Subscription Men’s Clothing Startup Bombfell Raises $730,000 Seed Round

Hey I'm one of the founders. I don't think that trusting brands is mutually exclusive with customers who aren't extremely knowledgeable - if anything, that's the reason brands exist: as a signal for customers who don't have much of their own "information" to rely on.

Many of our customers actually really enjoy discovering new brands that they wouldn't have found on their own, vs. sticking to the tried and true.

And for guys who already know and value specific name-brand clothes, there's actually another benefit which a lot of guys probably identify with: the ability to get more clothes from that brand's most recent collection without having to go get it yourself.

There's a third category: guys who like mid-level clothing but don't have time to test the fit of different brands. I gave Bombfell my measurements (not bizarre but outside of what you find at Macy's) and they've sent two shirts and two pairs of pants. The first pair of pants didn't fit, but they took my feedback and sent a much better-fitting pair for no extra cost. I could "defect" and buy the same brands elsewhere, but it would cost more than $69.

Given the choice to sell brand name goods at brand name prices, vs selling off brand goods at off brand prices, there's a lot more profit in premium brand products.

Of course it would be even more profitable if you could sell off brand goods at premium brand prices - but would such an offering attract enough customers to make much money?

I'm who this service is made for. Typically when I find a place, i'll stay loyal to them for a while. The right place has to have these 3 qualities. First, the price has to be a good value. I don't want to pay a lot for something that will last a short time. I wear cloths until i can't. Second, there has to be at least one employee there that is willing to help me find something. I can't pick cloths out, I need a guy/girl willing to say "this is not a good shirt for you". and the 3rd is the universal, the cloths need to be close to my style, which I would describe as business casual. I'm probably going to start with the essential, but i might sample the "luxury" level first. If it proves fruitful, perhaps i'll stay with it.

> On the one hand, you're targeting guys who feel like they don't know enough about fashion to be able to make good clothing choices themselves -- so they trust an unknown stylist with unknown credentials to make the choice for them.

> On the other hand, you're targeting guys who value premium, name-brand clothes.

I fit both of those categories, and I don't think that I am particularly unusual in that regard. That said, I share similar reservations about a subscription model for clothing as others have voiced here, but I might give it a go.

I really don't care about 'name brands' but they seem to have higher quality clothing. I assume it's classic price discrimination and floor space issues, but I don't see why you can't have a high quality online only brands that don't charge 90$ for a decent pair of pants.

I can only speak for myself, but I just signed up, so I guess I'm part of their market.

I consider myself (or at least, aspire to be) decently fashionable, but I have a lot of anxiety about actually clothes purchasing. The whole subscription + curation model means a) clothes appear without me having to actually make the (for me, very fraught) decision and b) when I think that an item of clothing looks good, I have some corroboration on that from someone who does this for a living.

Hey I'm a founder. We actually just started picking up real Big & Tall sizing within past 2 months. Still gathering data on how B&T fits guys' bodies, but learning a lot.

And don't forget that the larger sizes from vendors vary widely. A Ralph Lauren (black/purple) xl, xlb, xlt, 2xlt and 2xlb fit very different torso shapes and that's just one manufacturer.

Also, monthly auto-clothing deliveries implies a level of replacability for the profitable clothes that would lead me to think they'd look good for a limited amount of time and that quality fabrics and tailoring would be limited. Which then makes me think they're not targeting people with standards and taste so much as people who do not want to think about clothes and that wouldn't be something I'd want to use.

We've intentionally made it super flexible. You can rush or delay your next shipment, choose to skip a month, ask for another pick if you don't like it. Can change frequency to every 2 or 3 months if you'd like too. Can indefinitely put account on pause.

Don't need to be embarrassed or ashamed. I think you'll find there's a marked quality difference at 10x cheaper, just because the economics wouldn't work out if you used higher quality materials and design and sold for 10x cheaper.

You are probably not their target demographic then. :)

Where do you live? I can't imagine how you're buying enough clothes to get through the week. You're spending $50-$150 per year?

Prices at Target.com indicate that I'd have to spend $65 just to replace my socks ($14 for a pack of 10), underwear ($28 for 8 pair), and undershirts ($23 for a pack of 6). And realistically, I'd be looking at another $23 for more undershirts because 6 isn't enough to get through a week. So I'm more than halfway through your maximum yearly budget and don't have any pants or shirts that are actually supposed to be seen. Granted, these things might not be fully replaced every year, but these are also just basics.

Also, how are you affording shoes? Even just one pair per year would eat up half of your max budget. Cheaper shoes can be found, but I find them so non-durable that it more than offsets the savings.

I don't think you should be embarrassed. If you can buy all your clothes for that price and not look homeless, good for you. I just don't know how you could manage it.

We do send multiple items per month on user request. Just email us at bombsquad[at]bombfell[dot]com after you sign up.

Yea we definitely want to offer clothing at reasonable prices. We're bringing web technology to the traditionally offline/manual process of personal styling so that we don't have to charge exorbitantly high prices to turn a profit. More automated, less 1:1 back-and-forth, but still with fantastic customer service.

Sorry for the delay - international shipping is NOT pretty. Particularly when you want to enable cost-effective, painless returns.

Aw I wish I'd read your comment before getting to the shipping address stage. Can I sign up somewhere and have you notify me when you come to Australia?

That's on the roadmap. We didn't start out with that because you run into the Kozmo.com problem (lots of human-powered service for a few bucks). We still have to make enough margin to clothe and feed the stylists making your picks :)

No it's not one-size-fits-all, every pick is personalized literally to you. We also keep track of friends through the invite codes to prevent #twinning.

I had that request to the team. I hear it's coming soon.

Everyone get's something different - it's highly personalized picks, and the stylists work with through. Last month I sent back 3 pairs of pants till I finally got the one pair I loved. Shameless Invite Link: http://bombfell.com/?rc=3075PuHAG

1. If there's three people in my office all with subscriptions, do we all show up in identical shirts on delivery day?

2. My online clothes purchases have sometimes had poor fit. How good have you found it?

3. How much input do you get into what you actually receive? Let's say I have enough jeans already - can I opt out of getting more jeans?

Are you using any extensions? I'm using Chrome on OSX and not able to replicate that.

We love the Manpacks team! Lots of respect for the trailblazing they did.

Sorry! Are you by chance located abroad?

Undetermined - int'l shipping logistics are a Gordian Knot!