Q&A With Chakra Fitwear’s Erin Moffitt

January 26, 2015

Despite an unsuccessful attempt to fund production of their first line of yoga pants via Kickstarter, LeBow students Ashley Revay (left) and Erin Moffitt (right) say they will forge ahead and seek other funding sources. The pair aims to bring colorful, printed women’s yoga pants made from recycled plastic bottles to market. Both are seniors and entrepreneurship majors – Revay is also majoring in accounting, and Moffitt in legal studies.

LeBow: In light of your unsuccessful Kickstarter campaign, what would you have done differently?

Erin: If we could go back in time, we would definitely spend more time preparing our Kickstarter. Although everything was aesthetically the way we wanted, we should have done some more work behind the scenes. We should have waited until we received all the press to hype it up, and also reached out to potential pledgers so that we would have some of our goal guaranteed before we even launched. We feel like it came down to timing.

LeBow: Did your Kickstarter experience lead to any valuable lessons?

Erin: We learned a lot about our customer base and the people we’ll be selling to, and they aren’t necessarily only fitness enthusiasts. The style and bright colors of our pants have reached a lot more people who just want the pants to wear for style and comfort. Another thing we found was that although we did not originally include a plus-size selection in our line, we’ve had so many inquiries about creating plus-sized leggings that it has now become a consideration. Overall, we learned that we can reach a much broader range of people than we initially targeted.

LeBow: What are your next steps at this point?

Erin: Going forward, we’re doing a lot of strategizing about wholesale partner opportunities. That was one of the biggest things that came out of our Kickstarter project. We’ve had so many wholesale inquiries from fitness studios, gyms, and boutiques, that we have really had to sit down and start thinking about how to move forward with wholesale. What will our wholesale price be? Will we have minimums? Will we co-brand with companies? These are all things we are now considering. We are also discussing reaching out to investors.

LeBow: Any announcements to share?

Erin: Our company website is currently under construction, but look out for the completed site in the next few weeks where we’ll officially introduce our line outside of Kickstarter. We’ll also be keeping our supporters updated through a company blog. The blog is a fun touch because it will focus on us as female student entrepreneurs as well as our line!