As most of you know, part of sharing our journey with the world has been sharing things as they come -- no censor, no security, no sure-things.  So we’ve shared what’s gone right, and we’ve also shared what’s gone wrong.

Lately, a lot has been going right -- the launch of our new site, a window display for Create Denver, and successful planning for our summer tour.

But this weekend, we got some bad news. Our sew shop is taking longer than originally estimated. It’s taking them about 20 minutes to make each Versalette, and they’ve had to add two more employees to the line. They’ve suggested sending us smaller shipments by color, with everything to be completed in the last half of June and the first half of July.

We’ve been given estimations before -- and passed them along to you -- and yet, we are all still waiting. But because they have actually started the process of cutting fabric, prepping, and sewing for test times, we do believe that this is going to be our final date of completion.

We share every bit of news -- that’s our ‘thing.’ Maybe sometimes we shouldn’t. Maybe we shouldn’t have sent out estimations or opened pre-sales. Maybe we should have looked for a different sew shop a long time ago. Maybe we should have waited to Kickstart until we were further along in the production process --but as anyone in the entreprenerial world advises, we opted to just do it. Take the leap of faith. And figure out the details later.  

Coulda, shoulda, woulda. We made the best decisions we could at these times, with the information that was available to us.

This is what a new business looks like -- trials, successes, errors, an insane learning curve -- and we have chosen to live that experience in a ‘public’ way through our writing. So while this is a tough post to write, the most important thing for us is to keep everyone up-to-date and to share the things that are happening in real-time, just like we’ve always done.

We’ll be sending out an e-mail to all Kickstarter backers and pre-sales buyers to make sure no one is waiting by their mailbox ; )

At the end of the day, we are all still supporting a process we believe in. Despite ongoing setbacks, we know this makes a difference -- and that’s what it’s all about. {r}

We waited to blog this week, because we wanted to give everyone a really solid update on production and to let you all know when these Versalettes will be arriving on doorsteps.
 
We waited. And waited. A week (and a lot of unanswered phone calls) later, we still don’t have our finish date.
 
We feel awful about our complete underestimation. Things stacked up, one on top of another, and here we are in May without Versalettes for the people who have supported us the most.
 
We had no idea what, or who, we were dealing with. This isn’t an industry that plays by any set of rules (that we can tell), and we’ve had a hell of a time maneuvering the roadblocks and keeping our sanity at the same time.
 
First, it was our organic cotton drawstrings on backorder. Then it was the care labels. And now, we’re waiting for the sewing factory to fit us in (sewing only takes a week).
 
It’s the kind of thing that makes us so crazy that we just can’t stand it. Until we get on Skype and laugh about it (because otherwise we might cry) and take deep breaths and remind ourselves to eat and drink water. And to tell each other that it will all be okay.
 
This is not the end. It’s late… really late. But it’s good. And we know it’s good. And if we can keep it together for the next few weeks, we’re gonna make it. And we’ll be better for it.

It’s almost a cruel tease to showcase the awesome things that we have coming up, while what people really want to know is, “When am I going to get my Versalette?”
 
But this is some of what we’ve been working on this week, between calls to the sew shop.

http://issuu.com/revapparel/docs/the_versalette_lookbook/32

We’ll be letting you all know as SOON as we know our delivery date. We can’t say thanks enough to everyone who has been so understanding, super patient, and simply awesome — as we go through this crazy process for the first time.
 
We’ve said it before but we’ll say it again, we love you guys for believing in us, and for giving us the opportunity to do something that matters. {r}

{Note: This is a blog post from April 10th. We realized that not everyone has been kept up-to-date via the blog, so we thought we'd re-post it here. For a lot of you, this will be repeat information. But for the rest, this is what has been going on in March/April!}

A lot has been going on at {r} — Kristin has been in Austin (minus a weekend) since the beginning of March, and we’ve been in full-on overdrive.  

On the production side of things, we’re still playing the waiting game but it’s getting closer and closer every day. We’ve sent our final round of edits to our sewer and had three of our four samples in our hands last Wednesday.  

With a few tweaks, we’ll be in production in the next few weeks!  

On Friday, we did a photoshoot for our new lookbook. Six models, the Versalette, a dog, a picnic and lots of beer. It was a stressful day (we found out that morning that the green Versalette sample was never put in the mail), but we made adjustments and the photos turned out awesome.  

Coordinating so many models, so many props, and a set that we were technically trespassing on, it was an achievement to pull everything off. We finished up the “How-to-Wear” photos and video in the studio on Saturday and that was a wrap! (Until we get our hands on the green sample next week…)  

On Sunday, we labeled all 800+ Kickstarter rewards with addresses and return labels, and organized them into color piles where they wait to be stuffed with Versalettes, original prints and t-shirts.  

Last up, we officially hired interns for our summer tour! We’ll have more about Steve and Alice in the next couple weeks, but we’re so excited to have them on board. We got lucky with the pool of talent and these two are the cream of the crop!  

We’re chomping at the bit to get these rewards to our Kickstarter backers, and we know how excited all of you are. The next two weeks will be the last chance for address changes, because fingers crossed, we’ll be shipping in the next few weeks. Thanks for your patience, guys!  

Keep an eye out for our brand new website launching soon and more details on our sustainable fashion tour! {r}

If you want to see more of the production process, check out our photo album on Facebook here.

March is coming to an end, and we’re still in the the thick of production. Things are moving along — a few weeks slower than expected — and we wanted to give you guys a peek into the process and what’s happening on our end.  

Our fabric and buttons are at the cut ‘n sew shop in North Carolina, ready to be sewn. The hold up right now is in the details — the drawstrings, labels, and care instructions. 

Julie is in charge of hand-dyeing our drawstrings with fiberactive dyes. We ordered the drawstrings (GOTS organic-certified cotton from Turkey, manufactured in the USA) back in early January, but demand for them is insanely high right now. We’ve been getting a few spools at a time, and are waiting for our last batch to come through. Luckily, Julie is rolling with the punches (along with us!) and we’re slowly dyeing everything in small batches.

Another detail is our labels. Tracy from The Dancing Needle in Austin is embroidering a small {r} onto organic cotton fabric for us, that will be sewn onto a corner of the Versalette. We’re expecting those to be finished in the coming week!

The printing for our heat transfer labels (done in the USA) takes a few weeks, and we haven’t been given an end date for those yet.
 
We’re trying to wrap everything up and push the process along as best we can, but the biggest thing we’ve learned is that this simply takes time. We’re constantly at the mercy of others which is incredibly difficult (because we are the type of people who always want to deliver on time, and never want to disappoint).
 
But, we’re learning to roll with the good and the bad, and keep with our beliefs that the wait is worth it.
 
So that’s where we stand — we’ll be shipping out our Kickstarter Versalettes (and pre-orders!) as soon as humanly possible! We are so, incredibly apologetic for the delay — and hope that all of our backers understand that we’re absolutely doing our best.
 
We also wanted to compile a “FAQ” for some of the questions we’ve been getting lately!   

Frequently Asked Questions

When will Versalettes for Kickstarter Backers and pre-orders be shipped out?  

It’s looking like production will be finished towards the end of April. We plan to keep everyone posted via blog as the process comes together!  

When will you be offering new colors?  

We’re going to be working on our new color profile in May, so we’re hoping to have those out in very late summer or early fall. We can only choose a few colors, so we’re going to get opinions before we make a final choice — please leave us your feedback when we get the options ready!  

Why aren’t you offering plum, black, or neutral in your current color profile?  

In order to offer a variety of colors for our small quantity order, a price we could afford, we had to “piggyback” off of another company’s fabric order — so we were at the mercy of their color selection. We are working on new colors and want to get a few more earth tones (and black!) in the mix.  

We don’t plan to offer the neutral color shown in the prototype in the future, and we explain our reasoning for that here.  

Where can I order a Versalette?  

We’ve closed our pre-sales as we revamp our entire website and get our “shopping site” prepped. We’ll be opening that up in mid-April, when anyone can put in their order for immediate shipping!  

Will the price of the Versalette go up?  

It will most likely go up a few dollars from the original price offered on Kickstarter ($75). Now that our production cost is more solidified, it’s necessary to adjust things accordingly. Also, shipping will no longer be included — which is standard for most retail purchases.  

How can I stay up-to-date on the process and the official store launch?  

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here for all the latest from the blog!  

Will you send out an email when the Versalettes are shipped?  

Nope! We’ll keep everyone updated through the blog, so check back (or subscribe to our weekly newsletter) for shipping announcements!

In small, sleepy, North Carolina towns, there is a revitalization happening. The textile industry, albeit very, very slowly, is coming back to life. It’s the land of “made in the USA” — and it’s where our Versalette, from fiber to garment, is being created.

We went to Charlotte last week to see the process happen. Within a 200-mile radius, the yarn is spun, then knitted, and finally, the fabric goes to a sewing factory where it becomes a Versalette.

  We filmed our trip, and interviewed people who intimately know each step of the process:

• The knitters, who have been developing recycled fabrics for almost 10 years.
• The cut-and-sew “queen,” who has an engineering background and a love for logistics.
• Our private-label contact, Patrick, who has been working to bring jobs back to America (with an intense passion).
• And Julie, the woman who will be hand-dyeing our drawstrings with compostable dyes.
  

We’ll be writing about this trip often — it raised so many questions about sustainability, what’s “right,” American jobs, and how we fit into the bigger picture.
 
But the biggest question — for now — is production.
 
There are so many pieces to the puzzle that have to come together perfectly to pull this off. Since we’re doing it all for the first time, it makes each step a little bit more complex, and a bit more uncertain. We thought we gave ourselves enough of a buffer, but (as we should have expected!) are now working down to the wire to ship out Versalettes by the end of March.
 
And (of course) we’ve been freaking out a little bit. Okay… a lot. We don’t want to disappoint, and we always want to be the people who do things when they say they’re going to do them.
 
But every single person we met in North Carolina assured us, this is normal. What you’re feeling is normal, and the fact that it’s taking so long is normal. Welcome to manufacturing!
 
We’re waiting for a few more things to come together before sewing can begin. We know it’s worth the wait — we could have shipped nylon drawstrings from Bangladesh quicker than it’s taking for our organic cotton drawstrings to be manufactured (in the USA), and then hand-dyed with fiberactive dyes.
 
And we could have printed our labels, instead of having one woman embroider them on organic twill tape. It’s these little things that make a big difference in both jobs and sustainability — but they take time.
 
It’s a huge process, and of course we want to keep you posted. We hope you think it’s worth the wait, too. {r}

**NOTE TO OUR BACKERS** 

• Prints will be shipped out early next week! $20 Backers, keep an eye out for those.

• Women’s t-shirts will be shipped at the beginning of next week, too, for those of you who pledged $30 or $50. 

• Men’s t-shirts will be shipped as soon as we get them in from our supplier. They’re finishing the navy recycled fabric as we speak, so after they’re sewn and printed, we’ll get those to you. We’re so, so appreciative of your patience!

Here are a few photos from our visit!