

Show HN: Seat 14a – A Quirky/Kickstarter for Fashion - nav
http://seat14a.com/learnmore

======
nav
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 )

~~~
run4yourlives
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.

~~~
nicholassmith
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.

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

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joshontheweb
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.

~~~
nav
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.

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kennon
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.

~~~
nav
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.

~~~
startupfounder
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!

~~~
nav
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).

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nicholassmith
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.

~~~
nav
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).

~~~
nicholassmith
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?

~~~
nav
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!)

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nchatterji
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!

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nc
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).

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

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

~~~
nav
For /learnmore or seat14a.com ? Thanks!

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

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danso
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

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

------
boglin
how do i buy the collection?

~~~
nav
Our first collection is up at seat14a.com

