BackerClub Forums

We are proud to announce BackerClub has secured a partnership with United by Blue and SOLE for their upcoming campaign - "The World's Most Eco-Friendly Shoe"! Campaign Launch is currently set for March 4th.





Click here to see the Kickstarter Preview Campaign Page (tip: open in a new tab)


Ethan and Mike have been our main points of contact at United by Blue, and they have expressed an interest in gathering valuable feedback from the BackerClub community prior to their launch on March 4th, 2019.

They are looking to giveaway (5) pairs of Chukka shoes to members that leave the most valuable feedback! Each winning member will receive (1) pair of shoes in their size/color preference. This is a $100+ value!
UPDATE MARCH 1ST: We've secured not (5), but (10) pairs for the feedback giveaway!

All you have to do is take a look at the campaign page (see link above or click here) and write a reply here on the Forums stating what you think along with any suggestions. The more helpful you are, the more likely it'll be that you're chosen for the giveaway pairs!

You can also select the poll entries above to provide some quick feedback (don't expect to win the giveaway if this is all you do...).

The giveaway pairs will be provided at the same time as normal delivery from the crowdfunding campaign.

Here are some ideas for specific areas to provide feedback:

• Your initial impressions of the campaign page. Does it motivate you to continue reading after looking at it for 15 seconds?
• Media review - do you like the photos and video (going onto the Kickstarter page soon)? Does it convey the shoes and their unique value proposition well?
• Typos, grammatical mistakes, or other wording errors.
• How would you define the target customer? Are there multiple segments to consider?
• What content should be added to the campaign page? What could potentially be removed without losing effect?
• General suggestions to improve the chance of success for the creators.

Extra shoutout to those that can think of fun things to say for a couple social media posts

This is an awesome Kickstarter campaign and a great opportunity to get involved (plus get paid if you put in some effort!)
Thanks for your help, backers - let's get this discussion going!

P.S. We recognize this is the first time doing something like this on the Club (at least in a very long time), so if you have any suggestions to make this a better experience for members, feel free to share your thoughts.

The campaign page is very detailed. It is easy to keep reading. Media endorsements are well placed. I think if you very into sustanability these will really appeal to you. I think they are abit pricey.

The page was very informative. While it did say plenty about the shoes and how they were made and where all the materials are from I didn't fully grasp the benefits to the consumer. I felt that I needed to know how all of this is better for me first before reading the whole page to be interested in backing. Nice pictures though.

"Eco-Friendly" doesn't grab me as the first thing I think of when shopping for shoes. I like "comfortable" and "stylish" in the subhead. And I feel there should be more, right up top, about durability. It seems to me that whenever exotic materials are involved, one immediate concern people have is durability, and also performance. Yes, I know it's mentioned in the first paragraph, but just in passing.

I was interested in the details of the presentation, but I found myself wondering all the way through whether I was supposed to be buying these primarily because producing them is eco-friendly or primarily because they're great shoes. One way to clarify would be to include in the BENEFITS section for each material only those benefits related to performance and durability. In other words, emphasize why these are great shoes. That would mean, for example, deleting from the BisonShield Insulation section the bullet point "Saves natural, high-performance fibers from the landfill." That point is well covered in the detailed description of the material's sourcing.

Speaking of insulation, I found myself wondering just how insulated these are. I live in a warm climate, and I tend to be skeptical about garments and equipment described as "year-round." What exactly does "Temperature-regulating for year-round wear" mean? In what range of temperatures are the shoes comfortable?

I'd also like to know more about their performance in wet conditions. It mentions "water-repelling" in relation to the merino wool component, but it doesn't get specific. Are they suitable for walking in heavy rain? In urban puddles? On wet wilderness trails?

Finally, where are they manufactured? In the Timeline section it says they'll be shipped from overseas. Inquiring minds want to know where.

Thanks for reading. I hope this is helpful, and I hope you have a successful campaign!

Ecology /environmentally friendly / carbon footprint / reusing materials / vegan cannot be the keyword for a pair of shoes; I only treat them as a gimmick or addon environmental friendly product.

The page is full of information for each material being used but they are not the only message for a pair of shoes.

Pricing as the first insight cost a little higher.

The page should highlight to the potential buyer on a few things at the top of long statements
Comfortability?
Durability? Water Repellent / Sweat Countermeasure?
Extra arc support available?
Any wider head selection?
The weight of the shoe?
Place of manufacturing?
Shoelace selection and material used?

Also doing sizing on the paper and ruler always result in a poor sizing decision. So, what is the exchange policy and cost in case receiving the wrong size of shoes?

Hey guys! Happy to see you back on crowdfunding! I backed the Ultimate American Jacket, and hope that we all support you in this effort!

Edits:

About:
Showcase how it helps the consumer first rather than the environment. We are the people buying it. Change "Made from the highest-quality, most sustainable materials, it’s a shoe that puts the environment first without compromising on performance, durability, style or comfort." to "Made from the highest-quality sustainable materials, it’s a year-round shoe that showcases performance, durability, style and comfort without harming the environment." Adding year-round showcases the fact that bison fur keeps you warm (love that part of my jacket), and the fact that it retains heat when wet (rain and snow). Also, switch conscious consumer and everyday adventurer. The fact that we would wear these every day is why people will spend $100.00 to buy the shoe. Helping the environment is secondary.

Materials Overview:
Under ReCORK™, add Sourced in North America after the last sentence. You have that Merino Wool is sourced from Australia, and it would be great to highlight that other parts are sourced from other parts of the world, including in the USA and Canada where your backers live.

REPLACING PETROLEUM WITH ONE OF EARTH’S FASTEST GROWING ORGANISMS:
Add good between harvests and algae.
"BLOOM™ harvests good algae from harmful algae blooms in natural waterways."
A word so simple can cause someone's interest to spike.

Natural Rice Rubber:
For those with latex allergies, if every shoe has latex, you should note that in the beginning of the page and also in an FAQ.

Available Colors:

These three images should be side by side and replace the photo under About. It allows us to see how the lines and creases are shown in each shoe where the photo under About currently doesn't showcase that. I think some backers may be disappointed if they didn't realize there were creases that weren't shown in a picture.

About SOLE and About United By Blue:
Change Our to Their and We to They. It shouldn't read as each company pasted their bio to the site. It should read as someone who wrote the entire piece, and they wouldn't work at both companies.

Best of luck everyone! Happy to see you back on crowdfunding sites!

Campaign seems nice and is well set-up. I suppose that the placeholders (especially Vimeo Screengrabs) get replaced by some actual content.
Towards the product: I like the reusable tone of it, which also fits very well to my (shallow) understanding of United by Blue. As this is a warm shoe I would want to see something about water resistance. Fabric seems very nice and modern, reminds me of waterproof fabrics used by PeakDesign - have you been in touch with them?
Also, while the rice sole is a nice touch, it does seem pretty thin (quick to wear off?) and slippery. I would have hoped for something replaceable (the sole is the place where abrasion happens). I do get that with Vibram soles.

I like the looks of the shoe and the eco friendliness of the shoe. The level of detail and pictures is perfect to me. I have never bought shoes on the internet without a return policy, so I probably won’t support this. Another thing is that is not EU friendly and I do not support projects that is not EU friendly

Sustainable chukkas and stylish too? Be still my heart. "These are not your (fill in the blank) grandparents/parents chukkas.......... These are YOURS!" Please stress United by Blue campaign as well as Sole - there are many of us that support anything supported by UBB, mention what each company does to preserve our environment........ stress giving back, quality and durability.......... That grey is utterly amazing......... I'm in.........

Your initial impressions of the campaign page. Does it motivate you to continue reading after looking at it for 15 seconds?

The page is nicely structured, but I think you're assuming that visitors will actually read through the entire length of the page in the way some of the more important sections seem to be placed all the way near the end. To me, "The Result" section should be way up top after the intro along with the colors. I want more information about the shoe itself, how well it wears, how comfortable it is, etc. It just seems to jump into the environmental aspects too soon and too in depth.

Media review - do you like the photos and video (going onto the Kickstarter page soon)? Does it convey the shoes and their unique value proposition well?

The photos look OK. As a photographer and product enthusiast, I find that they lack a little "pop." I would like a few larger, clearer pictures of the shoe and the shoe being worn. The pictures now seem to have too much space around the shoes in a lot of the photos, lending them to be too small. In the photos of them being worn, again, I think you lack a few more close up pictures of them being worn. In fact, one of your better pictures of the shoe is at the very very end. I almost missed it.

Typos, grammatical mistakes, or other wording errors.

"Plaited" is not a common word -- you might want to have a better way to describe what those fabric folds are. At first I thought it was a typo and you meant "pleated" but then I looked it up on dictionary.com and I think you're using it correctly, but I still don't really know what it means.

Also, lots of jargon. What are RSL substances? Is EVA foam the foam I have in my Nike's?

Am I supposed to know UBB or SOLE?

How would you define the target customer? Are there multiple segments to consider?

Early adopters of direct to consumer brands like Allbirds -- to this segment, the shoe needs to be comfortable and stylish, and the environmental benefits are nice but secondary. I probably fall into this consumer group. I bought into Allbirds very early on.

Environmentally friendly product enthusiasts <-- this is the current segment the description seems to target with how much verbiage is devoted to the environmental benefits. Honestly, I think this market is relatively small.

What content should be added to the campaign page? What could potentially be removed without losing effect?

More pictures of the shoes. Close up. Different angles. Less animation.

General suggestions to improve the chance of success for the creators.