Sleepwear: 2nd highest crowdfunded project and 5th worldwide in the apparel category

Sleep is the single most effective thing you can do to reset your brain and body. However, people in the industrialized world sleep less today than ever before and nowadays sleep disturbance is one of the top 5 self-identified physical problems. While it is difficult to reverse the clock, it is the mission of Dagsmejan to revolutionize the way people sleep to ensure they get the best value for the actual time spent in bed.

Dagsmejan, together with leading partners from sleep research, material science and textile engineering, has reinvented sleepwear for a good night and a great day. The sleepwear uses a patented high-tech natural fiber combined with integrated functional knitting structures optimized for sleep. Scientific testing has confirmed that the Dagsmejan sleepwear is 4x better than a cotton pyjama at drawing sweat away from the skin and regulating temperature while being more than 2x as soft on touch. The clothing helps regulate temperature to banish night sweats and help people get their best performance the morning after. 

To facilitate production of their product, the startup launched a Kickstarter campaign with a goal of raising CHF 20’000. After four weeks, the startup completed the campaign with pre-orders of almost CHF 38’000. This is more than 175% of the defined target which brings Dagsmejan to the Top 5% of all Kickstarter campaigns ever launched worldwide in the apparel category. This is also the 2^nd highest funded campaign in this category out of Switzerland. On that basis, Dagsmejan is now going into scale production with their first collection, those garments will be shipped as of October 2017.

"With the pre-launch on kickstarter, we were able to test our concept successfully in the market for the first time," said Catarina Dahlin, CEO of Dagsmejan. "Of course, we are very pleased with significantly exceeding our funding target, but the exchange with our backers is much more important for us and helps us further refine our product portfolio for the launch in autumn.

“Understanding who our customers are and what they really want and invaluable market insight”, Says Andreas Lenzhofer Co-founder and Managing Director. “We have established a global distribution system for our Kickstarter campaign and based on our order intake, we will now ship to more than 30 countries. Also going forward we will sell and deliver worldwide”, he adds.

On the basis of his success, Lenzhofer shares some of his learnings. “Launching a new business via Kickstarter is a defining experience and with the vast majority of the Kickstarter campaigns ending unsuccessfully, here are some learnings from our campaign: 1) You need a product with Kickstarter DNA, 2) Be clear about your Kickstarter goals, 3) Commit sufficient resources, 4)  Plan your campaign till the end and 5) Find true advisors but beware of the swindlers", he advises.

(Ran)