Skirt Sports, makers of women’s fitness apparel, launched “The Sewing Room,” an interactive crowd design section of its website with a goal of including customers and fans in the product ideation and creation process.
Buoyed by the success of its first Kickstarter campaign in October 2015 which featured the Gotta Go Skirt, Skirt Sports realized the power of truly listening to its customers. In four weeks, the Gotta Go Skirt raised over $60,000 and pre-sold over 800 units of a unique, women-centric performance skirt.
“This is 2016. The way people shop is changing dramatically. Customers want more interaction with the brands they trust. I am putting our customers in the driver’s seat because they asked me to. That’s why we are the first athletic brand to give women the opportunity to design, promote and fund the products they want,” said Founder & CEO, Nicole DeBoom.
The Sewing Room features a three-part process for consumers to share their design, support the design, and fund favorites. If enough fans and customers support a style, it will go onto the funding page where customers will pre-purchase products. Once the goal is hit, the product will go into production.
“We are perfectly positioned to execute on this concept from a sourcing and operational perspective,” said President Sarah Vernon-Brunner who has been with the brand since 2006, “In fact, we are also open to being a conduit for other brands that don’t have this capability to use our platform.”
Skirt Sports joins the ranks of crowd design powerhouses in the fashion space, such as premium menswear brand Gustin, user-generated tee shirt brand Threadless, and BetaBrand, a company that has raised almost $30 million proving that the crowd-led design concept can be successful.
In addition to the Sewing Room, Skirt Sports will continue to create seasonal product assortments.
