Greetings and salutations,
This is my very first blog post on this website, and for this one I've decided to tell you all about our first Kickstarter, how we achieved our goal, and what comes next!
May 2024 I began the journey of creating my very first ita bag design, I'd seen quite a few over the years and always found them to be beautiful and unique and finally I decided to make my own. So I just needed a theme!
My newest obsession had become Helluva Boss and Hazbin Hotel, so naturally I had to create a bag inspired by them! Fizzarolli fit the bill perfectly, he's fun and colourful and complex, all the best parts of a design! So drawing began and I created this;
This design was what I landed on. I love claw machines and I figured it would be the perfect theme for a Fizzarolli bag!
And who wouldn't play a Claw Machine with Robo-Fizz?
So our design was created, colours picked from various photos so they could be as accurate as possible, and the whole piece came together beautifully!
But this was only the front, and I needed to figure out the whole design, there was no point in just doing the front of a bag was there?
The back was definitely harder to design. It had to still be fun, while being practical and comfortable, there's nothing worse than something digging into your back after all...
Hearts and stripes seemed the right way to go, matching the ones Fizz wears in his clown outfit! And our shop logo needed to be added. This was later changed from being printed to being embossed, so it didn't take away from the design.
It was also when I designed the zip charms, which are created to look like the heart on Fizz's hat, There are 2 on the bag, one for the back zip and one for the zip on the main body.
This was the point that I researched manufacturers. I used alibaba to find the one I wanted, and got in touch, asking for a bulk price and a sample price. Once I had this I could start working on the numbers, which was a headache and a half. Thankfully a friends dad offered his expertise and we managed to figure out the best way to have the bags made, make a profit, and also helped me to convert some dollars to pounds as I had repeatedly forgotten to do so!
Our next choices were sizing! As someone who knows nothing about bag design, even now, I had no idea how to size it. I knew I didn't want it to be too large.
So I did some research; I love mini backpacks, so I decided to go down that route and eventually after measuring several bags, and looking up even more, I settled on the size of 10.5in x 9in x 4in - The actual bag ended up slightly larger than this, with the front panel design, but it is perfect!
So our next step was a simple sample! This means our manufacturer makes a bag out of scraps/off cuts and poor quality prints in order to make the correct template and get the correct sizing. This is the stage that means we can confirm that the design will work and any changes to the shape and size should be made during this process.
This was how our simple sample looked. We did find a few pieces that needed to be tweaked at this stage, the insert needed to be slightly reshaped, the bottom of the bag needed straightening, and originally we had planned for Robo Fizz to be in leather on the front window, unfortunately we found in this stage this wouldn't be possible due to his shape, the jagged edges made it impossible to do. It also made the plastic warped and weakened.
And so we were off! At this point I had begun marketing our Kickstarter! I had written up the proposal, gotten the graphics made, calculated the costs, and we were ready to launch. We set a date for June 1st, and I had began to advertise on Instagram and TikTok, creating videos and photos using what little I had.
When we launched on June 1st we had 97 watchers on our project. And I didn't believe we would come even close to reaching our goal.
So what I'm trying to say is... I'm an idiot.
Next came picking our colours! In order to make the bag we needed colours! I picked these three, red/pink for the body of the bag, light blue for the stripes and the dark blue for everything else that wasn't really important. This included the top handle, and the back of Fizz's head.
AND THEY ARE STUNNING!
As our Kickstarter was raising funds, we still had a way to go. Our sample bags were being created, and I at least had more and more to share with everyone who was interested!
By the end of the first week, I had 17 backers and we were already 66% funded!
So I had to keep going!
I paid for 2 adverts, one on TikTok and one on Instagram. I only paid £30 in total for both, hoping it would be enough.
I learned Instagram worked much more effectively, TikTok ads was definitely a waste of time, but it was a lesson that needed to be learnt.
And I got the bag fronts to approve. The first one had a few small mistakes, a piece that hadn't been cut out, a small printing error, and I didn't like Fizz's teeth being blue. (Despite them being blue in the show) It made the entire area look too blue, so I had them changed to white, which definitely broke up the colours just the way I wanted.
It was at this point WE HIT THE 100% MARK! June 12th we reached 100%... and 3 days later we dropped down to 98% - which was a terrifying moment, but within a few hours we had made it over the line again, meaning we were officially funded as of June 16th!
And two weeks later our bags were finished!
We had two beautiful bags, and four wonderful straps. I decided to create 2 bags as I wanted to check the reproduction quality, and make sure the manufacturer could create the bags at the same high quality each and every time.
I am more than happy with the quality of both bags, and the leather (PU Leather - which is a high quality fake leather) feels so soft and almost realistic.
The colours match perfectly and are so vibrant and wonderful, and all of the little custom pieces are beautiful. This includes my favourite part of the bag - the inside lining!
This is my absolute favourite part, the hidden balloon animals inside! There are two small pockets on the front side, a zip pocket on the back, and it is big enough to hold everything you could possibly want to take with you!
This is the first bag I have ever made, and the first project like this I have ever attempted.
As of today we have been fully funded and I have placed the order for our bags! All 35 of our incredible backers will soon have theres and I can not wait to send them out! We will also have a limited number left over from the batch which will be available on etsy for anyone who missed out.
What I've learned from this journey is believe you can do it, because I had no faith in being able to achieve half of the goal, and yet I managed to reach it and go above by around 30% (After fees and dropped pledges)
There is still a way to go, shipping them out and making sure to achieve a profit - and I will be sure to give an update when that happens! For now, this has been a journey and it's been so exciting and so much fun and fulfilling! I can't wait to do it again in future and maybe try some other projects like this!
Thanks for reading and coming on this journey with me! See you in the next one!
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