Walking around the streets of SoHo on a hot August afternoon last weekend, I came across an intriguing window display featuring a Spacesuit that immediately drew me into a new store. As I walked into the space and took a look around, the name on the door, “Ministry of Supply” rang a bell. I quickly recalled this was the shirt company founded by former MIT students and launched via Kickstarter in 2012, promising temperature regulating fabric made of spacesuit material. The original shirt they launched with was appropriately called the Apollo. I had backed this Kickstarter and received one of the shirts for my husband but was extremely disappointed by the feel of the fabric. Over the past year, I recall receiving emails about new products but having been disappointed by the first shirt, the emails were ignored.
Remembering who Ministry of Supply was, I became excited to see an actual storefront and find out whether their products had improved.
Upon entry, I was struck by the comfortable simplicity of the space and intrigued by the new products.
With only a handful of SKUs, each style had its own space within the store to highlight key features. As we leisurely moved from product to product, checking out the different fabrics, we were quickly approached by friendly and helpful staff. Besides offering some craft Brooklyn cold brew coffee, they were eager to tell us about the different pieces.
Even the staff acknowledged the launch shirt (Apollo) was a love-it-or-hate-it product. They explained that since launch they had released two additional iterations of dress shirts incorporating the same technology. The most recent version is (also appropriately) called the Gemini. It was explained to us that this was their first shirt to incorporate cotton into the material, a much requested addition apparently. While cotton isn’t a unique feature, what is unique about the shirt besides its temperature regulation are these amazingly precise laser cut button holes and underarm venting, no odor retention, and hydrophobic and hydrophilic fibers for moisture wicking.
With a fabric most similar to a traditional dress shirt, my husband tried on the Gemini and was surprised at how flattering the fit was and impressed by the texture of the fabric. He tried on a few other offerings including a polo shirt but was not nearly as impressed with either the style, fit, or fabric. He left the store with the Gemini and a t-shirt.
It’s great to see a company that got its start on Kickstarter reach the point of having 3 brick and mortar stores (New York, Boston, and San Francisco) and full product line. It speaks to the power crowdsourcing can have and proves Kickstarter is a viable starting place for fashion based wearable technology (either hard tech or soft tech). I can’t wait to see other innovative companies like Ministry of Supply find success!
