

Subscription Men’s Clothing Startup Bombfell Raises $730,000 Seed Round - swohns
http://techcrunch.com/2013/02/13/bombfell-730/

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jawns
Here's what I don't understand about this business model.

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 would think that if you're in category one, you wouldn't know enough to have
strong brand preferences, and if you're in category two, you know enough that
putting everything in the hands of a stylist would be uncomfortable for you.

~~~
swalsh
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.

~~~
bernieyoo
Welcome aboard! Let me know if you have any questions or requests any time.
bernie[at]bombfell[dot]com

~~~
jekub
Just one request: please accept delivery to Europe (at least France) even with
some shipping cost and I will join immediately.

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MisterBastahrd
Just like most of these services, they claim big and tall sizing and then
utterly fail at it.

Biggest size? 2x. I haven't been able to comfortably fit into a 2x shirt since
my freshman year of high school. My shoulders prohibit that, and even if they
didn't, a non-tall shirt is not going to be of use to anyone over 6'3".

~~~
cdibona
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.

~~~
bernieyoo
Respectfully disagree, our goal is to establish a lifetime relationship with
our customers, not churn-and-burn them out within first 3 months. If we sent
clothes that fell apart people would stop using us.

We want users to come back to us for their wardrobe needs whenever they find
they need them. That's why we built the product to be flexible, so you can
schedule your next shipment when you want, or even pause indefinitely.

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oftenwrong
How many people really need new clothing every month? It seems like
subscribers would eventually have all the clothing they need (or more), and
then they would no longer need the service. Is there a way to suspend the
service, or slow the rate of deliveries? Maybe a way to do a one-time order
instead of a subscription?

~~~
bernieyoo
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.

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zolihonig
That's awesome. Congrats guys! Been a happy bombfell customer for 7 months and
absolutely LOVE it.

Signup here: <http://bombfell.com/?rc=3075PuHAG>

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jonschwartz
I was part of the beta trial and I consider the Bombfell team my friends (even
if we've never actually met). This service has changed the way I dress. To
address what @jawns was saying, I was one of those who didn't care about
brands and also made questionable fashion decisions. If you're willing to give
Bombfell a try, they will change your mind about quality brands. They make you
look good and will work with you till you're happy with your selection. These
guys are awesome and I wish them 1000% success!

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tocomment
$69/month is about 10x my clothing budget! Should I be embarrassed? Ashamed?
Is this a sign I'm not dressing well :-(

(I go out once every other year and spend 100-300 on new clothes)

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dpark
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.

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kadjar
I was way excited for this, but was a little disappointed as I went through
the signup process.

I'm not terribly fashion-savvy, and I don't know how to pair things. If there
were an 'outfit' option where you could receive a pair of pants / shorts and a
fitting top for about $150 / month, I would sign up, and many of my friends
would too.

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

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jordanlev
Looks similar to TrunkClub ( <http://www.trunkclub.com/> ), which I saw on HN
a couple of months ago. But with cheaper prices. (And hopefully better service
-- the TrunkClub advisor I talked to missed an appointment, was
confrontational, and didn't seem to listen well).

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bernieyoo
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.

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adcoelho
I really hate it when I see an awesome service that I would like to try and
then realize that it only works in the US.

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mctx
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?

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bernieyoo
Yes! Email me bernie[at]bombfell[dot]com and I'll save your email to the
notify list for Down Undah.

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crucio
What's the reasoning behind not offering other bits of clothing like socks and
boxers?

Also, do you get huge shipments of the exact same garments, or do you try to
keep the offerings unique so friends don't end up getting the same clothes
each month?

~~~
bernieyoo
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.

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JimEngland
I've been using Bombfell since the summer and absolutely love it. If you have
any questions on how it works, I'll try my best to answer them.

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michaelt
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?

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JimEngland
1\. Four of my friends have subscriptions, the only items we have all received
were a pair of dark jeans.

2\. The fit has been excellent for me. I am a slim build between small and
medium so I get shirts in both sizes. They know their brands and how they run.

3\. They have a settings page with on/off switches that let you opt in or out
of all clothing items. You can even send the stylists pictures of clothing you
already have and ask them to find something that matches.

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burningion
Page keeps crashing in Chrome on OSX after clicking get started. I get through
about 4 steps and the page crashes the Chrome window.

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

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bswinnerton
All around pretty awesome service. Good for them.

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shawnc
Seems there could be a mutual benefit of cross promotion between Bombfell and
Manpacks.

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

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Tyr42
I wish you guys had metric. I don't know how tall I am in feet.

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bernieyoo
Sorry! Are you by chance located abroad?

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bernieyoo
And by abroad I mean "not US." Sorry, ignorant American here :)

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Tyr42
Just north of the border.

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bernieyoo
Ooh ok, not yet available up North - hoping to be there by summer.

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koomerang
When you folks hitting the UK? You guys rock!

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

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kaybe
Have you looked into buying in the UK or maybe setting up a deal with a
supplier there?

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bernieyoo
Not yet - still iterations on the service we want to push through before
expanding to UK.

~~~
saukrates
Any thoughts on service to Canada?

