that he can make 5-10 wallets an hour (not these particular ones but similar).  He makes them machine stitched, clicker cut, no lining, no edge paint, simplest designs possible.  That's how you make money from wallets, and to be fair most people don't want a hand stitched wallet or even understand why they might want one.  They just want something that looks nice to put their stuff in.

Personally I make handstitched wallets for myself and family only, I would never bother to try and sell one unless someone was prepared to pay a crazy price.  I made one for my sister recently and it ended up being 17 pieces... I was battling 2 days to finish the damn thing

So one of the challenges with handstitching items is the fact that you have to consider time to punch the holes. So you can get a die made which is extremely expensive with holes or laser cut them.

Personally speaking I've moved towards handstitching items. The big caveat is that its laser cut. It allows me to consistently stitch a lot of products in rapid succession. I get done a lot more wallets than before.

I had one wallet set quoted out at over a thousand dollars when you factored in stitching holes.

[Spyros]

1 hour ago, Gulrok said:

So one of the challenges with handstitching items is the fact that you have to consider time to punch the holes. So you can get a die made which is extremely expensive with holes or laser cut them.

Personally speaking I've moved towards handstitching items. The big caveat is that its laser cut. It allows me to consistently stitch a lot of products in rapid succession. I get done a lot more wallets than before.

I had one wallet set quoted out at over a thousand dollars when you factored in stitching holes.

I'm (slowly) going in the opposite direction.  I bought a sewing machine, and in all honesty I can't visually tell the machine stitching apart from my own hand stitching.  And if I can't tell it apart then I'd struggle to convince anybody that it's better.  I mean I could argue it's stronger but I'm using such thick thread that any extra strength due to the saddle stitching is probably irrelevant for most peoples' use.  I don't see the point to hand stitching any more.  I was watching a video by Hermes and it was showing how they machine stitch watch straps, but they finish the last three stitches by hand, both for finishing look and for strength purposes, and that makes sense to me and I've started doing the same.  There will always be other handstitched areas, places I can't reach with the machine, and keeping the look of all stitching consistent on the same project is a bit of a struggle, but it is possible.

[ToddW]

2 hours ago, Gulrok said:

The big caveat is that its laser cut

I have been pricing the lasers and about to pull the trigger on one..  Looking forward to it..

[ToddW]

1 hour ago, Spyros said:

I bought a sewing machine, and in all honesty I can't visually tell the machine stitching apart from my own hand stitching.

I'm waiting for the Cobra class 26 to get back in inventory, so hopefully I can get there as well..

[Spyros]

23 minutes ago, ToddW said:

I'm waiting for the Cobra class 26 to get back in inventory, so hopefully I can get there as well..

If you want a handstitched look from your machine just make sure to get LR needles and some thick thread.  Everybody in the machine stitching world will try to stir you to thinner and thinner thread (which makes sense for many technical reasons, bobbin lasts longer, cheaper machines, cheaper thread etc etc)  but if you want your stitching to look similar to hand stitching, you have to go the opposite direction.  Hand stitching on average is done with thread double the thickness of the average machine stitched item.  And then you have to tune your machine just right to match the teeth of your chisels.  Like I said it's bit fussy, but doable.

Edited February 2, 2022 by Spyros

[ToddW]

5 minutes ago, Spyros said:

Everybody in the machine stitching world will try to stir you to thinner and thinner thread

What machine do you use?

[Spyros]

Just now, ToddW said:

What machine do you use?

One of those big cylinder arm machines they use for saddle stitching, the cowboy cb4500.  I think it's essentially the same as the one you're looking at but with a longer arm.

[ToddW]

1 minute ago, Spyros said:

I think it's essentially the same as the one you're looking at but with a longer arm.

cool.. I do wallets, journals but also do bags.. the cobra class 26 seemed pretty good with the optional table bed for that..

I am also wanting to make a shotgun case like the one attached.. playing around with design now but like the prominent stitching. The runs on that are pretty long.

 

  ..    

[Spyros]

Yeah the long stitching runs on belts straps and things like that is usually where people start to question the value of hand stitching...

[Gulrok]

16 hours ago, ToddW said:

I have been pricing the lasers and about to pull the trigger on one..  Looking forward to it..

I purchased the omtech one. 150 W

https://omtechlaser.com/products/150w-co2-laser-engraver-cutter-usb-gb16-us?_pos=8&_sid=1fa2aca85&_ss=r

[Gulrok]

17 hours ago, Spyros said:

I'm (slowly) going in the opposite direction.  I bought a sewing machine, and in all honesty I can't visually tell the machine stitching apart from my own hand stitching.  And if I can't tell it apart then I'd struggle to convince anybody that it's better.  I mean I could argue it's stronger but I'm using such thick thread that any extra strength due to the saddle stitching is probably irrelevant for most peoples' use.  I don't see the point to hand stitching any more.  I was watching a video by Hermes and it was showing how they machine stitch watch straps, but they finish the last three stitches by hand, both for finishing look and for strength purposes, and that makes sense to me and I've started doing the same.  There will always be other handstitched areas, places I can't reach with the machine, and keeping the look of all stitching consistent on the same project is a bit of a struggle, but it is possible.

I personally have found that my customers have become more and more intune with the product they're purchasing. As in, they ask now if something is handstitched.

The argument about strength is honestly negligible at this point, 92 wt thread on a sewing machine or .8mm ritza. Although from a marketing perspective, customers due tend to gravitate towards solutions in things that people have fears of. Like selling someone on handstitching because they have fears of losing their investment in a machine stitched wallet. The same idea as RFID blocking technology so much so that there has been zero RFID crimes. Huge market towards it.

I do like the look of being able to put a larger thread on a thinner piece.

We're also at the point in our business were we just sold a 300$ watch band that was laser cut and hand stitched in under an hour. I'm ok with that.

[ToddW]

48 minutes ago, Gulrok said:

I purchased the omtech one. 150 W

https://omtechlaser.com/products/150w-co2-laser-engraver-cutter-usb-gb16-us?_pos=8&_sid=1fa2aca85&_ss=r

nice that is a big boy and definitely out of my budget..  Do you really need 150w?

I am looking at this one:

https://omtechlaser.com/collections/mid-range-co2-laser-engravers/products/60w-co2-laser-engraver-cutter-usb-6b57-us?fbclid=IwAR21Hwxt53bbD-4a9YQLqflwTwHgLTYTMFOaRRzN8eKcAg_V0CzaGiLlENM

 

[Gulrok]

55 minutes ago, ToddW said:

nice that is a big boy and definitely out of my budget..  Do you really need 150w?

I am looking at this one:

https://omtechlaser.com/collections/mid-range-co2-laser-engravers/products/60w-co2-laser-engraver-cutter-usb-6b57-us?fbclid=IwAR21Hwxt53bbD-4a9YQLqflwTwHgLTYTMFOaRRzN8eKcAg_V0CzaGiLlENM

 

I cut large bags on it. Its the table size I was after.

[ToddW]

6 minutes ago, Gulrok said:

I cut large bags on it. Its the table size I was after.

I do bags as well but really struggle with the machine being so big I can't put it anywhere.  My leather room is upstairs and my garage is a 2 car with 2 cars in it.  Budge aside, I would LOVE your machine.  I am going to have to rely on the front feeding and width of the cutting area..

[Gulrok]

On 2/2/2022 at 2:31 PM, ToddW said:

I do bags as well but really struggle with the machine being so big I can't put it anywhere.  My leather room is upstairs and my garage is a 2 car with 2 cars in it.  Budge aside, I would LOVE your machine.  I am going to have to rely on the front feeding and width of the cutting area..

I understand. I think that a smaller laser would work just fine. I wanted the option of just putting a big side/bend on it and letting it go crazy. It has worked out so far.