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our first 18 months...
we opened our first factory
from an accidental jeans purchase and a TikTok video to building and operating a denim factory
we made 15,000 pairs
5000 of which are 1 of 1 variants, potentially the most individual variants of any denim brand on Earth
we shipped to 100 countries
we didn't want to launch exclusively in the US because accessibility has always been a core mission
we made over 700 sizes
between sizeYOU V1,V2, and now V3, we've made over 700 different sizes, and that will increase by 500+ sizes this year
let's start with the
overall customer experience.
we fully acknowledge that there is plenty of work to be done on the customer experience side, and here are a few of the initiatives we're working on in order to make sure that our next launch is a substantially better overall experience
some key milestones
start-ups are messy, and celebrating the wins has been incredibly important on this rollercoaster ride, here are a few key milestones we've hit since we launched 18 months ago
we shipped our 10,000th pair
after countless sleepless nights, we officially packed and shipped our 10,000th pair back in September of 2023, almost 1 year from our initial launch. our V3 jeans were the first jeans made in Istanbul, and came in our widest range of offerings yet. over 300,000 potential variants were available and the private launch sold out in less than a day.
the lead time for our V3 launch also improved from 144 days to under 60 - still too long, and still too many orders falling between the cracks, but a step forward in finding our system.
we launched our first jeans customizer
built in house by Abhi and Kristian, we launched our first jeans customizer bringing us one step closer to our goal of building a step-by-step building experience that makes you the designer!
it's not quite where we want it to be yet, but the V1 was well received and led to a huge spike in time on site.
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we opened our first factory - Groovy Labs
Kristian and Zeena packed their bags and moved across the world to Istanbul, spending 15 hours a day 7 days a week refurbishing, renovating, and building the home of all future slø manufacturing - Groovy Labs.
our goal from the get-go was to create the world's most ethical, sustainable and technologically enabled clothing manufacturing facility.
we went live in December 2023, and have been operating the factory for 6 months. in March we paused taking additional orders to make improvements.
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there are 4 main areas that require improvement
and while they've come a long way since the beginning, it's still not good enough.
we have always built this project with complete transparency, the good, the bad, and the ugly, and that will never change.
production timelines
we've cut the lead time down by over 100 days since our first launch, but there is still a lot of improvement needed to make slø a real solution for the industry. our new manufacturing plan will get our production time to 14 days.
customer service & communication
our customer service timelines have been nothing short of terrible, and getting answers has been even more challenging. we have a plan to completely overhaul our existing system and ensure 24-hour solutions.
shipping timelines
we've struck out on logistics partners now on multiple occasions. bad tracking numbers, lost packages, and shipments that have been stuck at stages for weeks at a time - we hate it too...
returns & exchanges
with our current system, returns and exchanges are a headache, time-consuming, and ultimately are just not an easy overall solution or experience, this needs a major overhaul
Kristian and the team traveled over 600 days in two years
from factory scouting in India, to fabric approvals in Amsterdam, to months of physical work on the factory floor building Groovy Labs in Istanbul, to months of daily inspection in Italy - we have been on the move non-stop trying to make our dream a reality.
39.5% returning customer rate
with over 2000 people who own more than 3 pairs of slø jeans, the customer loyalty even through challenges has been nothing short of amazing.
$1,100,000 revenue
to date we've scaled to over 7 figures in revenue with $0 spent on ads, exclusively from the community and TikTok.
less than 5% return rate
given an industry average of over 35%, we see substantially less returns as a result of the size set, our manufacturing standards, and our 3D Look integration
customer service
we're currently averaging 150 hours to ticket resolution, which is far too long this needs to be reduced to 24 hours
returns + exchange
returns and exchanges have been a nighmare for everybody as a result of manufacturing being too slow to make replacements quick enough
order status communication
our automatic messaging system broke, leaving hundreds of people without updates during production
easier purchase experience
confusing size charts, unfamilair sizing applications, and a completely different system left a lot of people lost
let's start with the positives
now let's dive into where we need to improve
total transparency
we have some serious work to do, so here's the plan...
our goal has always been to create high-quality jeans - made to order, built to last, in the world's best size set, and most importantly - in an acceptable time frame.
we haven't been able to do that consistently, so we're going back to the drawing board to make sure our next launch is our best one yet, and that we bring forward a better customer experience for our community
we want to explain what went wrong, how we're going to fix it, and what the next steps look like...
how we're going to fix it
automatic updates
our order update system is getting a huge overhaul allowing you to receive updates with every step of production completely automatically. customers will now receive 10-12 updates throughout the production process instantly sent as your product's QR code is scanned at each stage. our V1 didn't work as intended, but we know what went wrong, and we know how to ensure a smoother communication experience moving forward.
customer profile + better customer service
beyond hiring more customer service agents (which we will be doing) we are also developing a significant amount of self service tools to make simple requests as easy as possible. through your new customer profile you will be able to see your order status at all times, change your address if needed, initiate an automatic return/exchange request, or make changes to your jeans (before they enter production).
returns + exchange studio
we're building a completely separate line for returns and exchanges to ensure that jeans that need to be remade, altered, or adjusted can be expedited through the process. no more waiting weeks for small fixes.
in addition we will be developing a system that will allow customers to print their own return labels without needing to speak to an agent. a simple process that will allow us to get your perfect pair to you in significantly less steps.
a new sizing experience
we're adding almost 500 additional sizes to sizeYOU and with it will come the addition of "shape" allowing for an extra dimension to our size set for a better overall fit.
we will also be building a much more straightforward sizing experience, with the option to also order a special slø tape measure to assist.
our goal is to make getting sized as easy as possible. your size will then be saved to your customer profile for easy re-ordering.
configurator 2.0
we'll be building off of the success of our first configurator and building a more streamlined experience for our new collection, making it easier than ever to design your perfect jeans. we took a ton of feedback from the first version and believe that we will be able to make the experience simpler while keeping it fun, different, and exciting!
fixing the timeline
all of the above is fine and dandy, but if we can't make the jeans fast enough it's not going to work.
we're building our OMS V2 and a new manufacturing system that we believe will get our production time down to 14 days without cutting corners.
we'll be back in October!
we've got a lot of work to do...
but we have a plan...
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