Kicking Knives into High Gear
by Micah Cheek
There are some exciting and bold new cutlery options coming out, and many of them are being created through the crowdfunding site Kickstarter. The platform provides a low-risk option for development that would normally require a fully-stocked cutlery operation.
When woodworking company Design Trifecta was creating a new design for a knife holder, the company didn’t have a background in kitchenware. “My husband’s a woodworker, and he came up with this clever invention. A year later we had a really great working prototype. It just wasn’t financially viable. I at the time was getting an MBA. In one of my classes we talked about the benefits of crowdfunding. Mostly it was around larger scale investors,” says Sara Leggett, Co-Founder and CEO of Design Trifecta. “I took a little different approach. Because we had our own factory, we decided to keep it small, but raise enough to actually get the parts to make it at a larger scale.”
This method proved to be more streamlined than more traditional methods of production. “Ten years ago, you’d have to make the prototypes, and find a wholesale backer to produce it. I’m not sure we would have been able to do it. We say it’s deceivingly simple, surprisingly hard to make,” says Leggett. The resulting 360 Knife Block was quickly funded and sold directly.
Having a successfully funded campaign was a great resource to show to wholesalers and investors as well. “We were funded in four days. We closed at the end of September, and then we were able to deliver with five months. We’re seen selling to the masses. Then to go to International Housewares Association to say we were funded, backed and supported — it really gave our unique design credibility,” says Leggett.
While some companies turn to Kickstarter to sidestep the difficulties of courting a major manufacturer, others use the service as a direct marketing technique. When Peter Rigas, CEO of FINI Cutlery, was developing FINI Kitchen Knives, a knife line with short, nontraditional handles, he could have worked with a larger company right off the bat. “I did Kickstarter for a different reason. My product was very unique in the knife industry, I wanted to test if our messaging properly showcased the features and benefits of our innovation before we said, ‘Let’s build an infrastructure. Let’s see how it does there and see what feedback we get,’” says Rigas.
The response was strong. “What was interesting for us — we didn’t know it at the time — usually when people would do something like this, they’ll do some PR beforehand and do a preemptive strike. So we didn’t get a lot of eyeballs, but our closing rate was really high,” says Rigas. “[The closing rate is] the number of people who would see it per day versus the number of people who buy it. We only ran a 30-day campaign, and even though we just did that, we still got over $100,000, which was great.”
Rigas also notes that the benefits of his knife, which sports a very short handle to ensure a proper pinch grip, are much clearer when shown through video rather than a still image. The video option on Kickstarter ensured that every potential backer could watch the knife in action.
Another factor of online fundraising is maintaining and communicating with an online fan base. “That 30 days it was running, that gave us time to improve it and get better. Sometimes we’d read a comment and say, ‘Well, that makes sense,’” says Rigas. “That’s one of the things Kickstarter’s good for — it allows you more development time. It allows you feedback before you launch.”
Many of the people who funded are crowdfunding regulars who enjoy investing in limited or unusual products. “I think it was from people who [frequent] Kickstarter. There’s a community out there. There are people you see who have backed 200 or 300 projects,” Rigas says.
For both Leggett and Rigas, funding through Kickstarter means a longer path to getting product onto retailer shelves. “We’re going online first, with a direct-to-consumer website,” says Rigas. “In addition to our website, we’re going to launch an Amazon store in February. So we’re creating the market direct to consumer first, before we pursue retail.”
Working outside the influence of major manufacturers can help keep a company’s product flexible, but makes the road to brick-and-mortar sales longer. While Rigas has the resources to work with retailers, he is concerned that the knife won’t sell in a retail environment without a larger brand presence or frequent demonstrations on what makes his product different. “Without a good sell-through mechanism, they’re not going to sell it,” he adds.
Many creators feel that interest in unusual products needs to happen online before they can be certain that their product will stay on the shelves in retail. “Now, we do still work with a couple large wholesale contracts, but the majority of our sales are direct sales. A lot of that is to keep the price where it is,” says Leggett. “You go into the retail space where knife blocks are 10 a penny — I think you need that platform to get to that target market.”
