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Linjer has simply mastered the art of optimized retail. There is no smoke or mirrors. Their products are exquisitely designed, expertly manufactured and efficiently delivered. The only difference between Linjer products and "fabled retail brands" is price.
Ordered a few items via their first indiegogo campaign and love them! I've gifted them as corporate gifts to individuals who I know are incredibly particular about quality - and the feedback has been overwhelming. The quality and design are top notch - and the prices are literally absurd for what they offer in their products.
Hi everyone,
Thanks for hunting us, @gillianim! And nice to meet all of you Product Hunters.
We're an independent design studio making minimalist, high quality leather products at honest prices.
Roman and I created Linjer (pronounced 'liin-yir'; it means "lines" in Norwegian) because we were fed up with the lack of selection in leather goods. We both worked corporate jobs and needed to look polished and professional at work. However, a great, work-appropriate leather bag that didn’t break the bank was nowhere to be found. Instead, we found low quality bags for $250 and high quality bags for well over $1,500.
We knew that many of the $1,500+ laptop bags were unreasonably marked up for what they were. And we really didn't like that they had large, conspicuous logos.
After conversations with leather goods manufacturers, we learned of the crazy markups luxury brands put on their products. 10-20x is not uncommon. We became even more confident that there was a space to make high quality leather products without all the BS.
And so, we started Linjer.
WHAT WE BELIEVE IN:
1. The finest materials and craftsmanship. All our products are made of full grain, vegetable-tanned leather and YKK Excella zippers. Vegetable-tanned leather is really special stuff and it's the rare kind of leather that ages beautifully. Our products are made in the same factory as highly respected luxury brands.
2. Honest prices. We sell our bags for 1/4 (or less) of what luxury brands would sell them for. We sell directly to customers online, allowing us to eliminate middlemen and real estate costs.
3. Clean, minimalist design. We believe that high-quality leather speaks for itself. And our logo is always discreetly tucked away.
Thanks to a successful crowdfunding campaign last year we were able to launch our first collection, which was very menswear oriented. Our current Kickstarter campaign is to launch our new collection, which has products for both women and men.
We're delighted to be on Product Hunt and are happy to answer any questions you have! We'll be here all day.
Best,
Jenn
(Roman is the Norwegian among us, hence the hard-to-pronounce name)
Looks like a great product. What are your values and ideals regarding customer experience?
@m1lesv, love the question!
We think a great customer experience is about listening and being attentive and accessible...treating each person like a friend.
Our customers are at the heart of all that we do. After all, we started Linjer because of a pain point shared by us and many of our friends.
Roman has been taking care of Ops, and he has personally reached out to every single customer (1,000+) of ours by email. In the last couple of days he's also been on the phone with a number of people helping them get through the Kickstarter checkout flow. (It's surprisingly confusing when you're trying to do certain things.)
We also maintain a thread on Styleforum, the biggest menswear community online. It's been a fantastic way to solicit feedback from community members, and we've seen really healthy engagement there. We're at almost 100 pages since we started the thread last year.
These days we've been getting lots of unsolicited compliments and thank yous by email from backers of our second Indiegogo campaign. They're just receiving their wallets and briefcases now. I think that's really special and a testament to our commitment to giving customers a direct line to us.
Naturally we'll have to find a way to scale this if/when we get really big. It's an exciting challenge to face though! :)
Jenn
@jchong10 Fucking brilliant. That's the hustle the world needs more of. Although I'm not your target market yet, definitely book marked for the not too distant future. Always found the most compelling part around products are not the products themselves but the stories of the founders that devoted themselves to the development of that product. How did we get to Linjer and why; what does the brand represent; who are the people behind the product; what events occurred that led to the project's inception. The best products are built out of necessity. If there's ever anything I can support you and your team on Jennifer reach out at any time.
@kasperi,
Thanks for your question! We have to keep some things secret, but I can tell you that many of our male customers (total 1,000+ so far) tell us that they've been eyeing two briefcases in particular from Delvaux and Louis Vuitton.
http://www.gq.com/story/this-jus...
http://us.louisvuitton.com/eng-u...
These briefcases retail at $2,500 and $4,700 respectively. Our briefcase, which has a similar design, sells at $489. (They always end up buying our and are super happy with it.)
Delvaux often uses super high-end full grain vegetable-tanned leather like we do...we've seen this leather dubbed "the choice of royals". Louis Vuitton is another story. They generally use top grain leather, i.e. they take leather with lots of defects, scrub off the natural grain, and imprint it with an artifical pattern and a plastic-y finish (examples are saffiano and epi). Or it's just coated canvas.
Hope that helps give you an idea of the value of what we offer!
Cheers,
Jenn
Jupe