From Kickstarter To REI: How One Brand Transitioned From Crowdfunding To Wholesale Partnerships
Rumpl started as a Kickstarter-funded project, but has since transitioned expanded into a brand with retail distribution and wholesale partnerships.
When environmental designer Wylie Robinson woke up one morning during an overnight ski trip in California’s Sierra Mountains, he found himself stranded with a car that wouldn’t start.
It was freezing outside, and there was no one around. All he could do was bundle up in his sleeping bag and wait for someone to come and help him restart the car.
While the experience was unnerving, there was an upside—it sparked a product idea.
Robinson wondered why there wasn’t a blanket that was as technical, warm, and comfortable as a sleeping bag—but with greater portability and functionality.
“I found myself thinking: Why are technical materials sanctioned for outdoor use when we can so easily incorporate them into products we use everyday?” Robinson said.
As he thought about how blankets are one of the oldest textile constructions on earth, he was curious as to why innovation had largely skipped over this particular product category. He wanted to create something new that would add value through material innovation, creative storytelling, and trend-forward aesthetics.
As a result, Robinson got to work prototyping what he called the “sleeping bag blanket”, which eventually turned into a Kickstarter campaign to prove market validation and drum up some initial funding to manufacture the product.
This proved to be a smart strategy, as the campaign goal of $200,000 was exceeded with more than 1,600 people contributing a total of $216,889 to bring the product to life.
With funding and clear consumer interest, he and his team got to work and brought the first batch of Rumpl blankets to life.
After the Kickstarter orders were filled, Robinson was ready to look to the next step: Expanding into wholesale partnerships with retailers.
Having a tactile product, Robinson knew that having a physical retail presence in outdoor stores like REI wherein customers could touch and feel the items would be a major benefit. A presence in trusted retail spaces would also act as an endorsement for their brand, further validating their product.
But transitioning from a Kickstarter product to a company that could service wholesale demand wasn’t an easy task.
“After finding success on Kickstarter, it’s been a constant exercise of navigating growth,” Robinson said. “We have an incredible team and great advisors who help push us forward, but we learned quickly that the world of wholesaling was very different from launching on Kickstarter.”
Robinson went on to explain that while the Kickstarter environment thrived on a short timeline from prototype to sale with little up-front capital investment, servicing wholesale demand required the company to have product queued up 12 months in advance so that buyers could make their purchasing decisions early.
This also meant that all product specifications needed ironed out well in advance, as changes couldn’t be made once a buyer placed an order.
The challenges Rumpl faced during this transition weren’t unique—other brands with products launched via crowdfunding on Kickstarter have faced similar obstacles when making the switch to larger-scale distribution.
Shivani Jain, the co-founder of Cubii, a compact elliptical that also launched on Kickstarter, explained how managing cash flow was crucial as she transitioned from the platform into wholesale and omni-channel distribution.
She also referenced that getting on a retailer’s shelf isn’t always enough anymore—you need product to get off the shelf, too.
“While different sales channels might promise new eyeballs, ultimately it’s the brand's responsibility to generate awareness and spread the word about the products so people are looking out for them,” she said.
In Rumpl’s case, they’re working hard to accomplish that. One way they’re doing this is by leaning into increased sustainability efforts as the company grows (and sharing that journey with consumers.)
They’re making progress: In 2019, Rumpl reclaimed more than three million plastic bottles from landfills after reimagining products with post-consumer plastics in lieu of virgin materials. The brand also joined the Climate Neutral Coalition to focus on offsetting its carbon footprint in 2020 and beyond.
As they continue to expand their wholesale distribution, Rumpl’s long-term, big-picture vision is to breathe fresh life into the largely overlooked product category they’ve entered through material innovation and trend-forward design–much in the way Stance has with socks.
The hope is that further growth and expansion into additional wholesale partnerships will help them reach that goal.
Credit: Kaleigh Moore