By Elie Robinson
As we are counting the days of Sefirah leading up to Matan Torah, it was one year ago, on May 1, that we started counting the days until our Kickstarter launch on May 9, 2018. What a crazy time it was, as we had only 11 prototype shirts (no actual stock of product) and a few try-on parties to validate our sizing.
We had just created our Facebook and Instagram accounts. We had also just finished all of the content for our Kickstarter page and wanted to start generating traffic leading up to our launch. The dates we picked were no coincidence as we decided to make a play on 5/1 as 5’1” every day through 5/9 as 5’9.” Our plan is to forever use May 1–May 9 as our anniversary time to celebrate men who are under 5’10”.
Looking back at some of our posts (see accompanying pictures), it’s clear that Hashem was truly looking after us in helping us meet our funding/sales target of $15,000 on Kickstarter in just 21 days of our 30-day campaign.
What a wild year it has been. Like most startups, we have stumbled, succeeded, fallen, and cried (OK, maybe not literally), but we pick ourselves up quickly and evolved.
We received our first shipment of button-down shirts in August 2018, which is a quick fulfillment for Kickstarter. As I’ve mentioned in a previous article, I was blessed to meet, get an investment from, and become friends with the Glaubach family. In December 2018, we received our next shipment of 26 new shirts, bringing our collection of button-down shirts to 37. In February 2019, we introduced our first pants with our skinny fit jeans in our unique sizing of inseams ranging from 26”–29”. In March 2019, we introduced our first collection of shorter-length ties to complement the success of our shirts.
As we continue to evolve as a full clothing brand solution for shorter men, we will have new products launching every month in our unique sizing. In May 2019, we will have a slim-fit jean (black) and white sneakers. In June 2019, we will have a slim-fit jean (blue) and polos (blue, black, and white). July and August will bring our first pairs of chinos, dress pants, long-sleeve henley, and more.
At our one-year anniversary, I am truly humbled by our valued customers. I would like to give a special thanks to the Five Towns Jewish Times for allowing me the opportunity to write this column and to the Gordon family for being great customers as well. To celebrate and give thanks, we will be running one-year anniversary specials at under510.com and in our Cedarhurst store located at 536 Central Avenue.
Elie Robinson is the founder of Under 5’10. For more information, visit Under510.com. For questions and comments, email help@under510.com.
