Music Festivals.....wellingtons.

keesh88

I am currently in the process of starting my latest venture.....Male wellingtons for music festivals :rolleyes:.

I have a manufacturer organised and designs which are good to go. I also am hoping to go to a tradeshow in London at the end of march.

I will be importing from china so if anybody has hints or tips that would be great.

It would be great if anybody could fill out this survey to help me finalise my orders and target market etc..

www.surveymonkey.com/s/KTCNPCJ

Thanks for your time I would appreciate any extra comments you may have.:)

TheCostumeShop.ie: Ronan

What happens if we get an freakishly dry summer? How can you limit your downside potential. Might I suggest considering a business that also does festival gear for all weather: windy / sunny / night time etc to hedge your bets.

keesh88

Yes I have thought about this and I do understand that it would be a risk but freakishly dry summers have been few and far between in recent years. It has been my experience from been at the festivals that unless extremely dry wellys are needed as it tends to get very mucky over the weekends as most events are 3-4 days long so the potential for rain (especially in Ireland) is probable.

Thanks for your input I will certainly consider and investigate other products that I can sell to hedge my bets.

Diddler1977

keesh88 wrote: »

I am currently in the process of starting my latest venture.....Male wellingtons for music festivals :rolleyes:.

.:)

I don't understand why you would exclude females from your market....

AstonMartin

Dunnes sell wellington boots. If your talking about selling at festivals most lads will wear their runners rather than have to carry them and girls come prepared. If there was a business organisers would be on it.

glic71rods46t0

AstonMartin wrote: »

Dunnes sell wellington boots. If your talking about selling at festivals most lads will wear their runners rather than have to carry them and girls come prepared. If there was a business organisers would be on it.

That reminds me of the old "joke" about 2 economists walking down the street, one of them spots what looks like a €50 note on the ground and points it out to the other economist - they walk on without picking it up as both agree that it couldnt be a real €50 as someone would have already picked it up!:D

Abelloid

AstonMartin wrote: »

Dunnes sell wellington boots. If your talking about selling at festivals most lads will wear their runners rather than have to carry them and girls come prepared. If there was a business organisers would be on it.

I bought wellies at Electric Picnic, at 2AM I relented and and admitted my trainers weren't working for me.

It is a good business idea, and already proving itself AFAIK.

keesh88

Diddler1977 wrote: »

I don't understand why you would exclude females from your market....

Well there already seems to be a alot of competition for female wellys so the male market seems to be more of an untouched niche market.

shoutman

Hey,

Last year I spent a decent amount of time looking into a festival related business, it also involved importing from China etc.

Have you imported from China before? Where have you sourced your manufacturers from?
Are you planning on selling at festivals? Have you contacted the festivals with regards to costings for a pitch onsite, if I remember correctly Oxegen closes applications for retailers around January time, so you might be too late for this year.

Also last time I went there were a few retailers selling wellingtons onsite, what's the difference with yours?

Best of luck with it in anycase.

edit: carried out your survey, think you might be overestimating just how fashion conscious most males are with regards to their wellington footwear

Abelloid

shoutman wrote: »

edit: carried out your survey, think you might be overestimating just how fashion conscious most males are with regards to their wellington footwear

Yep, I took the last two plain black wellies, one size 9 the other 10.

Diddler1977

keesh88 wrote: »

Well there already seems to be a alot of competition for female wellys so the male market seems to be more of an untouched niche market.

I don't think that is a reason for completely ignoring females and not trying to appeal to them.

I would imagine more men would buy a pair of wellies by being dragged over to look at the ladies by their girlfriend and then seeing the male wellies. I think less men would by wellies by seeing male wellies on sale and then deciding to go over check them out and buy a pair.

Also ladies perusing female wellies may decide to buy male wellies for their OH.

Diddler1977

shoutman wrote: »

edit: carried out your survey, think you might be overestimating just how fashion conscious most males are with regards to their wellington footwear

Yes I have to agree. Ladies buy wellies with fashion in mind and also the thought that they may wear them again. They may also buy them to coordinate with the clothes or colour they generally wear again.

I would say bog standard gardening green wellies would do for men. To the average man I would assume they are just wellies not a fashion statement.

keesh88

Thanks for the feedback,

I have sourced from china before but not to the scale that I would be planning for this. I would plan to sell them via a website so I would'nt have a stall at the festivals. So I would be trying to get ppl to buy before they go to the event.

I know most men probably dont care what there wellies look like but I am still sure there is a portion who do and would prefer an alternative to black and green. My thinking behind the idea is that music festivals are times when people want to stand out from the crowd and not blend in as much. :rolleyes:

alejandro1977

keesh88 wrote: »

I am currently in the process of starting my latest venture.....Male wellingtons for music festivals :rolleyes:.

I have a manufacturer organised and designs which are good to go. I also am hoping to go to a tradeshow in London at the end of march.

I will be importing from china so if anybody has hints or tips that would be great.

It would be great if anybody could fill out this survey to help me finalise my orders and target market etc..

www.surveymonkey.com/s/KTCNPCJ

Thanks for your time I would appreciate any extra comments you may have.:)

slightly off topic - but I have recently been living in the US MidWest and London - when it rains/snows there loads of young professional women wear wellies - especially fancy Hunter ones. Actually it's more common in the US than in London despite the UK brand

I already hated the phenom of Irish women wearing Uggs - it just underlined for me that they are as impractical as they are fugly

chillywilly

There is definetly money to be made in wellies at festivals, especially if it is p*ssing rain! The idea crossed my mind too when I was at one last year. If you make the design fun, different and slightly "manly" :P you could make a few quid for yourself.

The one thing id say is that I don't think a lot of men would pre-buy their wellies online. I woild tend to just go down in my runners and buy them only if nessesary. I also know most of my friends do/did this too.

Good luck with it!

AstonMartin

Your getting some golden market research here.

men generally dont prebuy.

cheap bog standard is better than medium priced unique mens wellies.

have a small stock of female wellies.