Progress for CUUSOO HK 1st project - Kayla Tote

[Nicholas Wang]

Comments on CUUSOO.com's product page is here: http://cuusoo.com/studio/user/080574/0002/comment.html#tabDTI

Early info posted on Facebook group's discussions: http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=76271112277&topic=8990

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After asking around and getting a referal, we brought the sample bag and materials to a tailor shop in Kowloon City today.  Her little shop is stuffed with tailored dresses, fabrics and buttons... she specializes in making clothes, but she is capable of sewing this bag... just that it'll be a little bit more expensive - $350 a piece.

We had a good lengthy talk, although she can sew bags, she would much rather make clothes, as she's more experienced in that.  Most tailors would simply refuse making bags because either they don't know how, or they don't want to bother.  Normally, she would refuse us too, but since we were refered here, she'll help us.  Sewing bags take much more time, and the orders are typically too small so they can't make a living out of it.  That's why that high end handbags repair shop owner said, all the craftmen that used to make handbags in HK are either retired or became security guards!  They simply can't survive!

Yet, if we can successfully introduce CUUSOO to Hong Kong, I believe we can revive that mid-size segment.  These craftsmen can band together and get a constant stream of orders. Although we tried to explain to her how CUUSOO.com works, she couldn't grasp the idea.  This had me thinking, because CUUSOO is a new business model, it's probably best if we can have some visual cues to help people understand.

Luckily, we have an illustrator, Peggy, who can draw for us.  Kohei had suggested that perhaps Peggy could draw a comic strip to explain CUUSOO.com.  I think this will really help!  We actually need a few comic strips - one for each user group (customers / designers / manufacturers).  Charlotte, who came to our first CUUSOO HK meeting, has been helping me a lot and we'll have a group chat with Peggy soon (she's in the US for school right now).  I'll announce the time and access method here later.

Really happy to have found this tailor... too bad it's probably too late for Kohei's trip to Fast Company's event in NYC.

Peace,

-Nick

[John Jonas Liu]

Comic strip is a great idea.
It really helps.
And yes, cuusoo can bring back some of the craftsmanship back to HK!

[koheinishiyama]

Nick, Thank you for all of your efforts in trying to bring us
together.

Finding a manufacture is always a big challenge.

Please take a look at this gauze coat community at cuusoo

https://www.cuusoo.com/studio/user/023168/0006/comment.html#tabDTI

In this community, my Japanese designer friends were going to ask
taylor to make a sample,
but it turned out to be expensive ( $350) per coat. She went to ask
her friend who works as professional patterner to make a sample and it
turned out that not only the design quality of the product went up,
the cost of making the sample went down.

I think the implication is that until we get the final specification
of the product, we should keep the circle as small as possible. If
Quennie or one of her friend can make a pattern and sample, I think
that should be the next step.

[Nicholas Wang]

Briefly read the comments on the gauze coast's community.  It's true we're facing some similar, common problems.

Everyone, here's the Google translated version in English - http://translate.google.com/translate?js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.cuusoo.com%2Fstudio%2Fuser%2F023168%2F0006%2Fcommentall.html%23tabDTI&sl=ja&tl=en&history_state0=

-Nick

2009/6/8 koheinishiyama <koheini...@gmail.com>

[Nicholas Wang]

I gotta say... it was very entertaining reading the Google translated English version of that page!

"I'm always so late in coming back into the master bath with two one-year-old children"

LOL... totally out of context from the original!!  orz

Anyways... (gotta stop laughing) Yesterday, we went to a friend's family business - a baby clothing factory that somehow survived in Hong Kong till now.  They're closing their business, yesterday was their last day, and my wife wanted to see if she could buy a couple of industrial sewing machines from them.  (My wife has fashion and accessories design background, and she loves her sewing machines :P )  So, may be she can sew her own samples in the near future.

I spoke with the owner about creating this brand new business system in HK... she's real business like and shot back at me "So what exactly is the problem you're facing now?" :D  Guess I was too long winded.  To her, what we're doing is small business... she said perhaps some of her staff can take small orders from home, but they don't have industrial sewing machines at home so it'll be hard.  She is interested in helping out us "younger generation" to help us "get on our feet", so to speak.  So, I can contact her in the future if we need help with tailors or equipments.

I'm also starting to think, as we begin to grow bigger, may be there's a new role that will emerge here in for CUUSOO HK, and that's a person who has connections with a few different factories in HK or in China, who can act as a middle person to get orders from CUUSOO and work with the manufacturers in China.

-Nick

[Peggy]

Nick,

It's good to know that we're having progress in the sample bag of
CUUSOO! :D I know it must be very hard to find manufacturers and stuff
but as the saying goes, "Every beginning is hard". Actually I know a
friend who has experience going to the mainland China to produce
various stuff, including bags, I'll see if he can provide me some
information (I won't let him know about what we're going on yet).

And I'm looking forward to discussing with you guys further later
on! :D

Cheers,
Peggy

[Peggy]

Hi again,

I've asked my friend, his company has been working with mainland
manufacturers for a year or two. He told me that a sample bag would
cost around a thousand something for a factory to make, and that
amount means inexpensive already.

For mass production, they need at least 500 pieces, and I'll PM you
for the phone no. of the contact person if you're interested. I've
seen them and touched them before, the quality is quite good. You may
go to any Citistore to see the real products of CatDogForever (http://
www.catdogforever.com/chi/index.php).

Peggy

[Nicholas Wang]

OMG!  Super cute!!  The website is very cute but not very user friendly... ... but very CUTE! :D

That's definitely above our price range during a wish's inception & design period.

Peggy, we need to set a time to have a group chat about drawing some comics.  When is a good time for you over there?

-Nick

2009/6/9 Peggy <love...@gmail.com>

[charlotte chan]

Hi Nick & Peggy,

Please let me know what time will be the best for you all to have the discussion. I am ok towards to the
end of this week, or Sat or Sun.

Or msn group discussion can be fine for me too. You can add me at cha...@hotmail.com

Thanks
Charlotte

[Peggy Chu]

Yup, and I especially like the website because the theme's in Hong
Kong and yes you heard me, I love Hong Kong! XD

Charlotte, I'm ok every day from 2 pm till night (Hong Kong time). We
can also do a Skype chat if you want. :) My Skype name is: lovelypai

My msn account is: love...@hotmail.com

Peg

On Jun 9, 1:51 am, Nicholas Wang <clone.of.sn...@gmail.com> wrote:
> OMG!  Super cute!!  The website is very cute but not very user friendly...
> ... but very CUTE! :D
>
> That's definitely above our price range during a wish's inception & design
> period.
>
> Peggy, we need to set a time to have a group chat about drawing some
> comics.  When is a good time for you over there?
>
> -Nick
>

> 2009/6/9 Peggy <lovely...@gmail.com>

>
>
>
>
>
> > Hi again,
>
> > I've asked my friend, his company has been working with mainland
> > manufacturers for a year or two. He told me that a sample bag would
> > cost around a thousand something for a factory to make, and that
> > amount means inexpensive already.
>
> > For mass production, they need at least 500 pieces, and I'll PM you
> > for the phone no. of the contact person if you're interested. I've
> > seen them and touched them before, the quality is quite good. You may
> > go to any Citistore to see the real products of CatDogForever (http://
> >www.catdogforever.com/chi/index.php).
>

> > Peggy- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

[Shelley]

Hi all,

Nick, if you're still looking for a manufacture for a small quantity,
i have an idea. I came across a shop who makes 'red-white-blue",
called Lee Wah in Sham Shui Po. He makes bags in small qty and also
tailor-make items for customers. I don't know how much; probably can
find out. Perhaps you can give me a bit more details the type of
materials and size... and qty so far...

Shelley
p.s. Question aside, Peggy, is your friend the person behind
CatDogForever? I've seen it in LCX, quite nice & cute -.-

[Queenie Poon]

Hi Shelley,

Thanks for your help. Let me give you some info. We do need to find
a person who will make the bag faster and more reliable. We found this
woman at Kowloon City and she has too many projects on her hand. I
gave her the bag a week ago and she still hasn't finish it. I also
found some retired sewing ladies who will willing to take this order.
Just that I want this "kowloon city" lady finish this bag and so I can
use this bag as an example.

The bag material is 16oz natural canvas and size is 320mm/460mm/320mm
and we have 5 orders.


It's very easy to find tailor to make clothes, but not handbags. This
is the 1st challenge. The 2nd challenge I know we will be facing is
that sewing problem. Some ppl already reject our bags because they
think the bags are too thick to sew and secondly there are 3 snap
buttons. They have to put the snap buttons on the canvas and also
have to sewing around, normal sewing machine can't do it because the
base problem. They need a special machine that doesn't have a base.
I will post the pics later so you know what I am talking about.

Queenie

[Nicholas Wang]

Pic of snap buttons

[charlotte chan]

Hi Queenie,

 

This is Charlotte and Nick has been informing me and other CUUSOO members about the bag progress.

A friend of mine knows a people who is in bag business and she knows a bag maker and has the

contact information. The thing is that bag maker is in China. The unit price of making a bag is about

a hundred something HK dollars, which is told by my friend.

 

 I understand there might be risk of the design idea being stolen and have to deal with them with extra caution.

 My friend also agreed with that. If you are interested, please let me know, maybe we can meet with

 the bag maker together to see how it turns out.

 

The manufacture Shelly knows is also a good try.

 

Thanks

Charlotte

2009/6/16 Queenie Poon <queen...@gmail.com>

[Queenie Poon]

Hi Charlotte,

Thanks for your help! I asked Nick to do the writing about the bag
making, but he's not a designer, so may be there are things that he
didn't explain very well. Here's exactly what happened:

I know at least 3 manufactures in HK, all these factories deal with
orders of 1000+ at the min, so when we are just making 5 orders, I
knew they will reject my project.

I was glad one of my friends who owns a handbag manufacturing biz in
China was willing to help me get started. But, the quantity that I
want was just too small and she could only accept these 5 bags as
samples, not orders. She had to finish most of her client's samples
first before doing mine, I waited for at least about 2-3 weeks to see
my 1st sample. (It only took them 2-3 days to do paper pattern,
source pc goods, cut out the pattern and sew.)

They started working on the rest of the samples after the 1st sample
came out, but after we saw the 1st sample, we decided to make some
changes. Because I didn't want to bother my friend, I asked her to
stop sewing the rest of the samples and send all patterns back to me.

The problem we face was that her factory is not a tailor, one change
means: I tell my friend about the changes -> she tells her
merchandiser to follow -> Her merchandiser will tell China office
about the changes -> China office will tell the workers.. etc... You
can see the process is long. Because of this, I decided to find some
local tailor to do this project.

So Charlotte, maybe you have to tell your friend about this situation
too. At the end of the project, it may come up with different designs
-> means it may: change the pc goods, add some elements, or change the
size. Just like a catalog. This is a long term relationship, so you
can't see this can make fast $$, we want to treat it as a "haute
couture" project.

On Jun 17, 12:04 am, charlotte chan <charlotc...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi Queenie,
>
> This is Charlotte and Nick has been informing me and other CUUSOO members
> about the bag progress.
> A friend of mine knows a people who is in bag business and she knows a bag
> maker and has the
> contact information. The thing is that bag maker is in China. The unit price
> of making a bag is about
> a hundred something HK dollars, which is told by my friend.
>
>  I understand there might be risk of the design idea being stolen and have
> to deal with them with extra caution.
>  My friend also agreed with that. If you are interested, please let me know,
> maybe we can meet with
>  the bag maker together to see how it turns out.
>
> The manufacture Shelly knows is also a good try.
>
> Thanks
> Charlotte
>

> 2009/6/16 Queenie Poon <queeniep...@gmail.com>

[Peggy Chu]

Yes Shelley, my friend's the brain and illustrator of
CatDogForever! :p He's really smart and humorous! His drawings are
amazing too! hehe :p

Peg

On Jun 14, 5:58 am, Shelley <lshelley.ci...@gmail.com> wrote:

[Nicholas Wang]

OK folks!  Good news!  The first bag should be done by tomorrow (Monday), the lady called me last week to tell me that it's basically all done expect for the buttons which she needs another shop to punch it on for her.  She told me I could either pick it up and bring it to Shum Shui Po and look for someone to punch it for me, or I could wait till Monday when the person she uses come back from China.  Since I don't know any place in Shum Sui Po, I said I'll just wait.

So, once I picked it up, made sure its quality is good, I'll complete the sale on CUUSOO.com with Kohei and ship the bag to him.  This will make a complete life-cycle from design, to manufacture, to sale!  How exciting!!

Charlotte, in regards to your manufacturer friend.  You've read Queenie's "insider report" about the industry.  I think if your friend's place really can make 4 bags at just $1XX, then let go for it!!  I'm not worried about them stealing the design as it probably isn't a very popular design in HK.

Funny thing is, Charlotte and I go to the same Japanese class every Saturday, and yesterday, I brought the original bag with me.  At the end of the class, our teacher, Ms. Noda, saw my bag and immediately liked it!!  She said (in Japanese): "On my!  That's a really big bag, isn't it!  You can fit a lot of things in there!  I like it!"  I told her that it's funny how Kohei had the same exact response when he first saw this bag, and this is why we're making it on CUUSOO now.  :)

Cheers,
-Nick

2009/6/17 Queenie Poon <queen...@gmail.com>

[Queenie Poon]

haha..

Did you ask her to go register at cuusoo.com and order one for her?

Shelley,

It's a very good idea do to a cross-over.  I am currently not in HK, maybe you can meet up with Nick and see the real bag. 

ciao~~
Queenie