Betabrand
| Private company | |
| Traded as | Betabrand, formerly Cordarounds |
| Industry | Fashion |
| Founded | San Francisco, US (2005) |
| Headquarters | San Francisco, US |
Key people | Chris Lindland, Matt Their, Jared Graf, Colin Stuart, Lana Hogue, Aaron Magness, Anthony Jaffe |
| Website | http://www.betabrand.com/ |
Betabrand is a retail clothing company and crowdfunding platform, based in San Francisco. The company designs, manufactures, and releases new products in limited quantities each week.[1] Its founders include Chris Lindland, part of the startup team of the late 1990s data storage company i-drive.[2]
History
The company started as Cordarounds in 2005 – selling corduroy pants with horizontal corduroy wales rather than vertically running wales – before being renamed Betabrand in 2009.[1][3]
Crowdfunding approach
In 2013, Betabrand launched a crowdfunding platform, similar to Kickstarter, so that users can crowdsource clothing concepts and prototypes into actual products. Since the inception of the crowdfunding platform, Betabrand has funded almost 100 garments, including its 'Dress Pant Yoga Pants' (dual purpose design to look like formal trousers) and an urban jacket modeled on space wear. A feature of production is the turnaround from initial design to sellable article – which can be in four to eight weeks.[4]
Crowdfunded Products
Betabrand has successfully crowdfunded almost 100 products, but the most popular have been:
- Gay Jeans: Indigo-dyed denim jeans that when washed, reveal rainbow-colored yarns. Proceeds from the sale of Gay Jeans benefited the San Francisco LGBT Community Center.[5]
- Dress Pant Sweatpants: Pants that look exactly like a pair of dress pants - complete with pockets, belt loops, and even a zippered fly. However, instead of being scratchy and uncomfortable, they're made with soft French-terry fabric.[5]
- Dress Pant Yoga Pants: Designed by Sarah James, these pants are made with a stretch-knit fabric that's generally used for athletic wear, however these pants have traditional office-pant style.[6]
- Space Jacket: A NASA-inspired white thermal jacket that is made from Tyvek and features spacesuit-styled patches.[7]
Collections
- Bike to Work: Clothing designed for commuting to work by bike, most garments have built-in reflectivity.[8]
- Cordarounds: Corduroy pants that feature horizontal-ribbed corduroy, instead of traditional vertical ribs. "(Cordarounds are) more aerodynamic," according to Chris Lindland, "You can get somewhere three nanoseconds faster in our cords than the traditional kind."[9]
- DiscoLab: Super shiny clothes available as hoodies, pants, tuxedos, and do-it-yourself fabric.[10]
- Executive Hoodies: Based on Mark Zuckerberg's signature hoodie, these are hoodies styled like fine suit jackets.[9]
- Vagisoft: Softer than a freshly-laundered bunny, The Vagisoft collection includes drawstring fleece pajamas (Vajamas) and fleece hoodies.
- Dress Pant Sweatpants: The comfort of your favorite sweatpants in a pair of fine office trousers.
- Dress Pant Yoga Pants: Combine sophisticated styling with a soft, stretchy performance knit. Possibly the most comfortable pants you will ever wear to work.
Marketing
For its 2013 Christmas season, Betabrand introduced a character to the customer photo area of it's San Francisco flagship store called "Santa the Hutt". The grotesque Santa sculpture, a cross between Santa Claus and the gelatinous "Star Wars" character Jabba the Hutt, attracted over 1000 families for Holiday photos.[11] The mythical character was intended as a tongue-in-cheek statement on the excess of holiday festivity and consumerism,[12] though one local news outlet claimed that Santa the Hutt was a thinly veiled fat joke.[13]
The company has attracted attention for using memes to spread the word about its clothing.[3] Since 2011 it has used customers as models. For its 2014 spring campaign it put out a call via social media for models with academic credentials, attracting some 80 PhD and doctoral students as potential models.[14][15]
Brick-and-Mortar Store
While the focus of the business is online, Betabrand has a brick-and-mortar retail store in San Francisco's Mission District that opened in May 2013.[16]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Wallace, Amy (30 October 2010). "Whimsy (and clothes) for sale". New York Times. Retrieved 29 March 2014.
- ↑ Null, Christopher (15 February 2006). "Nice (horizontal) pants!". CNN Money. Retrieved 29 March 2014.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Smith, Matt (12 May 2010). "Chris Lindland uses memes to sell pants". SF Weekly. Retrieved 29 March 2014.
- ↑ Lowensohn, John (20 February 2014). "Sink or sew: how Betabrand turns crazy ideas into real clothing". The Verge. Retrieved 29 March 2014.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Kushins, Jordan (16 April 2014). "Gay Jeans Reveal Rainbow Threads With Every Wash And Wear". Gizmodo. Retrieved 21 April 2014.
- ↑ Shaw Browne, Genevieve (15 January 2014). "Office Yoga Pants Take Business Casual to a New Level". ABC News. Retrieved 21 April 2014.
- ↑ Page, Justin (16 January 2014). "Space Jacket, A NASA-Inspired White Thermal Jacket by Betabrand". Laughing Squid. Retrieved 21 April 2014.
- ↑ Prindle, Drew (31 October 2013). "Betabrand's Bike To Work Collection". The Manual. Retrieved 21 April 2014.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 Moye, David (11 November 2011). "Corduroy Buffs Turn Nov. 11 Into 'Corduroy Appreciation Day' (VIDEO)". The Manual. Retrieved 21 April 2014.
- ↑ Huet, Ellen (14 November 2013). "DiscoCon by Betabrand". SF Gate. Retrieved 21 April 2014.
- ↑ Dicker, Ron. "'Santa The Hutt' Window Display Is Ho Ho Ho My God!". Retrieved 25 January 2014.
- ↑ Griner, David (10 December 2013). "'Santa Claus Meets Jabba the Hutt in Retailer's Horrifying In-Store Holiday Display".
- ↑ Wann, Marilyn (9 December 2013). "'Santa the Hutt: Fat Joke Isn't Jolly".
- ↑ Whitelocks, Sadie (12 March 2014). "Models wanted, PhD required! Fashion brand recruits nuclear engineers and chemists for quirky spring campaign". Daily Mail. Retrieved 29 March 2014.
- ↑ Feldman, Jamie (12 March 2014). "Betabrand Hires Graduate Students As Models, And The Results Are Pretty Great". Huffington Post. Retrieved 29 March 2014.
- ↑ Mission local staff (9 May 2013). "Online clothier Betabrand opens on site of 780 cafe". Mission Local. Retrieved 29 March 2014.