Betabrand has the fun business model of crowdsourcing its designs by vote. Recently, a cool cat pattern won by a huge margin, and is a hot seller.
Betabrand, a San Francisco-based online clothing company, has received an incredible response to its feline-based designs. “We all know that cats basically power the Internet,” says founder and CEO Chris Lindland, “but damn …”
According to Lindland, not only have Betabrand’s new Catstooth Dress Pant Yoga Pants and matching blazer shattered crowdfunding records, the company cat (see below) has topped Reddit’s homepage, been posted by the likes of Ellen DeGeneris and Kirsten Bell, and is surely on track to surpass total Grumpy Cat and Lime Cat memes any day now. Still, Lindland says, “we didn’t anticipate that this product would tap into a cat-news-hungry network of millions.”
One of the top sellers is this frisky edition of Dress Pant Yoga Pants.
After any product becomes a hit, Betabrand quickly polls its fanbase on related design ideas. So only a week after its Catstooth pants debuted, the company launched a Catstooth blazer.
As this print’s popularity grows, the company will continue to crowdsource new Catstooth prototypes, with concept scarves, skirts and shirts now queueing up in the pipeline. Says Lindland, “If companies are seeking a revenue catalyst during the quarantine, look no further than felines.”
Betabrand has open-sourced Mr. Fred for meme developers.
About Betabrand:
San Francisco-based Betabrand gives consumers a voice in design, inviting them directly into clothing’s creative process. From a product’s first sketch to the last pixel, Betabrand’s fans decide what’s next.
#catsuitnation