Complaint Review: Radiate Athletics

I backed Radiate Athletics on 04-05-13. I pledged an initial $70.00 for a Medium Green Nova Hoodie. Then, I decided I also wanted a Medium Long Sleeve Red Nova and a Medium Short Sleeve Navy Nova as well. My total pledge was for $124.00 and was taken out of my bank account in two different transactions. The $70.00 was taken out on 04-17-13 and the additional $54.00 was taken out on 06-12-13. Since I pledged over $100, I was also promised a free cotton radiate t-shirt. "The Free T-Shirts will be shipped with all orders of at least $99 and up." (update 36)

The company was asking for $30,000 on Kickstarter, but received $579,599 from their backers. This amount includes the initial pledge from everyone, not their additional add-ons.  They were successfully funded on 04-16-13.

Broken Promises:

"Thank you for the support, and we hope to deliver everyone's shirts in July 2013!!" -Radiate Athletics (update 24). After an initial delay, they then promised to send everyone their shirts by August of 2013. "Continue to expect your shirt to be shipped August 15th through September." (update 37). So, as backers for a "new" company, we collectively waited patiently until the next update. The next update pushed everything back again. So, we believed them. They (radiate) blamed their delays on their manufacterer/dye machine not being completely ready. "We stated originally that delivery would be in August, and for a few months it looked like July would be absolutely possible, so we began communicating that. However, there was a point where we just had to change manufacturers and that pushed shipping dates back a month. We will not be over a year late, like the Pebble watch." (update 36). They made Pebble Watch look like the absolute worst. In reality, as I am writing this report, it is 04-10-14 and almost a full year since they posted this... So, yes Radiate, you are over a year late, like Pebble Watch. Radiate posted another promising shipping update to us with this as the title in update 36. "Every Radiate order will be shipped by August 21st to September 15th." Obviously this didn't happen because I don't have my shirts/sweatshirt. In update 43, Kenny Crockett posted pictures with him and the initial batch of shirts being shipped out. He can be seen hugging a Red Nova shirt. So, as backers, we have now seen "proof" of the shirts being sent out. This set my mind at ease. In update 41, Production is still on track, with most of our apparel being mailed to your door for the holiday season. Production Update: Radiate shirts are being dyed and packaged in waves, according to color. This means that certain colorways will be completed before others. We will be mailing shirts in waves as well—first in the mail will be two of our most popular colorways, the navy-to-white and red-to-white shirts! We will begin mailing these in two weeks,November 26th." November 26? That is 3 months past their initial promise of July/August. I held tightly onto Radiate's promises and I was wrong to do so. In update 44, Thank you for your patience? We truly do understand your frustrations as an eager and excited consumer. We do sincerely apologize for these delays, but do understand we never intended for the manufacturing process to take this long. Now that we have perfected the manufacturing process, the shirts will be made much faster, but with the quality that we have promised. Please know that we do read all of the comments and emails, even the negative ones. But, we also know that the majority of our consumers have been extremely supportive and it means the world to us. We appreciate all of the kind emails and words of encouragement. We appreciate that you have not given up on Radiate and we want to reward you. We will be offering a free shirt to everyone who ordered a shirt via KickStarter or RadiateAthletics. com in 2013." Update 46 was a video of Kenny and his side kick Jared Casey unboxing the large shipment of Radiate Shirts they received from the manufacturer. ( which was supposed to be American. )

Various Excuses:

Every delay that Radiate Athletics experienced had an excuse with it as well. Some believable, some not. "The shirts are delayed because it was in the best interest for all of you who pledged money with the expectation of getting the world's best athletic shirt." (update 36). Kenny Crockett kept telling all of us (backers) that the shirts have to be perfect and that they will be well worth the wait. Titled "Broken Promises" in an update to us, here is what he wrote, "The release dates have been delayed, and we are extremely sorry for this delay and any other delays that we may encounter moving forward. Again this is our first bulk manufacturing initiative. We are doing everything we can to expedite the manufacturing process without compromising the Radiate shirts' quality. I would rather ship the perfect shirt late than to ship a shirt of only 90% quality, early." (update 36). Radiate Athletics kept saying that they would only ship the shirts when they were done they way they promised, which is completely fine with me. But, they kept using this excuse when they should have just told us the truth. "During our absence we have been working hand-in-hand with both the factory and the fulfillment company to ensure that our product codes and carton labeling are cohesive with that of the fulfillment center’s internal operating system." (update 48).

Product Not how it was advertised:

The people that complained the most about not getting their shirts seemed to be the first ones to actually receive their shirts. Here is what those very few people said: “The shirts work, but I wanted a true red to white shirt and the Red Nova is closer to a pink color”. “There is some dye bleeding during the 1st time I hand washed my shirt”. “The ink logo shows cracks in it, after being stretched”. Some users posted pictures on the backer comment pages with their shirts after being handwashed. Their sinks were filled with clear water and after dunking and lightly scrubbing the Radiate Shirts, their sinks were now filled with the color of the shirt. You can't even see the drain plug! All of the dye (the whole point of the Radiate Shirt Color Changing Technology) is all washed out! Radiate responds with this, "KCJNZ - The dye loss is not as extreme as what he showed, across the board. Again, I have done a lot of testing and I have never experienced that issue." Right after Kenny posted this comment, more people started posting their pictures of dye loss as well. 

Summary of Broken Promises/Updates:

Update #21 on April 16th said "we are eager to be getting each of your orders to you in July!" 
Update #24 on May 8th "Thank you for the support, and we hope to deliver everyone's shirts in July 2013!!" 
Update #31 on May 21st "Shirts will be underway in only 6 short days." 
Update #35 on Jul 3rd "Every Radiate order will be shipped by August 21st to September 15th. " 
Update #36 Jul 10th "As of today we are 1 month behind on our estimated delivery date of the end of July. This will move our delivery dates to August and September.......We will not be over a year late, like the Pebble watch.........." 
Update #38 August 19th "We are currently expecting to begin fulfilling orders in September, with all orders fulfilled by the end of November" 
Update #39 August 31st "We are currently expecting to have our shipments fulfilled during November" 
Update #40 September 30th "Reward items will be mailed beginning in mid-November, with some items being mailed in the beginning of December." 
Update #41 November 12th "Production is still on track, with most of our apparel being mailed to your door for the holiday season" 
Update #43 December 4th "The 1st round of shirts are being shipped by us and not the fulfillment company, as they are still completing their logistics process." 
Update #44 December 20th "The rest of the colorways, sleeve types, and sizes will ship in January. We will inform you if anything changes." 
Update #45 January 7th "All of the other colorways, genders, styles, and sleeve lengths will be shipped to our fulfillment center by the end of January." 
Update #47 February 4th "All Radiate Shirts Are Complete and Will Be Shipped Late February" 

Action:

I have left multiple messages on Radiate's voicemail machine, multiple emails, multiple facebook messages. I have gone above and beyond to try and figure out when I am going to get my shirts/refund. I decided to contact my Credit Card company. They told me that since this transaction was placed longer than 90 days ago, they cannot do anything about it. I then filed a complaint with the Attorney General on 04-07-14.

Conclusion:

Radiate Athletics has failed time and time again to produce a quality product "Made in the UsA". They broke their trust with their backers, who gave them more than $600k with the additional pledge kits even when Radiate only needed $30k. Radiate took $124 of my hard-earned money. They took money from a hard working american college-aged student. They took money from an innocent human being. And it wasn't just me they took money from... PLEASE REFUND ME OR SEND ME THE SHIRTS YOU PROMISED! I'm sorry I had to file this RipOffReport but I have no choice. $124 may not be a lot of money to you but it is to me!