Parke Active Denim Closes at Over $220,000 Crowdfunded

Campaign on Kickstarter Raises 10X Original $20,000 Goal.

Parke Premium Active Denim crowdfunding campaign closed yesterday on Kickstarter shattering their $20,000 goal.  The final tally stood at $221,509 raised from 1784 backers.  The fashion crowdfunding campaign exemplified a professionally operated and structured approach to crowdfunding leveraging past experience and the path of others for a highly successful raise.

Crowdfunding is altering the landscape for many products and many different industries.  Fashion or clothing is one of the categories which is quickly emerging as a prime industry segment ripe for innovative disruption.

Now business owners can quickly test the market for their new design or product, gage demand, and produce only what is needed.  This dynamic model generates many intrinsic efficiencies.  Little capital is needed tied up in inventory which may – or may not sell – depending upon the fickle nature of the consumer.  In industries such as fashion leveraging e-commerce and pretail crowdfunding campaigns is the new way to sell your design.  A committed and engaged consumer which feels connected to the product and has a vested and emotional interest in the products success is a much more efficient marketing strategy.  Parke Denim is just one example of many successful crowdfunding campaigns and we expect to see many more.

Parke founder, Solomon Liou, ran a very similar campaign which ended this past January.  On a $50,000 goal Parke raised $90,535.  Parke’s first campaign marketed “Selvedge” denim which is a higher quality fabric created using old style shuttle looms delivering a more dense and durable material.  Liou specifically did not hire a PR firm for his first campaign placing his confidence in the crowd to embrace his vision.  634 backers  supported this pretail campaign and Parke entered the top 10 fashion crowdfunding campaigns and number 1 denim campaign on Kickstarter (at that time).  The campaign raised 30% of their goal in the first days of their launch.

For round two Parke more than doubled the amount raised from the first campaign.  This time they did hire a PR firm but did not launch any big marketing blitz using word of mouth and their established clientele from the first round.  For their second campaign their goal was lowered to $20,000 and they easily surpassed that amount in the first few days.  Closing at over $220,000 shows their previous experience has paid off.

Other fashion crowdfunding campaigns would benefit by learning about how Parke structured their campaign.  Yes – the product is great.  Very high quality at a reasonable price.  But the crowdfunding campaign is a well orchestrated study in pretail.  From the pitch video, web site, professional photos and social engagement – everything came together producing a really impressive crowdfunding success.