A Gold Coast business has seen early success in a crowdsourcing campaign to take their footwear innovation global.
Supported by a popular web video promising “no more blowouts” in thongs and Ironwoman champion Courtney Hancock as a brand ambassador, Willi Footwear raised $10,000 in the first hour of their Indiegogo campaign.
Fairfax reports that the four-year-old company has been selling regular thongs, but have created a unique new “boomerang” plug design to stop their footwear from coming apart unexpectedly (referred to by the slang term "blowout").
The company bought the concept from Justin Vianello and James Folwell, who continue to be involved in the project. According to the campaign page, the design has been patented in several countries.
“Our new, patented boomerang strap creates a larger surface area that makes sure the straps don’t pull through: no more blowouts!” claims the company.
At the time of writing Willi’s campaign has reached $17,228 of its $30,000 goal. The money will go towards paying for the patents, moulds and labour to make the footwear.
The thongs will be made in China and, according to the promotional video, will be sold initially in Australia and the United States.
It hopes to take on the popular Brazilian company Havaianas, which celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2012 and is owned by Alpargatas.
According to Alpargatas, “In 2007, 173 million pairs of Havaianas were sold. 47,.973 pairs/day, 19,749 pairs/hour, 330 pairs/minute, 6 pairs/second.”
Image: Mashable