For the past 9 months, Pedja and I were developing and realizing our idea of a perfect pair of jeans. We’ve started a business in industry we’ve had no clue about. Jeans industry is way more complicated then it seems, but we’ve decided to pursued our dream.

There were lots of ups and downs, lots of nice things, lots of problems too. But we’ve managed to move on each time. Until now.

We’ve made prototypes for a second model of jeans, for iPad overalls. And we’ve made business plan and a promotion plan too. A part of those plans was to find a person who would make an investment into our company and get a part of it in return. Unfortunately, combination of bad timing and our inexperience has resulted with our failure to find serious investor. And since because of our launching plan we’ve had a limited period of time for that, we’re now at the point where we’ve decided to shut down this project.

wtfJeans is getting closed in a few days. The web-shop will continue to operate until we sell out the last 30 pairs of jeans we have left on stock.

9 months of an extraordinary experience! We’ve met wonderful people, learned so many new things. People in about 30 countries are wearing something we’ve made, something we’ve invented. And to top it off: we were a trending topic @ Twitter! :)

As I said at the beginning, jeans industry looks very complicated for outsiders. But once the production part was over, it was much easier to breathe. ;)

Social networks and online communication are 2 things which Pedja and I find much more then just interesting. I can openly admit that the both of us are complete addicts when it comes to those media channels. To us, being bloggers, v-casters and Twitterers is not just a hobby. It’s a vocation. It’s addiction combined with pleasure which almost turned into professions. It’s also knowledge which we’ve used to promote wtfJeans without investing not even one € into marketing.

We were honest and transparent with our business from the very beginning, and people appreciate that. Thanks to that we’ve managed to built a community which helped us to spread the story about our wtfJeans project. It was very nice to have the ability to run a corporate account on FB, Twitter and YouTube with no obligation to be formal, and with the ability to personalize it as much as we wanted.

While Pedja was dealing with more technical parts of the project, I was the one who was also in charge of clients service. And believe it or not - I’ve enjoyed replying to every single question or a doubt of our clients. And when we’ve had those problems with PayPal it was our community who helped us go trough it and resolve it.

At the end of this WTF venture it is our buyers, followers @ Twitter and our fans on FB to whom I’ll say THANK YOU and “So long, and thanks for all the fish” – till next project ;)

WTF FTW !! :)

Actually, it’s not just the idea that we have – we have a business plan and we’ve made a prototype! Here’s what the V2 is about:

wtfJeans V2 prototype

As you can see on the photos, this is iPad compatible model of jeans. Overalls were the logical solution for combining iPad with a pair of jeans.

Beside that iPad pocket, overalls are offering complete comfort. We’ve kept iPhone pockets from the V1 and we’ve added regular, standard hand pockets on the each side.

We’re expecting to receive the prototypes from the factory within the next couple of days, and then we’ll make a video and show you V2 with more details.

Production and launching of V2

The next thing to do now is to make a plan for production and for launching of this new model. We’ve already aranged our presence at Le Web in Paris, where we’ll be having our DemoDesk. Since Le Web is starting on the 8th of Decembre, it will be a date of V2 launching. If you’re also planing to come to LeWeb you’ll be able to order it and colect it directly from us, on our desk.

Our plan for V2 sale is different then V1: there will be no pre-order. Lots of ppl asked us to exclude that long pre-order period, so we will. That basicaly means that your pair of V2 wtfJeans will be shipped to you within 24h after you’ve placed your order on our web-shop.

Investment

Production of thousands pairs of jeans is very expensive, and it’s beyond our payment abilities. We simply don’t have enough finances to cover all the expenses. That’s why we’re looking for a business partner willing to invest into this project.

If you’re interested in investing into V2 model of wtfJeans, feel free to contact us via e-mail sanja [at] wtfjeans [dot] com and we can arrange a Skype meeting where we can discuss the details. Also, if you just know some investors, tell them about us, share our project, our idea.

We have a lot of energy and enthusiasm to continue this story and after V1 – we have the experience too :)

P.S.
If you’re interested in ordering a pair of V2 wtfJeans, just write a comment with your e-mail address, and we’ll notify you once we launch the sale ;)

If I knew how hard it is when one has to decide and choose a winner – I would gladly give that job to someone else! :) I felt so bad that I had to choose just one winner every day, and it was hard because each day I was struggling to choose not between 2 or 3, but much more great tweets.

Well, at the end we’ve finalized it, and today it’s finished and we have 3 winners. They are:

First Day – 28/06/10

Second Day – 29/06/10

Third Day – 30/06/10

We’ve received so many great tweets, and a lot of people have participated. And some of them were sending lots of tweets while some others were participating each day.

Well, this morning we’ve decided to do something nice for all of them. We can’t give a free pair of jeans to everyone, but what we can do is to give them promo-code for a discount. ;) So, we’ve prepared and sent via DM’s the codes with EarlyBird price, which is 28% discount of the Regular price.

Winners are happy, participants are happy, and we’re happy… This was a pretty nice week … :)

Dear clients, money is back on your accounts! :)) I’m sending you mails with details and promo-codes latter today, so you’ll be able to re-order at the same price as you did before.

Due to those problems with Paypal we were forced to return the money to most of our clients. We’ve contacted them via mail yesterday to notify them about our new payment system. To each one of them, we gave one promo-code which enables them to re-order a pair of wtfJeans at the same price as they did before. Those codes can be used only once and they’re valid until the 15th of June.

PayPal still hasn’t returned the money to about 130 of our clients, although we’ve made couple of requests. Yesterday they told us that they’ve “received the request and it’s being reviewed right now”. So, for these clients we’re still waiting to hear that their money is returned to them, and after that, we’ll contact them and send them promo-codes so they could make re-orders as the other ones.

We’ve also had some clients whose orders are “safe” – which basically means that we’ve managed to collect their payments, but we’ve notified them too, so they wouldn’t worry about it :)

When it comes to new buyers, the price is Regular (109€), and when it comes to shipping: the official date is the 1st of September (as it was scheduled at the beginning) but we’ll give our best to ship it a bit earlier ;)

I’m not gonna tell you now about all these details. Today, I would like to tell you about a completely new experience I’ve had.

If you’re wondering what’s on my T-shirt, it says “Don’t stare at my tits, I’ll blog it” :)

Few days after the web-shop was on-line, and all these great things have happened, I was invited to attend FuturAD conference in Zagreb, Croatia, and to present the wtfJeans case-study. The conference was organized by Interactive Advertising Bureau and Best Marketing Croatia and it was held on 24th and 25th of March.

I admit it was a big challenge, because I have never been on stage in front of so many people. Being a part of an elementary school theater-play with another 50 kids does not count here. :)
Preparing a presentation was not a problem, although I’ve somehow deleted it a day before my trip to Croatia, but these things happen when you don’t press ctrl+S often enough. ;)

Lots of my friends from Zagreb were there too. And at the same time it was both a great support and a huge responsibility. I simply needed to give my best!

Yours truly, big stage and wtfJeans photo behind me

When I’ve stepped at that big stage, and the technicians gave me the microphone, the one that reminds of a Madonna-kind-of-thing, I’ve looked at the audience, just took a deep breathe and said to myself “The show starts now. Too late for running away!” :) I had a stage fright for the first couple of minutes, but the moment I’ve started to talk about the 5th of March, a day when wtfJeans was at twitter’s trending topic, all that anxiety have disappeared somehow, and I’ve almost felt connected to all these people.

Sanja, Ivan Brezak Brkan (friend,he designed our logo and written most of the text at our web-shop front page), Pedja, Borja (great friend, who supported us from the beginning)

All I wanted was to show them how we’ve managed to spread the story about our project by using only social media channels (Twitter, FB, blog…) and I wanted them to know how much we’re enjoying what we do. Another important thing was explaining them that every question from our customers, every blog entry about us, every follower on Twitter, every single person that at least have re-tweeted us – all these people have helped us to make a wtfJeans project better and successful.

Just some geeks checking out WiFi connection ;)

I think I’ve made a good presentation. I think that all these attendees at FuturAD now do understand that one doesn’t need lots of investment or a good and well-paid marketing campaign. All you need is a project you believe in, good and trustworthy community, and lots of hart. With those things – everything is possible.

We really believe in our project. Both Pedja and I have been working 24/7 (and still do) and it paid off. I don’t get any more which-big-jeans-company-is-behind-this mails, no explanations needed anymore. People now know what wtfJeans is, they understand how and why we’ve made them. And they know that we just looooooooove what we do. :)

Photos by Smijesak & FuturAD

And then comes Friday… ;)

I was at the university when Pedja called me and said that we’re on Mashable! I couldn’t believe it! :) I ran home, and the only thing I was able to think of was “I hope the site won’t crash down!” :)) Luckily, it didn’t. :)

Minutes after the text on Mashable was published, we’ve started to receive orders. One after another one! Not long after that, Engadget and Gizmodo, and lots of others have published their texts too. The amount of tweets and RT’s on twitter search for wtfJeans was unbelievable! For a couple of hours wtfJeans was even a trending topic! :)

Before web shop was online we’ve made a plan to sell Beta for a few weeks during March – we were so mistaken: The BETA was sold out within a few hours! :) Those first 100 of pairs will be sent to our buyers on the 2nd of May.

At 17:30h, the moment Beta was sold out, the price was automatically changed to EarlyBird price (79€). Buyers from the whole world just kept ordering it, although they know that the those 900 pairs will be produced in August and shipped on the 1st of September. :) They don’t mind waiting for it for a few months! :)

So, how the sale is going, there’s a big chance that these 900 pairs of wtfJeans will be produced and shipped much sooner than it was initially planed. ;)

We would like to thank to all the people who tweeted about us. Special tnx to our friends who were posting comments on various web sites and, for example, explaining other ppl that the pocket on the photo is NOT a back pocket etc… ;)

Another thing I need to point out is:
We are not a big company! This is NOT a marketing trick or something like that.

We are just a simple internet-addicted couple who wanted to make just a 2 pairs of jeans for ourselves, and after a few friends said they’d like a pair too, we decided to make a web shop and try to sell 1000 pairs of it. We have never expected anything like this to happen! :)

Off now, to reply to client’s mails, and to start map-pinning all the cities our wtfJeans will be shipped to. From Australia to Singapore, Qatar, Israel, Italy, USA, UK, Sweden, Canada… It seams I’ll need a lot of pins! :)

It’s been only 3 months since the initial idea, although it’s more like years to Pedja and me ;). So many things have happened in the past few months, and we’ve met so many new people and learned a lot of new things. Such a great experience this is! :)

Of course, there were also some days when both of us just wanted to quit everything and buy a few sheep, and take them to some far-away-no-humans place and become a shepherd :)

As of today the part of work on web shop is done. And although shop is online only a few hours, we already have a nice lil’ bunch of orders for beta version of wtfJeans! :) And it’s all thanks to our twitter community. Twittersphere, thank you! :)

The web shop is pretty nice and simple, the payment goes through PayPal and the shipment is 9€ no matter where you’re from.

So, if you’re a geek or you just loooooove your iPhone or your iPodTouch, go ahead : take a look at wtfJeans shop and the gallery on it :)