They weren’t happy with Kickstarter, so they set up their own platform for fashion

Image credit: Out Of X.

Kickstarter is good for many things, from mind controlled robots to bizarre umbrella technology. But it’s not for everyone.

When budding Israeli fashion startup Out Of X took a peek at the website to see if it could fit their needs, co-founder Shany Elkin was not amused. She had hoped the website would help her launch her own boutique brand online, but was met with the likes of sweaters with built-in massage pads.

“I will never upload my stuff to this geeky website!” she said, according to co-founder Nir Laznik.

“That’s when we realized that, although Kickstarter is awesome, it’s all about the community around it,” Nir says. So, along with third co-founder Roee Lahav, the team scrapped their initial idea and set about building a crowdfunding platform for designers.

From idea to reality… and then back to idea

The premise was simple enough: fashion designers can create a prototype, post it online, and then users can pre-order the item. Once a certain number of pre-orders are logged, then the project is fully funded and the designer gets to work – it’s a familiar crowdfunding model, but with all of the non-fashion bits taken out. There’s no mention of equity in a company, or your name crammed into the credits at the end of a movie – you just get a nice shirt or dress out of it.

The Out Of X team. From L-R: Nir Laznik, Lisa Xu, Yael Hartmann, and Roee Lahav. Image credit: Out Of X.

Nir, Roee, and Shany set about signing designers up for their platform, and found that they had stumbled into something big.

Young fashion designers have it rough. The industry still relies largely on small boutique shops, which means that you’ll need a combination of starting capital, industry connections, and good luck just to get a product off the ground.

It’s a familiar crowdfunding model, but with all of the non-fashion bits taken out.

Out Of X opened up the world of boutique, small-batch sales to a world of small designers who otherwise would have been cut out of the loop. To be featured on the platform, designers needed to have brought one line to production, and have proof that they could deliver their goods when the pre-orders came in.

The “Out Of X” name was developed because the founders realized that it’s key to their value proposal – every item sold on the site is limited edition, and each is one of 20, 30, or a hundred articles of clothing made by that designer. The idea caught on and in a few months, the company had more than 1,000 designers on the platform from all over the world.

But if you go to Out Of X’s website right now, all you’ll see is a landing page – that’s because China came calling.

The China shift