The ARCH CG097 Lightweight Running Shoe Project on Kickstarter
I have never been one to beg or ask for outside assistance. I’ve always thought of my ventures, as MY ventures. I might ask family for support, but I immediately give my family back what they have given me. This basically keeps me in a position where it is difficult to grow. Think about it, if someone gives you 1000.00 and you earn 500.00, and then you have to pay them 1000.00, you end up with 500.00, but you can only do half of what you did to earn 1500.00. Get it? I’m sure you do. Basically the whole process of being self sufficient, while admirable, does not cater to growing a business. A business is like a flower and capital is water. The more capital you have the larger the business grows. What I have really learned is that the more a business grows the more you have to put into it.
My decision to make my shoes and enter an agreement with my manufacturer to make shoes every three months basically set me up for a very steep climb. Without water, your climb becomes harder. This is why I finally decided to do a Kickstarter.
I had seen a number of shoe companies do a project and earn these ridiculous amounts of capital. Everyone of those shoe companies have yet to ship to their sponsors. They all ran into snags and various situations which has led to missed shipped dates. The sponsors and supporters are all left waiting on updates on the products. I differ from all of those other companies in that for the last 4 years, I have released shoes and sold them on Amazon. I’ve made my boxes, printed the labels, purchased UPC codes and then packed them with tee shirts in each pair and got the shoes to my customers and the feedback has been great. My problem is that I did so at discounted prices because I had to earn some money to place the next order.
With a new shoe company things move slower so while my agreement was a good idea, I simply couldn’t keep prices at retail which killed my profit and removed the ability to have a stress free experience. This also led to a continuous adjustment in prices where one week the shoe was 60 dollars and the next week it was 29.00. The next week it was 9.99. This fluctuation and inconsistency was frustrating for me and led to my thoughts on shutting everything down.
That’s when I decided to do this Kickstarter campaign. I hope that you will take a few minutes to share the link with your friends and that you will support ARCH. I’m working to make this right, but I can’t do it without you. I have three different contribution levels
1. You can donate whatever you like and support the movement. The reward will be an acknowledgement on the ARCH site
2. 70.00 donations will earn you a pair of the Kickstarter ARCH running shoe. I will make this colorway to represent the current project.
What I truly hope will happen is 3000, 2000, 1000 or more people will donate 5.00. I’m not asking for a lot, just breathing room. Once everything is done, then I will begin producing shoes immediately and as always the shoes will be available on Amazon.
Please join me,
Chris B.
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/archfootwear/the-arch-lightweight-running-shoe-project
