KIT CULTURE: PERFORMANCE FIT, CLASSIC STYLE
WHAT WE’RE ALL ABOUT
What makes Kit Culture different is simple: we combine the style and comfort of high-end casual wear with the form-fit of performance wear. Because we use only the best available stretch fabrics, our apparel moves as you move. Despite what a lot of brands would have you believe, there are plenty of amazing technical fabrics available to anyone that wants to purchase them. The challenge is designing stylish, affordable products that incorporate the best properties of performance wear but look good in your daily life.
ACTIVE FIT
All of our products are designed with the athletic male in mind, although many women with a more athletic build also love our products. We use the term Active Fit to describe the fit of our apparel because it contains room where you need it in the thigh and shoulder area, and a slim fit where you need it to avoid interference while you’re riding your bike around town or bouldering at the climbing gym. We don’t consider our products as “activewear”, but rather clothes that look good and that enable you to live your every day active life.
OUR PRODUCTS
For our Kickstarter project we are focusing on our three most popular items, especially since these will ship at the end of summer and are perfect items for the late summer and fall. Note that shipping is free to addresses in the United States. Since we manufacture locally, we won’t have to wait for the finished product to make the trip across the ocean only to sit in a warehouse before it ships. Once it is manufactured we pick it up ourselves and it is out the door and in your hands quickly.
Casual Active Stretch Twill Pants
The pants you keep hanging on a chair for easy access to wear day after day when you’re out and about.
Perfect for a light workout or casual night out, to stay warm at the beach and for countless other uses in your active life.
Perfect to throw on during or after a workout, or just to wear around all day.
HOW IT’S MADE
All of our sewn products are manufactured in Southern California at a small, ethical factory. This allow us to ensure that all of our products have the highest quality and consistency, and are made by people we know, trust, and love working with. We have no issue with apparel manufactured abroad, but for us what works best is to be able to check in regularly with our manufacturer and produce small quantities as we learn about our customers and what products they like.
OUR BUSINESS MODEL
We want our products to be accessible to as many people as possible. Because we manufacture locally and use the highest quality fabrics available, we can’t offer rock bottom prices, but what we can do is eliminate the middleman and sell direct to our customers online. Our stretch twill pants would typically retail for approximately $110-120 because most brands still sell to big department stores who need to make a profit as well. Then, because they can’t undercut their wholesale buyers, the brand offers the same marked up price on their website, which makes no sense if you think about it. You’re paying brands a double margin off their site just so they can also make a profit selling wholesale.
When we first launched we had interest from small retail stores, and we sell in one currently (Triathlon Lab in Redondo Beach), mainly because the owner is a friend and supported us when we first started out. But going forward we intend to focus on direct to consumer sales off of our websites and at pop up events in the Southern California region. That is why we are able to offer our products in the $60-70 range for our existing items.
We also don’t feel the need to design tons of products for each season with the knowledge that most won’t sell. Frankly even if we wanted to do that we don’t have the capital to do so, but we prefer to roll out products one by one and see how each performs before committing to a large production run. Thus far, our stretch twill pants have been our best selling item and we will continue to refine this and our other core products and slowly introduce new ones.
WHY WE NEED YOUR HELP