ikeapagne-blog

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Cushion covers - make a meal out of it

Cushion cover is the third product, only selling it because it’s made out of leftover fabric. 

These are standard 50cm x 50cm (fuck you inches - okay sorry it’s 19.7 in) square cushions. Again, the most common size in Ikea. 

Marginal cost is very low since it’s made of leftover fabric and is easy to make,  meaning Isma is willing to make them for a small but not very very small price. Profit margin per product would be great assuming that these retail 15-30 Euros / Dollars. Obviously wrong way to think about profit margins because they are made in conjunction with the Poang. So banish the thoughts of simple profit per product on the cushion. 

But wait, I can make a meal (like McD’s) out of it. Assuming that the Poang cover retails at $60 (ASSUME) and that the Poang cover has high margins, then I can offer a deal: add $5 more to get a matching cushion cover. While it’s a deal for those who were willing to pay $80 for just the Poang anyways, the $65 meal may nudge some who really like the combo or considers it to be a deal. I will sell the cushion covers separately for $15-30 to add to the illusion semblance of a good deal. 

This makes the production and inventory matching a bit more complex, as each 12 yard of pagne yields 5 Poangs and 4 cushion covers, and have to cater to those who only want the Poang, those who want the meal, and those who only want the cushion. The only way to truly tell if this works is to try it out and adjust as it goes. 

Oh by the way, prototypes:

There are two more designs and I need to have pics of them on the poang frame with a lot of sunlight and some buy-me magic sprinkled all over. 

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Value of relationships

An advice from a young college student who just fell in love with economics would say that I should work with more tailors. The logic: competition among tailors will lower costs. While this is in the back of my mind, the value of my relationship with Ismael is too high for me to act on it for now. 

Recently I told Ismael to make 50cm x 50cm square cushion covers with the leftover fabric. I offered 5,000 GNF, saying that it’s a price of a gift (as in make it cheaply as a gift to me). To which he replied,

“If you tell me to do it at that price, I’ll do it.”

It’s unclear if this was intentional or not, but I instantly felt bad for low-balling. I thought if that were intentional, then it is a great negotiation tactic. We didn’t haggle much afterwards, chatted a bit, and after a few minutes we agreed on a higher price. 

Ismael is making the first batch of poang chair covers and his price isn’t cheap. But, he was instrumental in the production design. He got proper measurements for mass production, took the time to discuss and select zippers in bulk, and talked with me in detail on how to cut the fabric to maximize the number of chair covers per fabric. 

He also came up with a creative alternative to velcro. Poang chair cushions have a thin line of velcro - the soft side - that makes it attach itself to the wooden Poang frame. Since in Conakry it’s not possible to buy only one side of velcro, on top of its high price, Ismael proposed three stripes (see picture) that would serve the same purpose. Given that they’re essentially made from leftover fabric, the additional cost is zero. 

So this working relationship I have with Ismael is multilayered. I can come in any time and he treats my work with relative priority. He understands that it’s not just an order-and-produce relationship, but that the production method evolves. He’s okay with me a bit too present over his shoulders and shares his methods. Result wise, Judith, Sunny, and I have seen the first prototype and we are very satisfied with the result. 

So far, this relationship is very valuable.

While you’re here, read about econ nerds measuring the value of buyer-seller relationships. Rocco Machiavello (not Machiavelli) has expanded on both theoretical and empirical work on the topic, touching on Rwandan coffee makers, Chilean wine exporters, and Kenyan flower exporters (above). 

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Don’t use tables

A table of figures is only instinctively understandable if you’ve been using them for years. 

Zippers, five colors, four different lengths, how many of each color-length combo, total length per color, total length for zippers. 

A better way, instructed by Ismael, is to write in sentences like you’d read them.

40 zippers, length 63cm, 5 colors. 8 zippers for each color. And so forth for each length.

Now I have to get used to this method because I forgot to write down the colors. 

Update: so far all of this is useless because they only have one color in the market, which is also baffling. 

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Production Technology

After buying the fabric in the ever so pleasant Madina market, it was time to work on production. I had a set production method in mind, which was forcefully shut down by my tailor for being “too theoretical”. 

One goal is to cut the rectangular fabric into as many furniture cover pieces as possible. Or to be precise: the combination of pieces that would yield the most number of sets. 

To begin with: Judith went to Germany for a work trip and brought back an Ektorp loveseat cover and a Poang cushion. 

My method was:

Measure each piece of fabric needed 

Make calculations to create drawings at 1:10 ratio

Play Tetris with these pieces

I was quite content to have created blueprints, which made this entire project seem a bit more serious than an arts and crafts project. 

Still quite content with myself, I showed all these to Ismael, to which he rejected outright. 

My measurements were slightly off (fair point, I do lack the techniques)

He said that pagne width are not uniform, ranging from 110cm - 120cm. Mine was based on 115cm and was a bit tight, I’d be in trouble with 110cm. (fair point again)

He insisted on the templates and using that as a starting point. He used a spare fabric to create cutouts that will act as templates for future use. 

Rather than drawing the outlines of all pieces at once, he insisted on doing piece by piece. I could not get him to replicate similar drawings. 

Isma in action.

I assumed that my drawings could at least be a tool that Isma could use on the side, but unlikely they will ever rise to such status. Too bad Isma is not a machine that will just follow all my instructions. Three lessons:

I cannot micromanage Isma. I’ll have to see how many pieces he can create with one fabric and compare with the blueprint.

We started with two fabrics of five patterns. Next time we will buy more fabrics of the same pattern in case each fabric yields a fraction of a sofa.

Try other tailors. 

While you’re here, read about how a couple of top researchers were stuck in a research project in Pakistan, watched some youtube videos of soccer ball production in China, realized that by cutting fabric differently the Pakistani companies can cut costs, and wrote a well acclaimed research paper about it (without the backstory). 

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Which Ikea Products?

Based on research, the most popular items are the Poang armchair and the Ektorp loveseat. 

Poang:

source: ikea.com

As you can see the head rest portions look a bit different. There are in fact five different types of cushion. 

Ektorp

source: ikea.com

I find the Ektorp quite ugly but it is by far the most popular couch. Similarly to the Poang, there are several types of Ektorp couches: loveseat, sofa, and 3.5 sofa (looks like a 3 seater sofa but just a bit larger). Stars were almost aligned when I found out that the loveseat is essentially the 3.5 sofa minus the middle cushions. But what is life if not a middle finger in front of your face: the 3.5 sofa is not sold in Germany, our target market for the initial batches. 

We’re in the prototype phase so we’ll stick the the simplest Poang and the Ektorp Loveseat. As for the loveseat it’s only the cushions as the entire set would be too large and complex.  

We do have a third product as well: 50cm x 50cm cushions. These will be made with left over fabric. 

While you’re here, read about African designers creating cool products for Ikea. 

[ikeapagne-blog]

Genesis

Along with my friend Judith I’m staring a project creating Ikea sofa and chair covers out of colorful African wax fabric, ubiquitously known as Pagne in West Africa. We will make them in Guinea and sell them in Germany first. 

I have felt a bit of shame saying that I work in small business development without actually having worked for one. So I decided to start one that is “ideal” for the professionals in my field: producing in a low income country and selling in a high income country. 

For Judith, she wants to bring color to Germany, which is very noble consider the country’s overall grayness. It’s good that none of us are pretending to do a charity project.

Why Ikea and Pagne? Ikea is consumed in large quantity and has standard sizes, unlike clothes that caters to too many different individual styles. There are many individuals who have launched their own clothing brand, so there’s an extra reason to differentiate ourselves in terms of product. 

I also want to target urban youth in high income countries that are part of the “ikea generation.” They are mobile and thus do not like to spend large amounts in expensive household items like furniture. At the same time, they’d like to visually express themselves through unique items, like pagne. 

This blog is an account of activities that I do and lessons I learn over the project lifespan.

While you’re here, read a bit more about how Chinese “real-fakes” are aggressively entering the market. 

Source: pagnific.com