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Crowdfunding goes for a thong
THONG innovator Willi Footwear Company has set something of a record in raising capital through global crowdfunding system Indiegogo.
Just an hour after the launch of their crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo, the up-and-coming Gold Coast footwear company generated more than $10,000 for its chic new range of thongs that are re-engineered to avoid the ever-feared toe plug ‘blow-out’.
Willi has been awarded several patents for its ‘interchangeable range’ that allows the wearer to customise the thong base with different coloured straps. The straps have been designed with boomerang-shaped plugs to minimise the chance of a blow-out. 
Willi Footwear managing director and founder, Brad Munro, said after a long and expensive process putting the intellectual property protection in place Willi was hoping the campaign would fund the launch into the Australian and US markets.
“We are overwhelmed by the support so far, but there is a long road ahead and we’re focusing on reaching our funding goal,” Mr Munro said.
He said the future was looking bright for Willi as it had already been taking enquiries from several overseas distributors.
Brand ambassadors include beach-loving thong wearers such as 2013’s Cleo Bachelor of the year, lifeguard Trent ‘Maxi’ Maxwell from Bondi Rescue, and three-times Ironwoman champion, Courtney Hancock.
With the option to change the strap colours to match clothes or accessories, the interchangeable range is being hailed as a stylish innovation on an iconic piece of essential summer footwear.
There are four base and six strap colours including black, white, and the metallic range of red, blue, green and nude, allowing for 24 possible colour combinations.
The funding goal for what Willi calls its ‘Flip Flop project’ is set at A$30,000 over the month, but within an hour of the campaign going live, it had raised $10,722.
Through Crowdfunding sites such as Indiegogo, Kickstarter and Pozible, campaigners can raise funds for a non-profit organisation, charity, commercial product, film production, event, album launch and much more, as long as it is within the campaign platforms rules and regulations. 
Crowdfunding is an avenue for start-up businesses to raise funds for a unique project by obtaining a small amount of money from a large amount of people (or backers) through a network of family, friends, social media and total strangers that would like to purchase the product or service on offer. If the campaign does not reach its ‘funding goal’ then the individual payments are not processed and no money or goods are exchanged.
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/interchangeable-flip-flops-with-no-more-blow-outs
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