Crowdfunding. It’s a point of contention for many, a platform for success for others, and a way to fund your potato salad needs for this guy. With their newest brand Victor, Noble Denim is attempting to tackle a problem larger than your sad brown bag lunch. Although the push for American-made goods has been on the rise for a while, we apparently still only make about 2% of all clothing sold in the States within the States. As a result, American factories across the country are still struggling to stay afloat, letting employees go, cutting wages, and closing doors.
Victor is their attempt at turning the tide with quality knits, like sweatshirts and tees using organic cotton, at an affordable price. Though their endeavor to produce American-made denim is a mission that makes their name highly apropos, not everyone can afford to support. Sweatshirts and tees are considerably more affordable and more accessible than a pair of $200+ jeans.
By sourcing, cutting, and sewing everything in American factories, Victor will (with any success) help to get American factories on the road to recovery and at a larger scale than their current Noble operation. To help expedite the process and alleviate the damage done by massive outsourcing, Victor will also give 5% of their after-tax profits back to the factories for them to invest in their workers.
It’s a bit unorthodox for an established brand to go back to Kickstarter. Granted, they are trying to start a completely new brand in Victor, and that in itself is no easy task. Even then, why Kickstarter? First, reach. Though Noble has a decent enough following themselves, it’s definitely not enough to re-ignite the American garment industry. Even if they’re trying to employ just the 5 employees in the one factory shown in their KS video, $100,000 doesn’t really cut it. Second, urgency. If they were to try to do Victor completely without the support of KS, the time spent would undoubtedly mean more jobs lost and possibly more empty factories. With KS, raising a large sum of money in a short amount of time is imperative. Third, addressed in an interview with Well-Spent, KS backers can feel a sense of ownership. Saving the American garment industry is a team effort that involves more than 300 million people.
Their campaign has been largely successful thus far and has raised nearly all of their goal of $100,000 with less than a week to go. Even though the crowdfunding model may be frowned upon by many, that doesn’t negate the fact that there are plenty of worthy causes out there. The clothes look good, the prices are affordable, and the cause seems worthy. So what do you think?
For more information and to back their project, check out their Kickstarter campaign here.
