Jeans company focused on producing 7,000 pairs of jeans after Kickstarter success

Las Vegas residents Hunter Molzen and Alex Hanson were tired of trying to find jeans to fit their athletic builds.

So last spring the pair, along with two other Sin City residents and one Dallas founder, set out to solve the problem.

The team, ages 20 to 33, created Barbell Apparel and are planning to produce cotton spandex blend jeans that stretch to fit any body type.

“We’re happy to be bringing a solution to so many people in this market,” Molzen said.

In April, the Barbell Apparel team decided to try promoting the jeans on the fundraising website Kickstarter.

“We had different tiers for supporters so if you gave $109 you would get a pair of jeans, if you pledged $129 you would get a pair of jeans and a T-shirt, and if you gave $199, you would get two pairs of jeans and a T-shirt,” Molzen said. “Our goal was $15,000, which was our baseline for what we needed in order to make the project successful.”

When the Kickstarter campaign ended May 25, the team had sold 7,000 pairs of jeans and 2,600 T-shirts, and raised $735,794 for production.

“It blew our minds,” Hanson said.

Their success, Molzen said, came largely from building up their social media fan base and reaching out to media outlets for coverage before starting their Kickstarter page.

“Right now we have about 5,000 followers on Facebook and another 5,000 Instagram,” he said. “A lot of people create a Kickstarter project and expect people to find it, but we knew what we had to do to make our project success and that was bring people to it.”

Although Barbell Apparel has taken off, it hasn’t always been rainbows and sunshine for the team.

“Manufacturing was our biggest challenge because we wanted a perfect product, and we didn’t want to settle for anything less,” Hanson said. “We went through about 50 samples looking for lightweight stretch denim and it had to be perfect for us.”

“You have to work with what you have, and we had to contact a company overseas to make us a few samples so we ended up paying a ton of money but it put us on the path to getting there,” Molzen added. “It’s been a lot of work but it’s all been worth it.”

Barbell Apparel, which boasts a medium-wash and dark-wash straight-leg jean and medium-wash boot-cut jean for men ranging in waist sizes 28-40 and a dark-wash and black slim athletic-cut and dark-wash boot-cut jean for women waist sizes 24-33, is focused on manufacturing the 7,000 pairs of jeans at their Los Angeles-based factory for those who supported their project on Kickstarter.

“There’s a lot of pressure when 7,000 people are waiting for our jeans,” Molzen said. “After those are finished, we’d like to expand our color offerings for both men and women and eventually offer shorts and work pants. We’re also open to expanding our size offerings.”

The young entrepreneurs advise people looking to start a business to set the groundwork and ask for help along the way.

“It’s as simple as picking up the phone and asking for help because there are people are out there willing to help,” Hanson said.

“You’ll also need to cut expenses to make it happen so moving back in with your parents to cut costs certainly doesn’t hurt.”

Molzen added, “Passion is also key because you need to be passionate about your idea. You’ll make a great product if you believe in it. For us, there have been a lot of sacrifices but it’s been such a relief to see it come to fruition but we still have a long road ahead.”

Contact reporter Ann Friedman at afriedman@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0391. Follow @AnnFriedmanRJ on Twitter.