Telfar Clemens has built an empire with his eponymous brand around his hero product, the “Bushwick Birkin,” aka their Shopping Bag. The leather bag gained so much popularity that a Bag Security Program was implemented so that people wouldn’t have to deal with bots selling out stock and reselling for an egregious price. The Shopping Bag is “for everyone,” as Clemens likes to say; that’s why the brand has so done so well. The security program has derailed the malicious intents of resellers so far.
Now, the brand has announced an even better proposition for its community—we pick the prices. The designer told Fast Company about his decision saying, “Many brands use price as a barrier to entry. I never wanted that for my brand.”
Say a bag is restocked, and it’s a Medium Bag that usually retails for around $202 or so. We, the loyal shoppers, will be setting the price within demand. Prices will start at a wholesale price, which tends to be quite affordable. Then prices will go up to the retail price. If an item sells out at wholesale price or even just significantly lower than retail, then we are in for a very wonderful treat. This goes for all items on the website, clothing, accessories, everything. I’ve never been more excited about a business model in my life.
For those of you who are like me and have kept things in your cart for months or maybe lucked out of a restock and scoured every resell app imaginable for a Telfar piece, I’m here to tell you there is now huge amounts of hope that the pieces you want will be even more affordable than before. The website already looks like it’s prepared for the wild ride with “We’ll be right back” at the bottom of spinning models dripped out in new Telfar gear.