Start-up for dream fabrics

Our customer Spoonflower is not only extremely creative, but also really fast: no sooner have you chosen one of the 750,000 designs in the online shop or uploaded your own design than the printer is already running at the Berlin headquarters. And if you’re in a hurry, the finished fabric will be at the customer’s in just two days.

If you want to know what paradise for hobby tailors and individual clothing labels looks like, then a visit to the Spoonflower online shop is worthwhile. Here you will find everything a creative heart desires. First and foremost: lots of inspiration. The range includes no less than 750,000 different designs – and they are by no means simple mass-produced goods.

The spectrum ranges from small foxes for children’s clothes to abstract flower motifs. Spoonflower prints these on more than 20 different fabrics, wallpapers and wrapping paper. Especially now, in the run-up to Christmas, or even before Easter, the printer at Spoonflower is running hot and fulfilling customer wishes on material sizes from 20 by 20 centimetres to several metres. Creativity paired with flexibility: at least three good reasons why the market newcomer based in the cult district of Neukölln is growing so rapidly. Short distances do the rest: Production, shipping and administration work next door to each other. There is a real start-up atmosphere.

Creative platform with a worldwide community

The concept is not entirely new, but an import from overseas: behind the Berlin branch is a very successful US parent from Durham, North Carolina. This celebrated its 10th anniversary in May and has established itself as a creative platform for hobby tailors and motif designers. The motifs that make Spoonflower customers go into raptures come from the latter. If Spoonflower prints one of the designs, the designer receives 10 or more percent of the proceeds – an attractive way to distribute designs widely and market them in an uncomplicated way. Spoonflower also lives from the community idea: its own blog provides information and discusses the latest trends. Customers can vote for their favourite designs in competitions and receive inspiration and tips via Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest.

This hits a nerve with a fan community that is also growing in this country: orders now reach the Berlin headquarters not only from Germany and Europe, but also from Australia, South America and Asia. The declared goal is to build up and establish the brand in the new markets: “In the next few years, we want to push ahead with internationalisation and establish ourselves as a contact point for creatives in Europe,” says Maria Neidhold, PR manager at Spoonflower. “To this end, we are currently optimising our website for the European market. In addition to translations in German, French and Spanish, we have also adapted the measurement sizes for fabrics from yard to metre.”

It goes without saying that we at RAJA particularly like creative e-commerce companies like Spoonflower. After all, we tick very similarly. We don’t have a single retail shop – and yet Spoonflower is the first address for a growing number of hobby tailors. But there’s something else that particularly excites us about this customer: Spoonflower consistently focuses on individuality and speed. Production and shipping are agile and responsive: if customers choose “Rush” as their shipping option, the goods will be with them in one to two days. We are on the same wavelength here too – and are happy to deliver all the necessary boxes, shipping tubes and individual packaging at short notice, so that all the wonderful Spoonflower products reach their creative recipients as quickly and safely as possible – and make the world a little more colourful and inspiring.