Thanks Tikker!
Just to keep folks following along posted without wading through the whole thread.
This little piggy is definitely going to market.
At worst the following will be produced:
"The Big Guy Bridge" (250-350+ pound rating)
"The Luxury Bridge" (250lbs and under)
"Just A Bugnet"- BG/LUX size in basic Fronkey style bottom entry.
As of now... over 100 of my various bridges have gotten out in the wild in the last 18 months or so. Enough to clearly indicate it is a product worth continuing with; but I had to take a step back for a bit to take steps to do that. From start to finish these take roughly 12 hours to produce and are not easy to sew.
I actually did go to market a few years back with Primaloft Gold Synthetic Top Quilts. I designed, tested, etc.
I attempted to hire a very large domestic sewn goods contractor who bumped me for a bigger customer (Patagonia)
I was also under contract with a cottage vendor to produce a run of roughly 50 top quilts.
So I got all excited, told folks I was "in business" and sold them quilts with a pre-sale. The cottage vendor went from weeks to months, trashed the material, never produced a usable quilt and liberated one of my designs from me.
Between those two professionals I spent 10k to not sell a single quilt. More importantly I told people I could deliver a product to them and I could not. Most folks got refunds and were okay, some were not and you know how that goes. I eventually self produced about 25-40 that went to various customers who really wanted the product 'no matter what' and I still sell that product quietly to a few people. With the down market crashed I set that product aside for a while.
I have talked with well over a dozen vendors of various sizes and tried out a few of them.
Looks like I might finally have a partial solution on that front too... but everyone is busy. I don't think of myself as an amazing seamster, but this is not a product you just hand to someone to make either.
I've now moved twice and I'm moving again, at some point maybe I can quit my dayjob... but my kiddos are young yet and healthcare is a huge barrier to self-employment.
So hopefully between 20-30 hours a week from me and a few subcontractors I can get to producing 5-10 a month with some regularity.
Once I can do that and have a small buffer of inventory in hand I will re-open sales.
I find it extremely frustrating to turn people down, but I don't do it lightly.
I find it unacceptable to break a promise to a fellow hiker or outdoorsperson.
So for sure... something will get going this summer.
I am still debating doing a waiting list of some sort, some suggested a mailing list.
I appreciate that folks are willing to wait for cottage gear... and with many vendors hitting 5-8 week lead times I won't be alone.
However unlike the other vendors... there are no employees tinkering away full time to gobble through the list and give you a date of arrival to anticipate so it seems unfair in my opinion to even start one yet.
Even once I 'fire up' I have a backlog of folks to reach back out to as well who have inquired already. So realistically I probably won't have an actual website 'open' until fall.
I want to make sure that the folks at hammock forums who are supporting this get the first opportunity and don't get 'bumped' by someone off the street so to speak, lol.
Bookmarks