How to start a Clothing Company

How to launch your clothing line

Well, that really shouldn’t be a question, because EVERYONE knows that your launch is maybe the single most important release for your clothing company. So let’s cover what we’ve learned so far… You now understand how much money you’ll need to run and start your company, and you now have a kickass website. So what’s next? You need to have some badass products for your release. Of course, this whole preparation would take several weeks or maybe months, so let’s pretend that the process has been sped up, and you’ve already done said things.

Continue reading...

Printing it yourself VS hiring it out

My buddy David Murray over at SEIBEI wrote this great article about doing screen printing vs hiring it out. I get e-mails all the time from people who want to learn screen printing and start their own t-shirt line. It’s always a very tricky issue for me to tackle, because the way I came into this [...]

Continue reading...

Casualty Killers

They’ve got some really strong designs, better than most of what’s coming out lately. Classic, simple, unique – true style. casualtykillers.com

Continue reading...

How to design the best website for a clothing line

So assuming that you have a bunch of great products and you have the money to produce them, the next most important thing is to have a professional website. To us indie designers, a website is everything. It’s pretty much our only storefront, well, for those who can’t afford a brick and mortar store anyway. So like any store that you would visit in a mall or in SoHo or in Tokyo or wherever, it has to be presentable and professional and give the customer a good impression of your brand.

Continue reading...

The truth about copyrights and licensing

I get lots of questions from people who want to get into the shirt business asking me about using licensed imagery, sayings, and characters in their designs. They ask me if it’s “ok” because they deviated from the original works by a certain percentage, or because it’s a parody, or some other excuse they claim will allow them to cash in on their design while not getting into trouble. The fact is: If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and even quacks like a duck…it’s copyright infringement. That means that the little “personal flair” you add to the design idea isn’t enough to keep you off the radar of any major company protecting their intellectual property rights. Make any excuse you want, but you know what? You’ll have to prove it in court…and do you have enough money to do that? That’s what I thought…

Continue reading...

Your First Printing Experience: How to Prepare

This article assumes that you (the reader) have already started your company, have designs that you would like to print and have found a printer to work with. It is intended to walk you through the process of your first print and bring up any “did you knows”. Enjoy! Prepare your files for print. Select your printing [...]

Continue reading...

Color Resources for Tee Designers

You’ve been working on a design in your spare time for 5 days straight… and almost everything is perfect. Everything except the colors. You have 4 different variations laid out in illustrator and keep flipping back between them. You’ve already switched the shirt colors half a dozen times, changed your bright red to something a [...]

Continue reading...

Costs of starting a clothing company

How much do I need to start my clothing brand? This is a HUGE question that I get asked a lot. And the simple answer is that there is no answer. Of course, I could give you an estimate based on your products and what you’ll need and what not, but ultimately there’s no way that I can just say that you need X amount of dollars to start Y company. So let’s break it down a little bit to help you assess your business and how much money you will possibly need.

Continue reading...