Anorak Kickstarter launched
So begins a crowdfunding campaign to produce 100 wax canvas anoraks in a Melbourne production line. It has been a surprising amount of work to get to this point, and it will be interesting to see how it goes.
We probably wouldn’t have put the anorak up as the first Peak Oil Company product seeking crowdfunding for production, as anoraks aren’t all that popular in Australia. With some encouragement from a few friends in Europe, we became interested in the possibility of selling more anoraks there, and to see if some people in Australia also appreciate the advantages of an anorak.
Anoraks are an interesting garment. Very comfortable, lighter weight, and offer a secure feeling with the front always closed. But with that, they can become uncomfortable if you overheat in them, causing you to want to pull them off then pull them on again when you cool off. For this reason, most modern anoraks have zippers in the arm pits to help vent off any heat and moisture. With the Peak Oil Anorak, we decided to continue those zippers all the way up the arm and down the side, so it can open right out and become a cape, a poncho or a ground sheet. This also has the added benefit of making the re-waxing job a bit easier too. That decision has proven to be a very good one.
We have thoroughly tested this design now, a month in Tasmania, and another month in a disaster area around Mount Dandenong, chainsawing fallen trees and cleaning up debris. We are extremely happy with the zipper function, the heavy weight canvas, the kangaroo leather on the sleeve cuffs, the slot buttons, the position of the pockets, the size of the hood.
We are also really happy with the way the anoraks are constructed. When we took the earlier sample to Vinh Clothing in East Brunswick, he could see a few ways to make them more straight forward and efficient to produce. So we returned to our pattern maker Katie Maud for her exceptional skills at improving our rough old card board patterns, and mark up the changes that Vinh had suggested. We did this cycle a few times, finally arriving at a finished design with samples, ready to calculate materials and price up a possible production.
Tomy Ho-Trethowan has been helping manage the production costings, after introducing me to Vinh and Katie. Tomy has been absolutely critical to all this falling into place. She now remains at the ready, for if the Kickstarter campaign succeeds, Tomy will order in the materials, check them for quality, check in with Vinh as his team produces the anoraks, and then check for any faults before we send them out.
It will be interesting to see how far we get with the Kickstarter campaign. We pushed the price as low as we could go, knowing full well that an Australian made waxed canvas anorak, made from Australian materials, is an expensive garment compared to the closest competitors we could find. Crowdfunding helps us get that price down, by facilitating a direct relationship based on pre-orders rather than a return on investment. It’s a good model for small operators like Peak Oil Company. In this campaign we’re offering bulk order discounts as well as smaller items for those who aren’t yet in the market for a new anorak, but who want to help get the campaign over the line.
So here we go! In coming days we will add in incentives to increase exposure of the campaign and Peak Oil Company. Things like tagging friends who then follow Peak Oil Company on Instagram and/or Youtube and Facebook, will put you in the draw to win an anorak, if the campaign is successful.