Company Description
HighlightsEthical Canadian clothier for families.\n\nProblemIt’s hard to find ethical, kid-friendly fashion.Fast fashion has created an industry of waste. Big brands make garments as cheaply and easily as possible resulting in very poor quality, especially in the childrens’ clothing segment. On top of that, the fashion and apparel industry is rife with ethical implications including environmental destruction and unfair labour practices. There have been numerous human rights abuses, scandals, and a general lack of transparency from big brands to make consumers skeptical of the industry. More than ever, consumers are changing their purchasing behaviour based on value-alignment with brands. While everyday people are increasingly cost-conscious, they are also willing to spend more on sustainable and ethical products.When we look at kid-centric clothing brands in particular, while there are several brands that offer high-quality, sustainable, and ethical product, they are rarely created with the child in mind. The materials are often not favoured by many children and can be too structured and rigid, creating a crucial dilemma for parents. Should they purchase clothing that lasts longer and aligns with their ethics or should they buy clothing their children will actually like? SolutionWe fulfill a need for families. We are 'The Kindred Studio' – an ethical Canadian clothier for families. The Kindred Studio was literally and figuratively built around the concept of family. 'Kindred' means family which is appropriate since we're a family-run business with a heart for families of all shapes and sizes. We offer fashionable, conscious clothing for children & adults. All our creations have a carefree, effortless style, designed for diverse needs of Canadian families. We make clothes for all the messes, embraces, games, practices, tantrums, coffee dates, shopping trips, daycare days, playground outings and random experiences of everyday life.All of our products are ethically manufactured in Canada, and fulfilled by our exceptional staff. We focus on quality to answer the needs of everyday people who want durable, comfortable clothing that can keep up with their families and offer value over price. Our customer service is exceptional, leveraging the latest technology and our in-house team to provide personalized solutions.Guided by our core values, all of us at The Kindred Studio look forward to continuing to provide adorable, high-quality clothing for Canadian families. \nProductOur suite of brands meet all the needs of everyday families. The Kindred Studio is our umbrella brand. Since we have grown our offerings we have created brands focused on core areas that our customers have shown a desire for. Segmenting our brand allows us to tailor our messaging to the right customers at the right time. Little & Lively provides high-quality and adorable apparel for infants, toddlers and kids. Our super soft bamboo/cotton is gentle enough for even the most sensitive skin meaning it’s not a fight to get the kids dressed every morning. Our designs are mom-approved and our 2 semi-annual collection launches are awaiting with much anticipation by our fans who are eager to see our latest creations. Dwelling Apparel is our adult apparel brand focusing on much-loved basics and everyday staples using our signature bamboo/cotton knit fabric. Popular items include womens dresses which are maternity and nursing friendly, flattering for all body types and designed with comfort and style in mind. Dwelling also offers womens leggings, joggers and tops. Unisex pullovers and zip-up hoodies are also popular items with both men and women.Pretty Laundry features our incredibly soft bamboo/cotton to create breathable, comfortable and high-quality pajamas and sleep wear for the entire family. \nHow it WorksWe choose to share our entire process with you transparently.We believe everyone can shop ethically and by taking a stand for transparency, we want to show you how it’s possible. We source material from ethical factories, manufacture locally, set narrow price margins, and manage our resources and space efficiently. In short, we’ve found an approach that works.We are proud to say that we have worked with the same knitting mill in China for many years. Our mill supplies us with the beautiful, carefully constructed textiles we need to make our clothing. China is a world leader in producing sustainable fabrics from sources like bamboo, soy, and organic cotton. And our factory doesn’t engage in any of the practices that have marred the reputations of other overseas operations.Our fabrics are then shipped to our local manufacturing facility in Canada. We visit our seamstresses several times a week. Watching our clothing come to life in the hands of passionate makers never gets old.We set modest profit margins in order to fulfill our mission of helping everyday families afford ethical and locally sourced products. It’s worth it. Our low overhead and strategic utilization of every resource and square foot of space help us to do that. Our prices are high enough to be fair, and support our family and partners. But they’re a far cry from the inflated margins you’ll find in many other brands.\nTractionIn 2021, we reached $3.368M in revenue.Since our launch in 2017, we have experienced healthy growth year over year. In 2018, we hit $1M in revenue and In 2021, we achieved $3.368M in annual revenue. We have grown to over 60,000 unique customers and have delivered over 100,000 orders with a 57.3% returning customer rate, skewing higher than the industry average. The average lifetime value of our customers is currently $435 with an average order value of $143.\nCustomersMore than just customers.We have cultivated a highly engaged community of VIPs, fans, brand ambassadors, and resellers. Of our target market, 44% purchase from us 2-3 times a year while 32% purchase from us more than 4 times a year.The combined social community of our brands is made up of 130,000k+ followers on Instagram. Beyond that, we have an established 10,000-member Facebook VIP group and a newly launched team of over 100 Brand Ambassadors. \nBusiness ModelWe have 58% gross margins blended across wholesale, third party and direct-to-consumer.Kindred primarily distributes through direct-to-consumer e-commerce and boutique retail model, accounting for 85% of our revenue. We have over 200 wholesale partners across Canada which account for 12% of our revenue and the remaining 3% come from third-party marketplaces such as Hudson Bay Company, Faire, and Amazon.\nMarketing & SalesWe are poised for growth in our sales channel and marketing expansion.Brand Ambassadors are regular people who love our brand and routinely share our products and promotions on social media in return for discounts and free product. We launched this program in Q2 of 2022 and have already experienced enormous success. We have 100 ambassadors who serve as a megaphone to amplify our messages on increasingly noisy social media platforms. They provide valuable user-generated content that builds trust with consumers and can be leveraged in our paid marketing efforts (as testimonials and positive, first-hand customer reviews).On the sales front, we are in the early stage of having our products available on Amazon.ca and Amazon.com. Funds allow for the engagement of a performance agency to maximize sales potential on this complicated and cluttered platform. Funds would also be used to hire a Head of Wholesale to expand wholesale distribution and a Head of Retail to plan and execute a potential expansion into flagship brick & mortar retail. A significant focus of wholesale efforts will be focused on the U.S. Particularly the Pacific Northwest, California and the Northeast present huge growth potential with dense consumer bases, and healthy household income levels.We also are prepared for continued growth in our e-commerce channel. Funds will be put towards optimizing our marketing spend in key areas for new customer acquisition included SEO, paid and organic SEM and social media marketing. We will use these channels to onboard new customers into our sales funnel and our robust and growing in-house email and SMS marketing channels. These channels have proven incredibly effective revenue generators and a valuable means of customer engagement and retention. Once we acquire customers, we are very good at keeping them (see returning customer rate.) We also intend to explore more earned and organic reach through public relations efforts.\nMarketOnline apparel sales in Canada are expected to reach $14 billion by 2025. Canadians spent $30 Billion on apparel with online apparel sales accounting for $7 Billion in 2021.The global baby apparel market size was USD 62.04 billion in 2019 and is projected to reach USD 82.54 billion by 2027, exhibiting a CAGR of 4.2% during the forecast period. (Fortune Business Insights)The global apparel market size is expected to grow from $551.36 billion in 2021 to $605.4 billion in 2022 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 9.8%. The apparel market is expected to grow to $843.13 billion in 2026 at a CAGR of 8.6%. (The Business Research Company)Apparel, in general, is projected to have significant growth and Baby/Kids apparel is expected to continue to grow, globally. \nCompetitive LandscapeFamily-owned, locally manufactured, with soft and sustainable materials.As an increasing number of consumers are making their purchasing decisions based on values alignment with brands, we can attract to appeal to these shoppers as our business model is built around ethics and sustainability. We can confidently be transparent about our process and form meaningful connections with our customers. Big brands can’t do this. Further, placed alongside other ethical and sustainable family fashion brands, we have a much more broad appeal with bright, expressive colours and adorable prints and graphics. Our seasonal collections are eagerly anticipated and every garment we make is loved by kids and parents alike. Other family-owned and ethical family fashion brands jockey for a high-end or high-fashion shopper and often this leaves everyday families, and especially children behind. Kindred Studio apparel is not only sustainable and durable, it helps kids and families express themselves and feel comfortable during everyday moments and routines. We don’t create clothing that belongs at a high-end fashion photoshoot. We focus on soft materials, durable manufacturing and flattering fits for everyday life. We deliver what our customers actually need and it shows with our industry-leading customer retention and loyalty.Use of FundsWe are raising funds to support expanding our team, connecting with our community and new product development. This round of funding will allow us to hire top talent such as a Head of Retail to explore potential for brick & mortar expansion and a Head of Wholesale to grow our wholesale business, particularly in key growth markets such as the west coast of the United States and the Northeast region. It will also allow us to optimize and increase ad spend to acquire new customers in the aforementioned new markets. This will also require some infrastructure to have proper sales and fulfillment systems in place.Finally, in the increasingly difficult and expensive world of ecommerce marketing, we plan to invest in our knowledge base via specialized agencies, and high-performing creative production to optimize these channels. Historically, our biggest driver for new customer acquisition has been word of mouth. This is an incredibly impactful form of marketing and we continue to leverage our great product quality through more brand ambassadors, brand partnerships with similar brands and PR opportunities. \nFuture GoalsWe have a 12-month plan to integrate and grow.One element of our growth strategy is to introduce retail pop-up shops. We are targeting Vancouver, Victoria, Calgary, Edmonton, and Toronto to start. Month 1-3: Launch 1-3 popup shops while optimizing gross margins, increasing our available liquidity and gaining some marketing quick wins. We also plan to plug into our existing wholesale model as well as hire a head of retail and head of wholesale. Month 3-6: We will continue to scale our marketing with paid media, email/SMS, PR, influencers, etc. while increasing our ambassador network to 1,000 ambassadors. Alongside this, we will unlock new sales channels including Indigo, Target, etc. and optimize our existing channels. Month 6-12: At this time, we will update and optimize our product roadmap as well as our growth plan while we plan for partnerships with large retailers such as Nordstrom, The Bay, Indigo, etcExit Strategies & Industry ComparablesWe’re focused on sustainable growth as we plan for Kindred’s future.There are generally 3 ways in which an investor may realize a return on their investment:Liquidity by a strategic sale of Kindred Studio to another companyKindred Studio makes an application to go public (IPO or similar process)Kindred Studio focuses on growth and distributes dividends to investorsAll three are possible outcomes for the company at this time. We (The Kindred Studio) are focused on growing the brand to provide as much value to our customers as we can. We are open to exploring the option of being acquired by a larger company that shares our values for sustainably sourced and manufactured clothing or making the decision in the future, when it makes financial sense, to offer dividends to our shareholders.Below are the funding paths that other clothing companies have taken.\n\n\n\nWe would love to have you join us as an investor on our mission to become the #1 clothing brand for families in Canada.Thank You!* Offerings on the platform contain forward-looking information. Forward-looking information includes statements that may predict, forecast, indicate or imply future plans, intentions, levels of activity, results, performance or achievements, and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual plans, intentions, activities, results, performance or achievements of the issuer to be materially different from any future plans, intentions, activities, results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking information. There can be no assurance that forward-looking information will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. ** Details of the offering can be found in the offering documents. This communication is for informational purposes only. Investing in crowdfunding and exempt market offerings has significant risk. 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