Forsake on Kickstarter - support a shoe company by skiers for skiers

[Tfinder]

A few years ago my friend and I noticed our friends and ourselves sliding around and soaking through our shoes because none of us wanted to wear winter or hiking boots around campus and at ski areas. This inspired us to start a company that makes versatile shoes with the performance features of a purpose built hiking boot (waterproof/breathable membrane, lugged sole, etc.) and the style of a casual shoe. We put in 2 years of work developing the company and our designs and now we're ready for mass production.

Our project is now on the crowd-funding site Kickstarter.com to generate the money for mass production. We are offering a bunch of rewards for pledges including pre-ordering the shoes at the wholesale price of $75. They will retail for $120-$140 so this is a really good deal for fully waterproof shoes.

We started Forsake for our fellow skiers and snowboarders so check out our video and get yourself some shoes!
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/...tdoor-sneakers

[Nick]

Where are you guys located? I've been fascinated with the Kickstarter model, good luck. You guys are already at $50k.

[Tfinder]

Thanks for checking out the project Nick! I'm located outside of Boston now but will hopefully be expanding and moving soon.

[o3jeff]

Why not make them here in the USA?

[Nick]

Why not make them here in the USA?

Probably because they want to sell them and if they made them in the us it would cost $200 a pair

[my poor knees]

Probably because they want to sell them and if they made them in the us it would cost $200 a pair

and in a nutshell, that's why our country is going downhill, we are not industrial manufacturers anymore, we are consumers of throwaway garbage.

[Nick]

true. when was the last time you went to a shoemaker? (rhetorical q)

[Tfinder]

We recently did a blog post titled Thoughts on Outsourcing that hopefully helps to answer your question. You can read it at http://blog.forsake.co/.

Our products will retail for about $120. The short answer is that, if they were Made in U.S.A. (and only 70% of the shoe actually has to be made in USA to be given that title), the price would likely be $200+. But that doesn't tell the whole story. The real benefit to manufacturing abroad is being close to all the footwear material and component suppliers, rubber manufacturers, and mold-cutters that we depend on. It shortens the development timeline and makes for a more flexible prototyping process. From a logistical standpoint, making shoes abroad is much much easier and more efficient.

[Cannonball]

Not really trying to target you or dog on you. But you did make your first post a sales pitch (which I think is generally not allowed on this forum, but the owner seems into it so that's his call) and your making some claims. So a response seems fair.

First, I'm not sure I get the originality of your design. Your shoes look almost exactly like all of the other waterproof hiking boot/sneakers on the market, with all of the same features, at the same price. Why again wouldn't I just buy a pair of Merril/Vasque/Salomon/Bean/etc shoes that are already available as opposed to paying to help your start up?

Second, I can live with outsourced production. I'm pretty sure the Gore-tex Salomon light hikers that I'm currently wearing and that I bought for the same price as your "innovation" were made abroad. But if you're going to make claims you need to back them up. There are several/many made in USA brands at the same price point as yours (not $200+).

[Ski Stef]

cool project, good luck!