Tomas Reynoso | An Impatient Creative
Research and testing
Belay Culture | More than sport clothing for Climbers, we are a tribe.
Concept: Build a brand from scratch in a niche I’m passionate about which is climbing and photography, and use it as a lab for UI/UX experiments.
Objective: Put in place elemental tactics for user research, build and present concept designs of a product, prototype and gather user data through forms and surveys for continuous improvement.
Belay Culture is a clothing brand for climbers, created from scratch to challenge my knowledge in different aspects like design (digital and physical), photography, e-commerce, marketing, etc. We could say an umbrella project who gathers all I’ve learned through the years and who could possibly become a side hustle using the print on demand business model.
In this case, I will focus mostly on the research and user testing process of the physical products as the website was just a secondary aspect of the project.
Discovery Stage
Building a physical product and selling it has always been a desire of mine. At the beginning of the Pandemic I posted this sketch of a foot hold which turned into a sox model, very popular although no one bought it. Then I decided I would try something more practical for climbers. And just like an apple falling directly into my head, the idea of designing leggings as a first product run stroke.
By posting daily instagram stories of the process I got some audience quickly within the dominican climbing community, both genders were expecting the results to see what could come from this experiment. Below you will find one of the posts.
Interviews and Sampling
I designed 4 unique models and some of them had color variations. My intention was to really understand the user’s mind and what could get them to approve a new brand out of nowhere. Also wanted to know if there was real buying potential.
My budget was limited to nonexistent by that moment, so choosing the model to run a sample was a tough choice, and If I picked the wrong product maybe no women would allow me to use them as a model for the marketing campaign, less would they buy. So, I conducted research using google forms and tested the waters.
The variables taken into account:
Models
Color variants
Prices
Suggestions for new editions
Suggestions for coming products
Permission to contact them for the release
Results and Prototype
12 climbers out of a community with less than a 100 female active climbers participated in the survey.
In conclusion the audience agreed on:
The classic model was the most popular amongst the surveyed.
100% of the population would buy and 40% would buy above the base price for retail.
40% Agreed they could afford to buy along sport bras (which would be a totally new product)
7 out of 12 women offered detailed suggestions on how to improve a new design or at least their opinion.
