Claire O'Connell: The Precious Collaborative Founder on the $10,000 coat subsidising wool products

There’s a clever new marketing ploy from a Wanaka fashion designer. 

‘The Precious Collaborative’ are selling $10,000 coats in order to subsidise New Zealand wool products in their store. 

The profits of the coats are able to discount a once $700 item to under $200 – the aim to put quality NZ wool items within the average person’s reach. 

Founder Claire O’Connell told Mike Hosking that by purchasing the coat, people are supporting so much within the country – from the strong wool industry right through to local production. 

So far two people have bought the $10,000 coat, and O’Connell says that since then they’ve sold almost 100 garments, of which 85% were bought at the discounted price.  

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
So we've got what seems like quite a good idea.
The company called the Precious Collaborative, which is a retail
outlet in Wanaka. They're selling their coats at ten thousand dollars.
Now that allows them, then if you go buy a
ten thousand dollar coat, it allows them to subsidize their
wool products in their shops. So in other words, something
you know that you would have bought for seven hundred
dollars suddenly goes down to two hundred dollars. Now. Clear

(00:21):
O Connell is the founder of this particular company, is
with us. Clear morning, Good morning. So the ten thousand dollars, well,
thank you. The ten thousand dollar coat is not ten
thousand dollars. It's whatever it is, plus an extra to
offset it, is that right? So it's sort of a
charity buy.

Speaker 2 (00:38):
I don't know that i'd call it a charity buy
to be honest, because I think you're by purchasing the coat,
you're supporting so much within this country, from strong will
industry right through to local production. I don't really call
that charity. But what it is trying to do is
and the two people who've already purchased coats are very
much interested in enabling other people to experience higher end garments,

(01:01):
and people often think, first of all, they couldn't possibly
cost that much a seven hundred dollars pair of pants,
and then they would think, okay, well it couldn't possibly
be worth it, and actually it is. In both cases.
They cost that much to make if you want to
use high quality materials and manufacture in this country, and
it does feel fantastic. So the people who've purchased the

(01:21):
coats both want people who are unable to experience that
to do so, and that's why they're purchasing the coats.
And then a portion of the profit from the coat,
the ten thousand dollars that goes to the code. We've
had one code buyer who's actually asked to pay twenty
thousand dollars, so it's well above the asking price for
the coat because they understand the concept, and a portion

(01:41):
of the profit of that coat, a third of the
profit then drops straight back in to pull garments out
of the true price into the gift price, and that
a ten thousand dollars code purchase will subsidize approximately twenty garments.

Speaker 1 (01:55):
Of people coming in and buying the pants.

Speaker 2 (01:56):
Ye yes, so I sell online through our website. We
had our initial coat sale in December, so we had
somebody buy at auction. They bought for the ten thousand
dollars price, and then we had somebody else part to
the coat in May, and we launched our collection of
over two hundred garments produced in May June. We're just

(02:19):
sending out the remainder of those. We sold almost one
hundred garments and surprisingly and gratifyingly, ten percent of people
paid the true price they didn't have to, and another
five percent paid somewhere between the gift and the true price.
So the model is proven. I've been working on this
for over five years. I've proved that it works, that

(02:40):
people want to get good quality garments back in. We
want to shift this fast fashion problem. And this is
just a sort of an outside the regular way of
doing it.

Speaker 1 (02:53):
I think, well, I'm glad it's working, by the way,
do you know? And I'm Nikolai Solakov. Now, well he's
a he's in Wonica as well. He's in fashion, and
he's discovered an old like Oscar ride and he's making jackets.
So you and him and Wonica, it's all go.

Speaker 2 (03:09):
I tell you what, Warnica is a very interesting spot.
I've lived here for over twenty years and there are
some very interesting people that come to Wannicoat I think,
so I'll have to look him up.

Speaker 1 (03:18):
Look him up. I'm so high from us because he's
on to a winner as well. Claire, and nice to
talk to me. You appreciate it, Claire O'Connell. Precious collaborative.
So you buy the flash coat. It subsidizes the pants
and the shirt. Look him up online. And as for
old nikolai oscar Ride, I'd never heard of the label,
but they make what I would loosely called drys of
bone type coats, coats that you wear outside barber type coats,

(03:40):
and they look super cool as well. So there's You's
your fashion film for Friday Morning.

Speaker 2 (03:47):
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Speaker 1 (03:50):
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