BetaBrand

Betabrand is a online Crowdfunded clothing manufacturer based in San Francisco, which releases real-world products every week. Betabrand is covered consistently in publications such as the New York Times, Wired, Gizmodo, and Boing Boing. They're also developing new models of social interaction and community development in e-commerce. Products include Dress Pant Yoga Pants, Dress Pant Sweatpants, Executive Hoodies, Sons of Britches, Reversible Smoking Jackets, Bike to Workwear, Karate Casual, Cordarounds, Sock Insurance, and more.



about the company

Founders

BetaBrand in the press

Feb. 1, 2016

Why retailers can’t resist social media

The report, which uses a propriety formula to score retailers based on the effectiveness of their social media efforts (See sidebar), finds that many of the retailers finding the best results on social media have rethought the ways they understand, approach and think about both social media and their overall marketing strategies. While Macy’s Inc. only drives 1.3% of its site traffic from social networks, social media plays a crucial role in the multichannel retailer’s digital marketing mix, says Serena Potter, the retailer’s group vice president, digital marketing strategy. While social media’s might is unmistakable—a third of the 15 of the most-downloaded apps in the United States are from social networks, according to comScore Inc.—the efforts by social networks to remake themselves into direct response advertising platforms aren’t leading to many direct sales. Nearly a quarter of consumers, 24.1%, arrive at the online-only novelty T-shirt retailer directly from social networks, according to the forthcoming Social Media 500, an Internet Retailer database that ranks retailers by the percentage of their site traffic that stems from social networks. Few, if any, platforms make that process easier than social media, Kent says.

Dec. 28, 2015

AWS Week in Review – December 21, 2015

All of the official SDKs, IDE Toolkits, and Command Line Tools available for download here.

Dec. 22, 2015

AWS Podcasts – JAWS, Muterra, Betabrand, and DubSmash

I spoke with representatives from JAWS, Muterra, Betabrand, and DubSmash. I emailed Austen after finding him online, and we began an ongoing conversation about Lambda, JAWS, and API Gateway. Special ThanksAs always, special thanks are due to my awesome colleagues on the AWS Podcast team: Here’s the final batch of interviews that I recorded on Tuesday, September 1 at the AWS Loft in San Francisco as part of the Intel Startup Spotlight for the AWS Podcast. As usual, the “Episode” links go directly to the audio files; you can also visit the AWS Podcast page and subscribe to the feed.

Dec. 1, 2015

In 24 Hours, Pirelli's Calendar Showed How Quickly a Brand Can Modernize Its Image

"Pirelli Calendar. "It bears remembering, of course, that Pirelli's calendar was always a marketing tactic for the brand. ""Good-bye, naked supermodels on tire maker Pirelli's calendar," the Wall Street Journal's Tokyo-based auto reporter Yoko Kubota tweeted, "hello, fully-clad women with impressive resumes. "@amyschumer looks INCREDIBLE nude in the 2016 @Pirelli calendar. Amy Schumer and Serena Williams are among the younger women of achievement included in the calendar.

Nov. 4, 2015

Slack CEO Stewart Butterfield on Changing the Way We Work

“The whole spectrum of communication across a company can happen inside Slack,” says co-founder and CEO Stewart Butterfield, 42. It happened first in the early 2000s, when Butterfield and some pals began to make something called Game Neverending. And over time, it became clear that Glitch, like Game Neverending, would never be profitable. CHANNEL SURF | Slack allows users to generate channels around specific topics, projects or problems, minimizing the need for email. At the dawn of the digital camera, before Facebook existed, they’d invented a neat way to share photos online.

Oct. 23, 2015

Western Digital to acquire SanDisk for $19 billion; Collective Health raises $81 million Series C round; Illusive Networks raises $22 million

Phenom People raises $6 million Series A roundPhiladelphia HR startup Phenom People has raised $6 million in a Series A led by Sierra Ventures. In funding news, Indian startup Collective Health has raised an $81 million Series C round, while Illusive Networks has raised $22 million, and Chinese Uber rival Yidao Yongche has announced that it is to raise $700 million. Western Digital to acquire SanDisk for $19 billionWestern Digital has entered into an agreement to acquire SanDisk for $19 billion, at $86.50 per share. FundingClutter raises $9 million Series A roundOn-demand self storage startup Clutter has raised $9 million in a Series A round led by Sequoia, with Sequoia partner Omar Hamoui joining the Clutter board. Numerify raises $37.5 million Series C roundNumerify, a startup providing analytics applications, has closed a $37.5 million Series C round led by Tenaya Capital, with participation from investors including Sequoia Capital, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Silicon Valley Bank, and Four Rivers Group.

Oct. 22, 2015

Betabrand Gets Another $15 Million

2 Shares Share Tweet Share Share EmailEvery retailer pitches themselves as consumer-centric, but Betabrand believes they have the recipe for success when it comes to brand-to-consumer communication. The San Francisco-based startup announced Wednesday (Oct. 21) that it has secured $15 million in funding from both Morgan Stanley and Foundry Group, bringing its total funding amount to $29 million. However, with another $15 million under its belt and new product ideas from consumers every day, Betabrand is now one step closer to building its vision. “This is the future of the apparel industry.”If Betabrand is going to revolutionize fashion as we know it, it might need a tad more than $29 million to do it. “Unlike the traditional fashion world, where designers wait 12-16 months to see their creations unveiled to consumers, Betabrand involves customers from the very start,” Lindland said.

Feb. 14, 2015

Flashback clothes are carefully crafted nuclear photobombs

What makes the Flashback clothes especially bright is the shark-gray base color. Surrounding details either get lost in the shadows or simply go unnoticed because the eyes zero in on the aura of the Flashback clothing. The concept for Flashback clothes was on the minds of Wheeler and Holmes even before the two met. He and other DJs also found it irritating when fans would crowd around their booths, firing off flash photos with their phones. In the opening days after Flashback clothing was posted to the Betabrand website, the Photobomber Hoodie ($205.20) and Silver-Screen Scarf ($70.20) surpassed funding goals.

April 27, 2011

Cult Clothing Line Betabrand Pockets $1.3 Million From OATV

He also wants to crowdsource more of the designs and expand on the “Model Citizen” program where customers send in pictures of themselves modeling Betabrand designs for use in actual campaigns. The company’s emphasis on original in-house designs, in addition to its 100K-200K in monthly revenue, certainly piqued the interest of O’Reilly Alpha Tech Ventures which led Betabrand’s $1.3 million Series A round followed by Morado Ventures this week. It creates a non-stop idea machine.”Lindland plans on using the new financing to speed up the production process to 12-16 products a month and add a women’s line in the fall. There will be a ton of online clothing brands that pop up over the next year. The company releases between 4-6 designs a month, manufacturing locally and in small batches.

Dec. 13, 2010

Betabrand's 'Privates' Underwear Promises To Block TSA Employees From Seeing Your Scanned Junk

There’s been no shortage of outrage over the TSA’s “naked” body scanners, which have been compared to virtual strip searches. The garment fuzzes out a traveler’s privates using body scanner resistant materials. On the other hand, if this works, the garments could sell like hot cakes considering the controversy around the TSA full body scans and the “pat-downs.” As of now, Russell and Betabrand claims that the underwear will not get you pulled out of line for a more invasive search. But the company is seeking 50 travelers to test-pilot prototypes of the underwear to be sure.