It’s been a while since my last blog. Reason being that I don’t want to ‘launch’ the product via the blog and throughout the summer months the focus was on product development and product testing. But by means of an update on my progress over these past couple of months, we are now on the fourth round (and hopefully final round; pending the product testing stage) of elastic lace samples across two manufacturers to ensure the products we finally launch with are 100% robust and are of premium quality. Where we plan to launch the laces on Amazon, quality is paramount to success. Negative reviews can really harm a startup.
Samples updates
The samples stage was a MUCH longer process than I had anticipated. But at the same time, looking back through conversations with the manufacturers, there is not much I could have done to improve on the length of time it took to get to this point. The main challenge was that as the elastic laces are a new product development, the manufacturers didn’t know what they could / couldn’t do until we got to each stage of the design. For example, it took them several attempts to identify the widest possible elastic that would hold strong within the metal tips at each end. The only way to get there was trial and error; the end tags could only be up to a certain size as they have to fit through the trainer holes, whilst the wider the better when it came to the width of the elastic. And this was just one aspect of the product development process! Strength of elastic, colour matching and packaging were all other aspects that each took their time to confirm the final product.
I was also hopeful that once I had identified the best manufacturers to use (for all products), one round of branded samples would be all it would take for me to confirm the first bulk order from; which unfortunately wasn’t the case for various reasons:
- Socks: material & sizing great but the design needed some obvious amends to it. Rather than crossing my fingers for the manufacturers to get them right in the bulk order, I ordered one final round of samples to ensure they could take on the feedback with amends to the design and to understand how close the colour matches would be. Roadmap of timelines from idea through to launch:
- Caps: material, fit & adjustable strap great but needed another firm brimmed round peak cap to be sent to us to get the best possible flat and round peak caps locked in to the product range. The round cap in the first round wasn’t firm but could be bent to be round; not the cap we were hoping for; hence a second round of samples were needed to confirm the best round peak cap. Also, the flat peak cap has 5 panels and we wanted to see how it would look for the side panels to be one colour and the top/front panels to be another, so another round of samples was needed for this reason too. Roadmap of timelines from idea through to launch:
- Elastic laces: the gradient effect laces were great (elastic tension, size of metal tips) but we then needed confirmation that the same elastic tension could also be reflected onto one block colour and to check the colours we selected were the best colours to launch with / visually very impactful as well as confirm which length elastic laces to include in each size order. It was eventually settled (through the multiple rounds of product testing) that a ‘one size fits all’ approach should be taken for this new style of laces as if someone has a narrow foot it didn’t necessarily mean they needed the smaller width laces as it also depended on the trainer they used. Hence, including a greater variety of sizes within each pair of laces and allowing the individual to choose the sizes best for them made the most sense (and to eliminate customer complaints for the reason of ordering the wrong size). The packaging also needed amends to make the logo more striking. Roadmap of timelines from idea through to (planned) launch:
It’s safe to say that due to all the above product development challenges, I am behind on my initial proposed launch date; admittedly I had planned to launch last month when I first built out my timelines in January... However, these challenges are just bumps in the road and part of the journey and learning process. As I continue with (albeit slow) forward momentum, I am pleased to confirm that we have finally placed the first bulk order for the caps, socks & one other accessory product that will be launching in the next couple of months; keep your eyes peeled! Again, a learning of timelines on launching a new business is that from placing the order to receiving the product can be 4-6 weeks (of course this varies depending on product/quantity/availability/location/shipping etc) so I am awaiting the delivery of these products later this month.
A pivot in the launch strategy
We have also decided that we would benefit from launching and learning with the sports accessory products (caps/socks etc) prior to the key product launch (elastic laces). This will allow us to ‘soft launch’ the business to friends/family/early adopters where we can get to grips with the sales process / identify successful/unsuccessful promotions and gain insightful feedback from a smaller customer base before scaling up and investing in marketing / channels to promote the NPD (elastic laces). We plan to attend local running events/expos to promote/sell the product as part of the soft launch which will also be a great way to gain feedback firsthand from our target demographic.
We are also mindful of the fact that we are now heading into what most triathletes refer to as the ‘off-season’ where they take some time off racing and training before getting back into the build again in January/February ready and raring to go. Launching in the off-season wouldn’t allow for a progressive build in the rate of sale, so holding fire until March 2025 makes the most sense in terms of launching and building momentum from there into the height of the season.
Packaging updates (outer packaging)
With a variety of products available for sale we need to cater for a variety of different sized packaging (if someone just orders a pair of elastic laces the package will be considerably smaller than someone ordering two pairs of socks & a cap for example). Brand packaging reinforces the brand’s identity, so it’s important to ensure the packaging reflects a premium, bold & fun brand. The cheapest option for us would be to use unbranded poly mailer bags, but this would impact peoples’ perceptions of the brand’s identity (subconsciously at least). Hence, we are progressing with branded poly mailer bags to ensure a premium, bold & fun brand identity is maintained throughout the touchpoints of a customer's shopping experience.
Website
-
Copywriting isn’t a strength of mine so building out the website has constantly dropped down my to do list. As a very visual person, it helped to get some (basic) pictures of the samples to load to the website to see how the product pages will look and build out the copy from there. Slow and steady progress here!
-
I have learnt how to build pop up banners (enticing people to sign up to our mailing list etc) as well as create promo codes (eg free shipping on orders over £35 by using code xxx)
Expo tent
I have been working with a couple of customisable pop up tent suppliers to create a branded tent that reflects the brand’s identity; premium, bold & fun. The word premium is haunting when you are trying to manage your own startup budget! It isn’t expected that we will see a large percentage of our sales sold through this channel (max 5-10%), so keeping spend to a minimum is key. But at the same time it will be the first impression most people will have on the brand, so a branded tent is (in my eyes) worth the investment; it’s just all the added extras (flags/banners, table cloths, side panels) that add up!
I am back to holding myself accountable to monthly blog updates again now we are out the murky waters of products failing the testing process, so there will undoubtedly be plenty more to update you on in one month's time!