Do bodyshapes sell?

I've been thinking about opening a little business in SL.

Previously I was leaning towards t-shirts and pants (I've reached a point where people don't run away screaming anymore when they see my stuff).

But then I had a new idea ...

I've gotten a lot of compliments on the bodyshape I made myself, and I've been thinking about making a few more shapes and selling them - at a reasonable price

I still remember how frustrated I was when I started. Everything seemed to cost 500L$ plus - which is a lot for a newbie.

My question is:

Does anybody actually buy bodyshapes?

Or do you all make your own?

I made my own to start, bought some, and figured out I liked mine better and just kept tweaking until I was satisfied. But yes shapes do seem to sell fairly well. I'd suggest making realistic looking shapes, beyond the Amazon Barbie Dolls that roam Second Life. Also men's shapes are sorely lacking, in my opinion, way too many, Broad Shouldered, Narrow Waist, Small Headed guys stumbling about.

Do Search - Places - Shapes.

Shapes sell. Apparently they sell very well. When I wander around some of the places and see what they have to offer, I always wonder if the buyer thinks they are getting the hair and skins, too.

A lot of times I bet they do. As a courtesy, your vendor should say Shape Only. Shapes are in my opinion the most highly marked up item, some of ther prices I've seen are not worth it. So if you put out a good shape at a decent price you should do fine. We'll let Colette weigh in on this discussion.

Amen, Brenda.. Amen!

Ditto!! My 'girl' knows a club where almost the entire male population have triangles for torsos!

Shapes I think are a very personal thing. I see vendors selling shapes and skins as sets and quite honestly they're as individual as a can of baked beans. Usually cheap but some quite expensive. Some, specifically designed round a RL person. No appeal to me at all.

A lot of vendors selling shapes only and they either have a very narrow range of heights, builds, etc or they're asssembled into a grid of bewildering number. Then again, the pictures rarely demonstrate the differences.

I love tweaking and playing with my female shapes but basically I've brought them down to three: A tall, slim not-quite-supermodel; a medium height but shapely and a short and cuddly, all of believable and I think realistic proportions. They have all been complimented but if I'd created a range covering all the in-betweens, it would probably resemble the aforementioned grid.

The mix of shape and skin is one to take account of. These three shapes I have individual skins for to suit my taste. Almost by accident recently I found myself swapping my skin/shape pairs and found a mix of "Hey! that's interesting" and "OMG!" The face is the hardest part of all and despite how much or how good a skin might be, a shape that works well with another one might be really awful here. An example of this is my short, cuddly blonde. I found a remarkably cheap freckled skin a few weeks back at PanJen. Joy is the name of the skin. I thought for the price, get it and play. It was excellent value!! I slapped it on my blonde which I was fairly happy with anyway and 'shazam!' She blew my mind. I've not touched a slider since that moment. Personally, I thought she came out better than the model advertising the skin!

So yes, shapes sell. Give careful consideration to the skins you use with them. There are a lot of very generic looking faces about. I must have 100+ snapshots of extremely attractive faces I've met but I've never seen them in shape store posters!

A friend of mine sells shapes, she makes it abundantly clear on all her items that skin isn't included but I think you're generally right, a lot of people probably think they're getting the shape and the skin.

Yes, shapes sell, but it's also a highly competitive market given all the offerings out there. My advice would be to find some way to make your line distinctive so that it stands out from the crowd. Spend some time coming up with a clever name and memorable visual design for your marketing, plus any other spin you can devise.

I opened my Dyke-In-A-Box shapes store about six months ago, and sales have been steady. Given that my particular market niche is quite small, I'm never going to be a smashing SL success story, but sales continue to improve as I add more to the line.

My approach is a bit labor-intensive, so it may not be a good business model for someone who is focused on the business income aspect. I develop each of my shapes as a fully-fleshed out character, with an extensive wardrobe plus accessories, and even a set of anim poses that suit the personality of that shape.

To make very sure that buyers understand the importance of skin selection, I include a set of photo references (usually 4-5 textures) that show the same shape in different skins that I considered before making my final selection.

The whole package for each shape contains very detailed styling notes, including prices, the skin reference photos and landmarks to every designer I used. Ultimatley, I consider that what people are buying is as much a time-saving shopping service as a product.

Go for a niche. Let me tell you that most of the shapes I've seen for Asian women suck. I ended up making my own, and she is hot. Again though, the skin makes a big difference. She is hot wiyh one skin (all 15 makeup versions) and not so hot with others.

I hear from my girlfreinds that are African that they have similiar problems.

Also, how about a slender guy with a gorgeous face (sigh).

Hear, hear on someone making realistic shapes!

I made my own shape (very painstakingly, over several months of gradual change), mostly because of the lack of what I consider shapes that look like a normal woman.

Most of the male shapes I see are something I would want to run away from in RL.

If you were to create "normal" looking shapes, and advertise them as such, I think you could make a mint!

Yes shapes sell.

Its a low start up cost type of business. You dont need a lot of prims, etc. to display the inventory.

Much of the shapes business is run by people who could use a shapes designer themselves, so I imagine its hard for the shopper to find the shape she/he wants.

One important thing is never go on the advice of people who are afraid to critisize you when deciding if your shape looks good...

I like the realisitic look myself, though I do sell a couple of more extreme styles.

Good luck with your business.





(below is a rambling history of my involvement in the shapes biz)
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The shapes business is partly my fault.

Back in early 05 there was two shapes makers Skin Doctors and Blody by Blakes. Skin Doctors was mainly a Skin store that sold some shapes on the side, Blake had a larger no mod shape business. It was very much an exclusively priced item.

Since I couldnt actually find a shape store when I started and hated the way mine turned out I decided to spend several days getting my shape "right". I began getting compliments eventually - Im not really the type who asks people if I look "hawt".

My girfriend at the time was a friend of the famous (infamous?) Marilyn , who of course has quite an impressive shape, and some really good shapes advice. It was her advice that led me on the path from grapefruit to tear drop shaped boobs after a lot of trial and error, and helped me realize, no, you cant ever get the nose 100% right.

So .. After all this experimentation, Id been toying around with the idea of selling shapes. I literally took my shape's numbers put them on a spread sheet and the Linden starter av's numbers and took the avergae between the teo - and came up with "Girl Next Door", I realized people would want shapes slimmer and plumper than that, as well as shorter, taller.

After I had 10 shapes or so made I still wasnt sure whether to sell them Mod or no Mod. And for how much to sell them for. Then my freind Cherry needed a shape for a "Fat girls in lingerie party" - I set down and made the most realisitic I could very full figured shape. It looked too good for the "contest", since it wasnt a parody..

After that I decided to open the store .. hoping to make maybe 5-10k to buy a few things I wanted. It was a tiny three walled stall on Glow island, where I lived at the time. Although it was risking people stealing my ideas I made the shapes all mod, like some of the furry designers did. And I decided to sell all 11 of them in a package for 300L.

This was before classified ads, and I was told by quite a few people it would "never work", sales were extremely slow at first. Finally they climbed to about 3 sales a week.

Then Clasified ads came out, I did my first ad and sales nearly immediately went to about 3 a day. They have climbed a little since , eventually flattening out.

Well after this .. I guess modest sucess - A lot of competition has sprung up. Especially after 6/6/06 .. Now I doubt im even in the top 10% of shapes sellers.

I generally cocentrate on realisitic looking shapes. Most are in realisitic human heights - though I do make a more Barbie shape called femme Fatale, and a very small Anime shape.

So thats it - I opened my store knowing full well my numbers would be copied and "stolen" and eventually used by someone else. I figured if my price was low enough people would buy from me anyway.

I have sold thousands of shapes .. and have had only a couple of complaints over the years, all of which I quickly corrected. So its a decent Business.

I'm glad to hear it's not just me.

Even if they sell, I think it's crazy when people charge skin like prices for shapes. Lets face it shapes don't take as much time and effort. Your either good at it or not.

Ive always thought of shapes more as a service than content creation. Basically you are selling someone your eye for proportion and a significant time saving learning how to work the sliders.

Also with mod shapes they can still adjust the end result.

The price for shapes before I began my shop were 800L, and 2000L , (there was 2 makers at the time) , I too - thought this was an outrageous price. Especially considering a shape is often a entry level type of purchase.

Luckily the average price has dropped considerably through the market (my price has always been the same)

Nowadays I am often the 2nd or 3rd place someone buys a shape from. Frequently becuase the customer had wanted to look more "realisitic", or becuase their earlier purchased shape was no mod.

shapes sell but of most stands u see every where, the shapes look like misformed creatures of another planet... (got a nice collection of them)

bought 1 expensive shape shape of a reputational store and it endedup in the backup folder as it didn`t look like the ad with oversized body and a chin like the alien creature

took some time but endedup with editing my own nub shape to a shape most ppl are damn jelous about
some idiots have tried to try and buy it of me for 350L$-500L$ LOL

I bought my shape, and I love it. It is non modifiable, which I like because I think it is perfect as is. I can't remember what I paid for it though...but I got it at the mall at the Isle of Lesbos.

I know of one person who is a whiz at fine tuning your own shapes. If only I could remember her name..........

Stepping out on me with another Shapes Designer ? .. that really hurts

It's more than just the sense of body proportion (although god knows all too many SL residents need serious help with that aspect). It's also choosing a skin and hair style that complement that shape.

I spend a considerable amount of time every week keeping current with skin and hair products, not to mention clothes. I test each shape with dozens of different skin demos, selecting just the right one, then further adjusting the shape to work with that skin.

When you buy a shape, you're buying the time it would take to search out a dozen or more skin designers and try on their demos, not to mention all the hair designers. That's quite a bargain if you think about it.

Um, maybe they like the way they look? My avs all resemble Jessica Rabbit from the neck down because that's how I choose for them to look. It's a fantasy world, and I don't see why should we have to worry about 'realism' if we don't want to...

Thre's a difference between crafting a shape for a conscious unrealistic effect and just getting the shape wrong.

I've seen quite a few avatars in which it's obvious by choice of clothing and fashion accessories that the resident is *trying* to look super sexy in a realistic conventional human form. But the end results is just slightly... odd... because the body is not proportioned properly.

I think a good general rule is one skin-one shape. Oh and Beebo mentioned hair. Very definitely yes! When I take the hair off my in-betweeny her skull just does not look right. I evidently fine tuned her with the hairstyle on.

Last night I just revisited my tall, slim and suddenly let out "Oh God! She's a clothes peg!" I'd got the legs to torso very wrong, so preocupied I was with the face before. It's a slow process getting yourself just right and good for Colette, leaving hers mod cos I bet finding one just perfect off-the-peg is a rarity. Good for you Rhi!

In this world, if it's right to them, it's not wrong. Now, if THEY'RE complaining that they can't get x right, that's a different story.

Oh please yes!
I did my partner's shape for him cause we couldn't find anything that didn't look like Ahnold on steroids.

Where did men get the idea that the weird triangle shape is attractive to women?

Shapes sell quite well, which was a mystery to me since you can do it yourself.

However, not all are equally talented, and shape sales is not just to people who don't know they could try it themselves.

IMHO, body shaping is easy to the point of trivial. The challenge is good face shaping; subtle changes can have dramatic effects.

Also, shaping can be rather skin-sensitive. So, if you sell shapes, I highly recommend you list the skins that you used during development or testing (say, "ideal for these skins" or something). A serious shaper should have a large assortment of skins to use when developing shapes.

Do newbies a favor and assemble a good set of cheap ones! You may find a path beaten to your door.

BTW, it's a whole lot easier to assemble a good shape for a particular skin and look, than to assemble a good suite of shapes for a variety of looks. Do you want to be a boutique or a one-stop-shape-shop? Very big difference in the work flow you'd use.

And do the world a real favor and sell them modifiable. Most shape sellers sell them no-mod, because a modifiable shape is copiable (though the process is rather tedious without using a bot built for the purpose). But if you're selling them inexpensively and manage to develop a name for yourself, copycat sales should hardly be an issue.

Good luck!