Show HN: Seat 14a – A Quirky/Kickstarter for Fashion | Hacker News Reader

Show HN: Seat 14a – A Quirky/Kickstarter for Fashion

seat14a.com

20 pointsnav26 comments

Hello HN:

Quick overview: We're a group of friends with design, tech and fashion backgrounds that came from all over the world to build Seat14a.com out of New Delhi, India. ( a place that we have fallen in love with btw)

We're still very early ( we just launched our first collection a few days ago), but the premise of the idea is simple. We connect consumers to designers affordably by working directly with designers and our manufacturers to come up with micro-collections (currently only for men). We have the micro-collection up for about 2 weeks or till it's sold out; during which time we provide our distribution partners with real-time analytics ( purchase velocity, geo, etc.) so they can make informed buy decisions.

Few things to note:

- A different designer every 2 weeks (no house look) - Free shipping to anywhere in the world.

We'd love to get your thoughts on our concept and our first collection.

PS: If in Delhi, do get in touch - we'll show you around, chat about fashion + Tech and of course have some chai (not the latte).

Much love,

Nav, Jas, Adi, T-dawg ( founders@seat14a.com )

I like this idea a lot, but seriously - a tweed blazer is your first offering?

Did you A/B test the offering in terms of what your target customer would consider appealing? (I fully realize you may be targeting pretentious hipsters or middle-aged english gentlemen of course. :)

I'd also suggest maybe an "outfit" (shirt, pants, jacket/shoes, etc) instead of just an item too... no idea if that would result in better conversion, though.

At any rate, best of luck to you... I like the direction you are going.

Thanks! Actually since winter is going (opo GOT ;) ... we decided to go with one warmer look, ended up going with the tweed blazer. Our next look is totally different and in-fact is an ensemble with pants; if you signed up you should be notified soon ( collection 1 is selling out so expect that one next week). Future collections should be more complete from an ensemble perspective - we just have to balance cost/price and value in these early stages.

Actually, tweed blazers are bang on trend as we say in England these days. They've been sported by numerous celebrities and fall squarely under the still popular Hoxton farmer look. Fashion man, it's an odd beast.

Thanks Nicholas! We will be playing around with some finer tweeds in future collections. Stay tuned!

Be warned, I tried Seat 14a the first time the showed up on HN and was pretty disappointed. When I opened the box it smelled like some strange oil or plastic chemicals. The scarfs were on par with something you would buy at a .99 cent store. They also promised to show you a picture of the 'ensemble' they made for you before shipping, but only described it in text. To be fair, it does look like they are trying to up the quality this time around.

Josh; Assuming this is the curated model we were trying earlier this year? We weren't happy with that model, since stylist were curating the products that were being sent out. The model now is totally different ( I hate using the word ... but yes, we have pivoted). Now we are working with designers and manufacturing everything ourselves ... email me at nav[at]seat14a.com and more than happy to hook you up.

Just curious what you do with returned inventory? I adhere to particular brands because I more or less know general quality and more importantly, I know how the clothes will fit. With a new designer each week, suddenly variance becomes a serious issue. Big retailers can absorb the inventory, but what will you do with out-of-date items?

In any case, i like the idea and hope it works out. I buy clothing online pretty frequently (most stores dont carry my size) and it's nice to see the industry evolving.

We will be baking in a detailed sizing chart soon. The chart will also have the closest analogy interms of fitting wrt size to a popular brand ( Zara, Armani ..etc). In terms of returned inventory - donations were one of the routes we were thinking.

Where are you manufacturing the pieces? I have a friend that was just in India for a year and they were able to make beautiful custom suits for around the $150 price point.

If you give directions to the buyers on how to measure themselves (or ask them to go to local tailors) you could have the pieces custom made for a fraction of the price of what it would cost in the USA.

I know it adds complexity to the process, but if I had a profile where I could input my measurements, buying would be much easier, would significantly reduce the return rate and increase my satisfaction.

I really like the concept you are going for. Good on ya!

Thanks! We have a handfull of partners right now and are growing the list at present to shoes, leathers ... etc. Yea we will be baking in a detailed sizing graph soon. Right now you can get collection 1 custom tailored for only $50 ( it's an option on the checkout page).

Nice to see a fashion startup targeted for men, who sometimes get overlooked in the fashion stakes.

Some of the website needs a bit of work, the sold out indicator and text, and the purchase button, all feel a bit off. Slightly cheap and naff if I'm being honest.

However, great concept, great idea, I've signed up and I'm looking forward to seeing what you do with it over the coming months.

Thanks! Is there an example of something similar you have seen out there that works (wrt to the indicator, purchase button)? Also we are right now A/B testing with the progress bar colors / buttons (Red, Green, Blue and Black).

Mostly it's rendering, I'm not at a machine at the moment but Ill screenshot why it looked off for me. I'd recommend working on your font choice as well, are you pulling them from somewhere?

Thanks Nick. I'm going to shoot you an email and take this off-thread ... and for the feedback - PS: for your time, more than happy to customize any of the collections for you (on us of course!)

As a side note, which might be better taken to email, where are you getting your garments made? My dad is a tailor so I'm super fussy about quality, so you might want a backup on the website about quality levels.

If you want to chat that privately nick@nicholassmith.me.uk is cool.

Loving the site/concept! Like the new pivot (hate the word too!) I think it's a subtle yet logical move based on what I've been seeing across markets.

Ordered the Sergio Bonatelli set! Excited and looking forward to rocking it at the Fashion + Tech Conference in SFO soon!

Love the concept. Would like to see something real though. I feel like you'll need a ton of social proof to get this going, buyers would be taking a risk otherwise (on quality, fit etc).

Thanks! You can purchase the first collection at seat14a.com right now. ( also you have the option of having it custom tailored).

Font rendering is HORRIBLE for Firefox stable on OS X. We're talking 360p-blown-up-to-1080p horrible. Otherwise, cool layout.

For /learnmore or seat14a.com ? Thanks!

Actually we decided to redirect the /learnmore to index, was rendering horribly on tablets. Thanks for pointing it out!

I feel the banner-tagline is a bit too understated in its presentation. Having it be where normally the nav-bar is, and in standard body font, makes it seem ancillary, when it's actually the most important piece of information about the startup

We were debating this internally as well. Thinking about changing the background to black and text to white.

how do i buy the collection?

Our first collection is up at seat14a.com

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