How Getting Pulled Over in Thailand Inspired One Entrepreneur to Revolutionize Men’s Shirts
“One day I was getting my skates sharpened (I play hockey in the winter) and across the hall was a door that said CEGO Custom Shirts. I went in, met Carl and he made me some prototypes. I happened to really like Carl and he liked the idea so we ended up becoming partners.”
“Fashion production can turn into a big game of ‘Telephone.’ A pattern can get completely changed when it goes from our shop to the graders (where they scale the pattern for different sizes) and then to the factory. When you are doing a fitted shirt, every tiny little error can make a massive difference and change the size and shape of the garment and completely ruin what you have worked so hard on perfecting.”
“ … it allows us to raise money for our project and that is huge but the deeper benefit is that it allows us to pre-sell our shirt and make it to order. Inventory can be a killer to small businesses and this way we know that we have already sold what we make. Just as useful is that it allows us to prove concept. We didn’t know if people other than our friends would buy into a shirt with a zipper.”
“I spoke to other campaigners in the fashion space who ran successful campaigns and looked at the way that other campaigns structured their rewards and their videos … I also read some blog posts by people who blew their funding out of the water and followed their guidance. Tim Ferriss had a great post by the guys who did SOMA water filters and they provided invaluable information.”
“ … But the most important part of our campaign so far has been our friends and family. That is where it starts and if you can speak to them and get them to support you with backing and also spreading the word, the rest of the KS community starts to take note and get behind you.”
“We are going to launch a women’s line by the end of 2015. The reaction from our female friends and family to the shirt has been massive. When you think about it, the gapping problem is particularly ‘painful’ for women because it always happens at the bust and exposes their bra. I have friends who simply won’t wear button-downs because of this and I don’t blame them.“
“Its pretty random but I was in Bangkok a few years ago and was driving a friend’s car when a cop stepped out into the street and motioned for me to pull over. As he was walking to the car I noticed that his uniform was awesome — specifically the shirt, because it was super fitted and looked really sharp. In the process of trying to talk myself out of a ticket, I asked my friend (who is Thai) to ask the cop where he got his shirts. The guy took a pen out of his pocket and instead of writing me a ticket he wrote down the address to his tailor! When I got to the tailor (who agreed to make me a uniform-probably because nobody would ever mistake me for a Bangkok policeman), I discovered why the uniforms were able to fit so closely: because even though they looked like a button down shirt …They zipped. It occurred to me that the zipper allows you to wear a closer-fitting shirt without gaps between the buttons.”
“I have done a number of things over the years. I’ve been in the restaurant/bar business and spent some time as a trader in the late ‘90s, early 2000s. I have also worked as a DJ on the weekends for the last number of years. But most recently I started a company called Bungee Virtual Lost and Found (you can Google it if you are interested).”
“When I returned from Thailand having discovered the zipper on the police shirt, I had it in my mind that it would be something, if translated properly, that could be relevant to regular guys (i.e. not policemen), but I had no true experience in fashion and I knew that I needed an expert in order to pull it off. One day I was getting my skates sharpened (I play hockey in the winter) and across the hall was a door that said CEGO Custom Shirts. I went in, met Carl and he made me some prototypes. I happened to really like Carl and he liked the idea so we ended up becoming partners.”
“Fashion production can turn into a big game of ‘Telephone.’ A pattern can get completely changed when it goes from our shop to the graders (where they scale the pattern for different sizes) and then to the factory. When you are doing a fitted shirt, every tiny little error can make a massive difference and change the size and shape of the garment and completely ruin what you have worked so hard on perfecting. The only way to solve this is to be exacting about details, which is not my forte generally, but it is the only way and so now I am a madman with a measuring tape making sure everything is done exactly right. I gained a tremendous amount of appreciation for how much work and exactitude goes into everything we wear.“
“Kickstarter is the perfect platform for someone who has a new product that they want to bring to the world but not a lot of money to do it. Yes, it allows us to raise money for our project and that is huge, but the deeper benefit is that it allows us to pre-sell our shirt and make it to order. Inventory can be a killer to small businesses and this way we know that we have already sold what we make. Just as useful is that it allows us to prove concept. We didn’t know if people other than our friends would buy into a shirt with a zipper. Sure we think it’s cool and innovative, but will people actually like it and, more importantly, will they pay for it? We have been really encouraged by the reaction so far and have sold shirts to people from over 15 countries around the world so far.”
“I spoke to other campaigners in the fashion space who ran successful campaigns and looked at the way that other campaigns structured their rewards and their videos. We tried to take elements that we liked from each one and do them in our own voice. I also read some blog posts by people who blew their funding out of the water and followed their guidance. Tim Ferriss had a great post by the guys who did SOMA water filters and they provided invaluable information. But the most important part of our campaign so far has been our friends and family. That is where it starts and if you can speak to them and get them to support you with backing and also spreading the word, the rest of the KS community starts to take note and get behind you.”
“We are going to launch a women’s line by the end of 2015. The reaction from our female friends and family to the shirt has been massive. When you think about it, the gapping problem is particularly ‘painful’ for women because it always happens at the bust and exposes their bra. I have friends who simply won’t wear button-downs because of this and I don’t blame them.“