About this project
$22,369
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Press:
CrunchWear "LUM Shirts Light Up With Whatever Your Mind Can Think Up"
TrendHunter "LUM Apparel Lets You Design Glow in the Dark Clothing"
GET ALL FOUR COLORS IN THE $110 REWARD:
STRETCH GOALS UNLOCKED!
LÜM AQUA EDITION
Since we have hit our goal of 10K we wanted to unlock a new reward to stretch the goal! All these new rewards come with a UV laser included in the package. This is a new color we call Aqua which glows a vibrant turquoise blue. Please note that this shirt does not have the photo impression capability and is not reactive to standard LEDS. This is due to the fact that the ink in the shirt is made of rare earth elements that have different chemical properties. Grab the earlier birds before they are all gone!
Stretch Goal- Midnight Blue Edition
Stretch Goal-Citrus Edition
What LÜM can do for you:
We've optimized our shirts design to work with a variety of activities ranging from concerts, raves, night clubs or any unique experience. We wanted LÜM to allow its users to stand out and literally glow with radiance. No longer are you limited to the monotony of a single design, experience LÜM 's infinite canvas.
Watch DJ John Beaver Rockin' One of Our First Prototypes! :
What you can do with LÜM:
1) Draw: Take the light from your smartphone, laser or a LED, press it up against the shirt, and let your creativity take over.
2) Photo Impression: Simply take any photo from your smartphone or tablet, place it on your shirt for 3-6 seconds, remove and bask in the awe of the picture's radiance.
3) Shadow Print: Place any object on your shirt, swipe the light over the object for roughly 5-7 seconds, remove the object and admire the shadow's art.
4) Erase: Messed up a design? Hold the light roughly 3 inches away, briefly swipe back and forth across the shirt and then just redraw.
5) Washable and Water Durable: The shirt cold water washable, and feel free to dive into the pool for a glistening evening swim.
MADE IN USA
We believe in manufacturing in the USA. We've based everything from prototyping to production for LÜM in America.
How long does the glow last? Why should that matter to us and to you?
At LÜM we believe in honesty and making sure our customers can trust us. The glow from the LÜM shirt stands out for 5 minutes; this is when visibility is at its highest. However, the glow will not fully fade for about 15 minutes. While designing the shirt, we chose these intervals to optimize a balancing act. Long enough to witness the artwork, but short enough to keep creating. The best part of our shirt is the ability to continue drawing on it! We are all about having an interactive experience. We promise LÜM will put those around you in awe from what you will show them. We hate deceptive advertising with a passion and HIGHLY encourage you to ask us any question you have about the product. We believe in the integrity of our business and won't give you any puffery.
The Manufacturing and Development Process:
Prototype Number One:
For our very first prototype, we took paint brushes and painted phosphoric ink on the shirt. The glow wasn't distributed evenly and didn't last very long.
Prototype Number Two:
For our second prototype, we repeated the process with a different ink. Once we were done; however, we heated the shirt with a blowdryer to finalize the process. Unfortunately, every time we tried to wash the shirt, the ink also faded away.
In the third development stage, Harry and I first optimized the ink to be more reactive to the LED's found in your smartphone flash.
To do this, we messed around with the ratio of glow ink, which contains phosphoric chemical elements, and color ink. The glowing chemicals are composed of strontium aluminate, phosphorus, and micro amounts of odorless sulfide.
Most traditional glowing shirts are reactive only with UV lights; however, we designed ours to be reactive even with an LED. After getting down the right recipe, we had to figure out if the ink would work for screen printing.
At first, the ink would wash off, so we decided to use a formula that incorporated a heavier acrylic base. The chemicals would become embedded in the paint and would be sustainable through washing. This worked like magic, but the trouble wasn't over.
After we made the ink, the application of it to the shirt was the next step. The paint was loaded into a printing machine that presses a screen to the shirt, and lets the paint seep through the mesh. The paint was blotchy and wasn't meeting our standard of quality. We had to move to bigger screen mesh because our paint was a little thicker than normal.
After the design was pressing properly, in accordance to our standard, the drying process was the next issue that we tackled. Because the paint was thicker, it had to be dried twice at an increased of 30º fahrenheit.
Production and Post Project Success:
The plan is very simple, and we need your help.
Currently, to produce one LÜM tank, it costs us $71; however, with your pledge, we can offer you our American made tank for $29. Our manufacturer can make hundreds of shirts per day.
This is where your pledges come into play: We have to surpass our goal of $10,000. This brings down production costs, and allows us to economically make the shirts in the USA.
Sizes and Delivery
After taking an email survey of all the sizes, we will place an order for our blank shirts. When the shipment has arrived, we will simply input the order to our production manager and wait for printing to be completed. After that you can expect your LÜM shirt to be in the mail through standard shipping. Check the Risks and Challenges sections for more details.
Stretch Goals!
If the project is to become widely successful, we may add stretch goals which would bring different glowing colors to LÜM such as red, blue, purple, and aqua turquoise. If we do plan to do this, we will most definitely update our development process and let you guys know how its all done. More surveys will be sent out but until then, stay tuned!
Is the LOGO final?
We would like all our Kickstarter backers to help us choose the final logo, which we will trademark! After the project ends we will allow everyone to submit their ideas and then we will hold a vote for most popular design. Stay tuned for more details!
The Future of LÜM! Please Read!
We foresee a wave of clothing that participates in the generation of wearable technology coming our way. Starting with LÜM, we hope to bring you some of the most innovative products you can imagine. We need your support to help get our company recognition and funding for future research and development. For the next generation of our product line, we aspire to bring fiber-optic threading and a multitude of integrated technologies to apparel. We just need the capital to go back into the lab and start tinkering around. With your loyalty and most importantly your faith, we think anything is possible. Thanks for your time!
Contact:
Have Questions? We would love to hear from you! You can also send in your sceen shots to this address! Shoot us an email at: lumapparel@gmail.com.
Risks and challenges
The major challenge we face is the the time it will take to order the blank shirts from out supplier. We never know what the demand for whole sale shirts are and the wait time can take up to 2 weeks. If the project is to be widely successful, it may take more time to get the order from our supplier. Keep in mind our current estimated delivery for August takes this into account already. If we are to hit our original funding goal, there is very high likely hood the shirts will be delivered much early than August. It is also very likely with a larger order of shirts, there will be no wait time. We just wanted to let you know that there is always the possibility it make take an addition couple of weeks! The turn around from when the blank shirt enters the manufacturing phase to when it is finished is a speedy process. With this in mind, we are very certain that we will get LUM to you within our current estimated delivery date, regardless of the quantity of shirts that are ordered.
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