Avre Friday Briefing #82

#FreeOurSamples

A year ago we posted a short video to Instagram asking for your help getting the attention of Jeremy Clarkson and Hawkstone. The plan was a co-branded jacket with a £5 Hawkstone voucher in every one, and a “Golden Jacket” carrying a £1,000 voucher. We’d make the jacket, and they’d help market it. 

Some of you told us not to bother. Plenty more of you piled into the comments and tagged them anyway. And it worked.

They said yes.

For a brand our size, getting a yes from someone like Hawkstone is a pretty big deal. We were genuinely excited, and got to work on developing the product.

We found an original 1940s farmer’s jacket to work from. We sourced some beautifully soft fabric from Yorkshire to match the original. We had the buttons made in the Cotswolds, designed the labels and packaging, and had samples made up. All in, we spent over £10,000 on development and sampling. That's a lot of money for us. And we didn't just blow it all after Hawkstone liked our post, we did it properly, in stages after many calls and meetings with their team.

Then, at the 11th hour, Hawkstone pulled out.

That happens. Businesses are allowed to change their minds, and we’d rather a collaboration didn’t go ahead than went ahead half-hearted.

What we’re less relaxed about is that they’ve kept our samples. They cost us a lot of money to make, and we’d like them back. 

Being the small one

Looking back, we shouldered all the risk. We were definitely the minnow. We speculated, in the hope of accumulating through growing our brand and audience, but this time it didn't pay off. We'd now like to try and recoup the cost of development through a different co-collaborator, we can't do much without our samples - hence #FreeOurSamples.

It's such a lovely garment with some great details, it would be a shame not to get it to market. 

How you can help

Yesterday we put up a new post. It’s the same idea as last time:

👉 Head to this Instagram post

👉 Comment #FreeOurSamples

👉 Tag @JeremyClarkson and @Hawkstone

That's it. Do that and you'll be in with a chance of winning £1,000 or a free forthcoming Batch No. 5 Avre Windak.

It worked once. Maybe it’ll work again.