How to start a Clothing Company » Starting Out

Building A Concept – Knowing When To Not Use A Design

Ray — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 19:50:02 +0000

This article was originally written by Ray Masaki of Lowdtown and posted on his blog: http://www.lowdtown.com/blog/

I’ve hinted in previous posts that I have lost a lot of money from deciding not to use designs. In fact, I hired a couple designers to work on a collaboration that is going unused. This brings me to the point of knowing when to not use a design.

One of the hardest things to do when you own an independent t-shirt business is waste money. However, in my opinion, one of the most valuable skills as a clothing business owner is having a perceptive eye. For example, say you paid a designer $250 for a t-shirt design for your new line. Turns out that it’s an awesome illustration, but it doesn’t fit the rest of your line aesthetically and conceptually. As a clothing brand owner, you have to be able to evaluate if printing the shirt would be worth it. I try to picture my brand as a collection of clothing that work with one another rather than individual pieces. In my opinion, it’s the cohesiveness that makes a brand more memorable. If you’re able to look at a t-shirt and know what brand it is, they’re doing something right. Also consider how much it would cost to put the shirt into production. My thoughts are that it’s better to lose the $250 than hurting the value of your brand by creating a collection you’re not completely satisfied with. You can always recover the money that you spent on the design with other sales, but it’s hard to fix a tainted image. Consider how many brands just start over with a new name and a new brand. It’s because it’s easier to create something entirely new than to fix a tainted brand, because the image associated with it is hard to change.

In a lot of the newer brands, I find that there is simply a lack of good concepts. Calling your brand Donut Kings, and having a line full of donut inspired designs, to me, is not a concept (I apologize if there actually is a donut-themed clothing brand, I was playing Dilla and it was the first thing that came to mind). There’s a lot of people who collectively hopped on the Johnny Cupcakes train, and thought that if they use the same formula of making a whatever-themed clothing brand, they could reach the same success. Wrong! Seriously, come up with an original concept that you can envision creating a unique style. It might have worked for JC because he was one of the firsts to do it, but now that there have been hundreds of the same idea, it’s becoming played out and I guarantee that it probably won’t work for you. You can polish a turd all you want, but in the end it’ll always be a turd.

I’ve seen really polished clothing brands, that have nice designs, a nice site, nice logo, etc. but what was bored me was the concept. I consider clothing to be another form of story telling; what kind of story are you trying to tell? It’s hard to connect to a brand, when there is no solid ethos driving it. And quit all the benevolent bullshit. If you don’t truly believe in the cause you’re trying to help, don’t do it at all. People jump on that bandwagon, because they believe that people are more likely to pay if it’s for a good cause. Though that might be true, it’s wrong to take advantage of it to profit from it. The first thing that comes to mind is the mind-boggling amount of brands that do disaster relief shirts. The intentions of a lot of these brands seem vacuous, and for the wrong reasons of trying to make adjunctive sales. If you really care about it, and want to support something charitable, you truly have to live it. Don’t manipulate people by saying that it’s for a good cause, when you’re really pocketing the majority of the profits. Don’t take me wrong, donating to charities and trying to help people out is a fantastic thing, and I have a lot of respect for brands that do if correctly; I just don’t like the mindset of trying to make a quick buck off of manipulation tactics.

Hopefully this article has gotten some of your wheels turning. I am by no means trying to dissuade people from creating charitable brands, or creating themed brands. I just want people to really consider if his or her brand actually has an original and unique concept that is memorable and not another boring rehash. I also realize that I was being a little hypocritical in terms of the part about changing your image. The new Lowdtown looks nothing like my old Lowdtown stuff, but at the same time, I’m willing to take on that challenge, and hopefully people won’t respond badly to the change. Thanks for all the support so far, and good luck to everyone who is trying to do something good.

Note from Jon Kruse:

Ray is totally right. Even if you pay for a design, if you don’t think it’s going to sell well don’t print it. Printing costs are more then design costs. Sometimes you have to just chalk it up as a loss.

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Building A Concept – Knowing When To Not Use A Design

Book Recommendations for Clothing Company Owners

Jon Kruse — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 19:07:56 +0000

I just put up a page for my book recommendations. You can check it out on the very top navigation of the site on the far right. Or you can just click here book recommendations

Also post some comments on the books I missed. I am going to go through and add some more in the next week and want to know of anything I missed.

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Book Recommendations for Clothing Company Owners

Costs Of Starting A Clothing Brand (Revisited)

Ray — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 19:34:50 +0000

This article was originally written by Ray Masaki of Lowdtown and posted on his blog: http://www.lowdtown.com/blog/

A lot of you guys curious in starting a clothing brand have probably read my “How To Start A Clothing Brand” series on howtostartaclothingcompany.com

Those series of blog entries have really taken off since I first wrote them, but I feel like I can talk way more on the subject now than I could back then, and I feel like it’s probably a good time to revisit them. Perhaps some of the old articles still stands true, but I’m going to try to give a fresh perspective on it, because I’ve been working a bit more intimately in the industry and I think I’m a bit wiser on the subject.

I’m not going to break it down into the “amateur, indie, and professional” categories, because they aren’t that relevant anymore. If you’re thinking about starting a serious clothing brand that has the potential to succeed, it only needs to be broken down a single way.

Ok so here it goes… starting a brand costs a lot of money! Fuck what you think about being like Nigo and selling at the club, because that doesn’t happen anymore. Unless you have really famous friends or know a shit load of important people, you’re going to need money if you want to be serious. The fact of the matter is that the indie t-shirt scene is incredibly saturated, more than you would even believe. Trust me, unless you do something really really special no one is going to give two shits about your “awesome” label. There are labels popping up every single day saying that they’re the next big thing, but unless you have the means to impress, no one is going to care.

Ok, so now that that’s out of the way, let’s try to think rationally about how much money you’re going to need. If you don’t have enough money to start a brick and mortar store, the most important thing you need is a website. Unless you’re a rockstar web designer yourself, getting a custom e-commerce site made costs a lot of money. Unlike blogs and other sites, it is essential for an e-commerce site to have excellent UX/UI because it has to be as easy as possible for someone to choose and buy your product. The site has to showcase your products well. If you’re selling something, you want the product to be the highlight, and not be distracted by the intense illustration in the background. The aesthetic of the website has to look professional and complement your brand. If I see a dope t-shirt, but it’s paired with a shitty website, I’m going to assume that the shirt’s probably bad quality too, regardless of the design. With a crazy nice website, you can even charge a premium for the same t-shirt, because people will think that the quality must be superior to Clothing Brand X with the shitty website.

However, this obviously does not come cheap. If you’re looking into getting a top of the line site that shows everyone else that you’re serious, you’re looking at a couple thousand. But if you’re willing to put down that amount and get the proper professional treatment, I guarantee you that you’re already better than 90% of the new brands out there, because it shows that you care. Nothing’s worse than a cookie-cutter default BigCartel or Storenvy site, because you’re automatically dropping yourself into a sea of the thousands of other mediocre brands. I’m not saying that BC and SE sites are always bad, I’m just commenting on the fact that if it’s not completely customized, you’re going to automatically be relegated into a list with all the other shitty brands.

The next thing that comes to mind, even before the actual products is the photography. I can’t believe how many brands overlook such an essential part of branding for your company. How are you going to create the sickest shirt of all time, and take a fucking cellphone picture of it? That’s just stupid! Instead, get your talented photographer friend, or hire a professional to take good quality photos of your products. Also, consistency is key. I cringe when I check out the shop page from a t-shirt website, and I see different proportions and sizes of the product photos. If you’re going to take a photo of your product one way, keep it that way, and if you’re going to switch it up, you better change it for all of them.

And finally, you’re obviously going to be dropping a dime on your products. Being a designer with an ego, I realize one of the hardest things to admit is when you’re not good at designing something. I know I’m not the best illustrator in the world, and it’s important to be able to hand over your design concept to a more suitable artist. Pay a professional designer to do a design that you know you couldn’t do yourself, because if you try to do it yourself, you’re going to end up with a half-assed design. Obviously you can art direct, and make it perfect, but if you’re not the best designer, acknowledge that and learn to step away from the reigns from time to time. Be willing to pay the premium when it comes to professional designers, because that’s what they are and do. If you hire Cheap Artist X from Myspace to design your shirt for $50, you’re going to get exactly what you paid for, a $50 design that looks like shit.

Another important lesson is to learn how to test the waters. Even if you think you’ve produced the most solid line on the planet, you don’t actually know that until you see the results. Instead of making 100 pieces of each design, try getting the minimum quantity, and once you’re selling them, see what’s actually popular and what’s not. I’ve learned this the hard way from having not enough of one design to having too many of another and not being able to sell out of them for a year.

Quality is important, which shouldn’t even have to be said. If you’re not making a quality product, why would you sell something that you’re not satisfied with? Spend money on quality, and don’t cut corners. If you’ve got your own printing set-up, and you can print just as good as the professionals, congrats to you. But if you’re not at that level, don’t pretend that you are; leave it to the professionals.

If you want your brand to be taken seriously, every bit of branding matters. Make professional stickers, hangtags, polybags, mailers, etc. You need to spend money to make money. It’s all about looking at your brand objectively. We all fall in love with our own products, but can you look at your own brand from the eye of the consumer? What looks unprofessional and poorly done, what could be improved on? Those are questions you have to ask yourself before presenting something as a finished product.

If you’ve managed to follow everything on this list, I’m hoping that you’re in the top 5% of new indie clothing brands out there. Summarizing everything we just looked at, I hope you understand the weight of starting a serious clothing brand. We’re talking about: $1500+ for a professional website; $1000+ for professional branding and logo design; several hundred for photography; $1000+ for designs; however much you’re spending on your products; and money for mailers and stickers. In total, I’d look to have at least five grand, if you want some decent capital to start with. Obviously these are just my thoughts on the subject, and there have been brands that have cut corners and succeeded, but not everyone would be able to do that. If you’re starting up your brand as just a hobby and for shits and giggles, that’s fine by me, but if you’re seriously saying that you’re going to be the “next big thing,” you better be backing your words up with the quality. Good luck!

This article was originally posted by Ray at Lowdtown

Note from Jon Kruse:

Ray knows his shit and I agree with everything except the money it takes. You don’t want to cut corners but at the same time running a successful clothing company isn’t just about having an awesome site, great designs, and your final product. It’s a business and with any new business you need to learn how to run it and manage it. If you gave me 5 grand when I started I probably would have foolishly spent money on things that weren’t necessary. No matter how much money you gave me I still wouldn’t know how to sell shirts, you just have to learn. I have a good article called Fail Fast, which I would suggest any people new to the t-shirt world to read.

If you are a veteran though, by all means go all out. You know how to do it.

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Costs Of Starting A Clothing Brand (Revisited)

T-shirt Blanks – How to choose one

Jon Kruse — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 18:26:26 +0000

I wrote this article for my blog, Tee Spotter. If you have an idea for a future article, or want your brand featured/reviewed please feel free to contact me at teespotterblog@gmail.com

Enjoy =)

T-Shirt Blanks & How To Choose One

When starting your clothing line, one of the many factors that come in to play is choosing what brand of apparel blank to print on. This is a big decision, there are many different levels of price, quality, material, and fit that you need to take into consideration before you order. But not to worry, I’m writing this article to help people just like you who need help picking what brand to use. In order to keep this nice and neat, I’ll break down each part of a blank tee that should be looked into before choosing one, and then go into some examples of what brands would be best for who.

Tee Parts (What To Consider)

Material – This might seem like something that wouldn’t really matter because it’s “just a t-shirt” but this assumption is very untrue. The material of your tees will be felt by each and ever one of your customers, and they don’t want to feel some thick, rough t-shirt that shrinks to half it’s size when washed. Don’t go cheap.

The most popular material being used for clothing lines right now is 100% cotton, but keep in mind that just because a tee is 100% cotton doesn’t mean that it’s top of the line. We still have the quality factor to add in later. There is also a difference between 100% cotton and 100% ringspun cotton. Ringspun cotton is softer, feels nicer, and prints better.

Some other materials you might want to check out are cotton/polyester blends. A common blend that most people have heard of is 50/50 which is 50% cotton and 50% polyester. These blends are a bit softer, and the color is sometimes heathered with spots of other colors like grey or black showing up. Just a note, your typical heather grey shirt unless otherwise noted is 90% cotton and 10% polyester. Another type of blend that is growing more and more popular are Tri-Blends, widely known from American Apparel these tees are SUPER soft and have a stretchy feel to them. They are made up of 50% Polyester/25% Cotton/25% Rayon and they also typically show some specs of other colors as well. They are on the higher side in price but we’ll get to that later.

There are also organic cotton tees, which with my own experience aren’t much different from your normal 100% cotton tee, they’re pretty soft, but I’ve also had normal cotton tees that are even softer. I guess this really comes down to if you’re trying to be earth friendly with your tees, it’s more of a personal decision. Still, something to think about.

Fit – This part of a blank tee matters even more than the material. The way your tee fits should be aimed at who your target market is. If you’re selling to a street wear crowd you might want to go with a more baggy box cut tee or even some of those tall tees. If you’re aiming at people who buy funny shirts or tees with sayings on them then you’ll want to go with an all around blank that anyone would wear, not super fitted and not super baggy either. If your clothing line is meant for people who wear t-shirts everyday and want to look good in them, I would go with a fitted shirt, which is sometimes referred to as a tubular or fashion fit. Whichever fit you choose for your brand, make sure its one that your customers would wear, because if you don’t sell the kind of tees they like to wear, then they aren’t going to buy them.

Quality & Price – These two things tie together because the price you want to pay in the end really relies on what kind of quality you want to offer. Obviously, you want to offer the best quality, but sometimes this isn’t in your budget and if you’re a brand who is just starting out then you’ll want to cut costs in anyway you can. If you have the money, then hey go for the best tees you can, if not, don’t even justify your brands quality for a better price, but more so try to find the best quality you can at a price that’s right for you. It will take some research but it will be well worth it in the end, and I’m here to help you with this article. Let’s get into some actual brands.

Tee Brands (Your Choices)

What brand of blank you pick doesn’t technically matter to your customer because they may not even know the names of these brands or know what the difference is. Especially if you re-label your shirts they most likely won’t know what brand you’re using, BUT there is another way to look at this, take a look at the bigger companies like American Apparel who have a huge name. It might be a good idea on your part to tell your customers this(that is, if you choose to USE the brand, don‘t go lying to them), but, it’s up to you if you tell your customers what brand you print on. Let’s get into each brand and which would be right for you. To save the length of this article, I’m going to stick to the most popular brands out there.

Standard Tees (Ex. Fruit of the Loom, Hanes, Gildan, Anvil, ect.) – These brands are the standard for most screen printers because they cost the least to use. They are usually 100% cotton(not ringspun) and box cut, not fitted in any way. Some of these brands DO offer a fitted version of their tees(ie. Gildan Soft Style) but they will cost a little more, still worth looking into though. If you’re a brand selling funny tees with sayings on them or selling to the skateboard crowd these brands will work just fine for you, they are a good bang for your buck.

American Apparel – American Apparel have gotten themselves a pretty big name in the clothing world, not just with t-shirts, but with just about everything; though when it does come down to their t-shirts, you can’t really go wrong. They offer 100% ringspun cotton, 50/50 blends and Tri-Blends and all come in a million color choices. The quality of these shirts is above standard, so you do pay more for them, but it’s well worth it. Especially if your brand is for people who wear t-shirts 24/7 and want to look good and feel comfortable, or if your brand has more of a fashion sense to it rather than just awesome looking t-shirts. All around, this is the most popular t-shirt blank out there, for many reasons, one of the main ones being they are made in the USA.

Alternative Apparel – Think of this brand as a more expensive, equal to or slightly higher quality American Apparel. These shirts are super soft and have a really nice fit. The fabric is slightly stretchy and is noticeably thinner than your average t-shirt. The sizes are also not as consistent with other t-shirt brands, so if you choose this brand make sure you take a look at the size charts and send the message along to your customers. Overall they are decent shirts, a lot of the ladies prefer them over other brands because of the fit(we’re talking women’s cuts). If you can afford to print on these then go for it, but I wouldn’t empty your wallet over them.

Tultex – Ah, yes, the t-shirt brand with the most controversy. There are a lot of mixed feelings about this brand of blanks, and to be honest, all of them are correct. The thing is your paying less for a comparable version of a fashion fit tee. Are they 100% ringspun cotton? Yes. Are they fitted? Yes. Are they nice tees? Yes. Then what’s wrong with them? Nothing. Tultex is providing you with a less expensive alternative to offering a nicer fitted shirt for your customers, and if we go back to the “Quality & Price” section of this article I’ll repeat to you that you get what you pay for. Tultex shirts shrink a bit when dried, the colors aren’t 100% consistent between batches and the sizes aren’t always spot on, BUT, for the price you pay for them, they are great tees. If you’re a brand who wants to print on American Apparel or something similar but can’t afford to pay the big bucks, try out this brand. Tultex is most definitely a close second to the big dogs. PS- They also offer a 50/50 blend.

Alstyle – Very similar to Tultex, Alstyle is a great way to put out a quality product and save a few dollars. They aren’t as good of a fit as Tultex or American Apparel and they do shrink quite a bit more, but if you’re looking to print shirts just to try out a design or for promotional use, then they will work fine. Also, they are 100% cotton but not ringspun, so don’t expect an extremely soft shirt. These would also be a decent option for someone who’s printing funny shirts or something for a street wear brand.

There are more brands out there worth looking into, but like I stated above, I highlighted only the most popular. Some other brands you may want to consider are Next Level, Royal Apparel, Bare Apparel, and Bella. There are still more but I could fill up a whole extra page full of shirt brands. I have to leave some of the research for you

In Conclusion (The End…finally)

I’m not saying in any way that a street wear brand can’t print on Alternative Apparel or that a fashion based brand can’t print on Alstyle. These are merely suggestions based on my own knowledge and experiences in the t-shirt business. I’ve been involved with t-shirts more than the average person(probably more than a healthy person should be) for about 5+ years now and I’m still learning more everyday.

I don’t know everything, and you might not all agree with what I said and that’s perfectly fine, everyone is entitled to their own opinion. Please keep in mind that what shirt you print on is ultimately up to you, this article is only here to help guide anyone who may not know about the industry enough to make a choice.

Thanks for reading everyone! Let me know what you think about this article in a comment on the original post, I would really appreciate your feedback. Spread the word to anyone you might know who’s working on a clothing line of their own.

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T-shirt Blanks – How to choose one

It’s about how hard you can get hit

Jon Kruse — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 18:33:06 +0000

saw this video recently and thought I would share.

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It’s about how hard you can get hit

Don’t start a clothing company

Jon Kruse — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 17:13:27 +0000

Let me first say that starting a clothing company has been an amazing experience for me personally. I have met tons of amazing people in this industry and had tons of positive customer feedback and I wouldn’t change anything. This post is just meant to make you cautious about getting into this industry.

First of all the t-shirt market is over saturated. If you think you are going to become the next quicksilver, Johnny Cupcakes, or Marc Ecko you are in for a rude awakening. It is so much harder now to break out in this market because so many people are doing the same exact thing as you. I get around 25,000 unique visitors to this site every month. That’s 25,000 people wanting to start a clothing company.

It’s expensive. Paying for quality designers, screen printers, and shirts are expensive.

Shirt costs

designer: $200-300 (you’re going to have to pay at least $200 if you want a decent design)
shirt cost for 50 screen printed shirts on AA: $400- 500

each shirt costs $12-16

You would have to sell 35 shirts at $20 just to break even. This is why starting out is hard. You are trying to compete with the big companies on prices and quality but won’t be able to turn any real profit until you grow bigger and can do higher print runs. In the beginning it’s all about cash flow. If you can get sales constantly coming in you can make a business out of it and grow.

It’s tons of work. You need to constantly be coming out with new designs. Contacting blogs about sales and engaging your customer to maintain your shop. Ship out products or hire someone to do that for you. All of this requires a lot of work.

There are a lot of other ventures you can do besides starting a clothing company that would probably be easier. I applaud anyone that takes that leap of faith and goes for it. For me it has all been worth the journey .

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Don’t start a clothing company

Fur Face Boy at Pool Tradeshow

Jon Kruse — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 18:32:43 +0000

I posted Fur Face Boy’s experiences at Pool last year and saw he had a new blog post up about his experiences this year. You can read his whole article here

Early this week, I exhibited my brand at the Pool Tradeshow for a 2nd time. I figured that since I lived through a Pool Tradeshow before and that Fur Face Boy was a bit more established since when I first exhibited back in 2009, maybe this time around it’d be more of a success.

When you’ve experienced Pool before, you learn a thing or two. The first time I exhibited, I went ALL OUT. Custom vinyl wallpaper, low-run prints of sample tees, 7′ long custom sign, mannequins, loads of stickers, line-sheets and free shirts to give away, loads of decor and let’s not forget airfare, shipping my shit to Vegas, renting a car and booking a hotel. What does all of that mean? MONEY. I’m not gonna lie to you, the first time I exhibited at Pool it cost a fortune! Back then, I still had a comfortable paying job and I was wayyyyy more naive than I am now. Those attributes and attitudes gave me cushion to cover my expenses as well as allow me to go all out without knowing the consequences my bank account would get hit with.

I left my job early in the year and I don’t fall for much bullshit as I used to anymore, so this time around, I tried to be as smart with my funds as I possibly could. I waited until the last month to commit to the Pool Tradeshow. Why? Because that means you have a better chance of getting a last minute ‘we want as much money as we can get before the show starts’ booth price. Sure getting a booth at the last minute means that you won’t be mentioned in a few online and printed show publications, but seriously…who the F actually looks at that shit? Another cost-saving maneuver I ended up doing was contacting my friend, Chris of MadGods (who I met the first time I exhibited at Pool) to share a booth, as well as a hotel room with me. Our brands are so different from each others that we knew that we wouldn’t be competing. In fact, we thought that this would bring in a more diverse crowd to check out both of our lines during one booth stop.

Other cost-saving moves I made were: Instead of renting a car we took the tram daily, I also called the hotel I was staying at and personally asked if they could give me a better deal on a hotel since I was exhibiting at Pool. Immediately they said…“Yes, we can” –that instantly saved me an additional 15% off a night. Since I have a business credit card with airline benefits, I used my accumulated points (from FFB business only purchases) to fly to Vegas for free. I also didn’t print a sample run, instead, I just brought tees from my personal vault to show as sample pieces. Also, I didn’t go all out with the decor, instead, I wanted my product to do the talking. Basically, my set up was just my tee’s, order forms and my high degree of charm. *blows on nails* That’s it. Doing it this way saved me much more than half of what I originally spent in 2009. You live and learn, y’know?

Click here to read the full article

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Fur Face Boy at Pool Tradeshow

New e-book about starting a clothing company: releases on 4/19

Jon Kruse — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 18:30:22 +0000

Threads not Dead is an e-book written by Jeff Finley of Go Media with the help of many big names in the clothing industry (including myself).

Here is the description

What if the most prolific and influential people in the modern t-shirt design scene got together and discussed everything they wish they knew when they started? That’s exactly what we have here. Inside these 10 chapters is 117 pages of essential strategy pulled from the success and failures of some of the best in the biz. Key topics include design, freelancing, band merchandise, personal branding, marketing, sales, printing & production, retail, e-commerce, and more.

Pre-order the book today for $49.95 and get it on April 19th.

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New e-book about starting a clothing company: releases on 4/19

Storing and bagging your shirts

Guest — Thu, 06 Jan 2011 20:49:22 +0000

Some tips from what I have learned over the years about storing tees.
-NEVER hang them! After about a month or 2 the tees will get permanent crease marks and if they are a V-neck or a softer material neck the back of the neck will fold down the middle pointing out and it looks bad.

-Folding them correctly. Do not fold the neck on half. Yes you maybe able to get the folded shirt smaller but it is stays folded in half you will have stretching of the collar and permanent fold crease where it was folded. I suggest picking up one of these bad boys. (or making one yourself out of cardboard!)

http://www.4sale4now.com/products/As-Seen-on-TV/Perfect-Fold-By-TriStar-Garment-Folder.aspx
This site has them for like $18 shipped and for me its totally worth it. It is also makes it easier to poly bag them because you can measure the folded size and all your products will be the same size! Which brings me to my next point…

-I would recommend always poly bagging your tees. Why? Because it protects your investment! What if it was raining while you were on vacation and came back to find out you had a small leak in your room were you were keeping your shirts and the water fell on your tees ruining 20 shirts. Now if you had paid the 2-5 cents per bag to fold them then you would been saved.
Here is a great site to get bags. Of course I recommend getting recycled or biodegradable bags
http://www.papermart.com/Product%20Pages/Product.aspx?GroupID=15037&SubGroupID=15038&ParentGroupID=18882#15038
The site is ghetto but I have been to their warehouse and it is anything but small and ghetto the place is huge with hundreds of people working there! Prices are great and have a huge selection! I also recommend getting the self seal tab at the end that way it looks more professional and is easier then taping each one shut! I learned that one the hard way!

-That brings me to my text point of actual storage. I would suggest putting and transporting them in a clear or frosted colored tote. You can get them at a Target type store for around $6 each. I use a divider in the middle to separate the designs. What is also an advantage to doing this is taking them to events you do you can put multiple designs in each bin and with a divider you can put a piece of tape with the design name written on it and it will make the design very easy to find when in a sales rush! It will also be safer for your product because no one can reach in and grab them like if you were storing them on a shelf at an event. Keeping the products in a tote bin at home or where ever you store the products can also help cause if any natural sun light comes in it will discolor your products over time. I also suggest getting a colored tote bins. I have blue for the guys and pink for the ladies stuff that way I can go to the guys bin or ladies bin directly and it cuts down time when at an event or filling an order.

-After poly bagging the tee put a small round sticker (about 3/4″ to an 1″ round and put the size on it. A simple XS,S,M,L,XL,2XL and so on. This makes it very simple to find what size you need at an event. I suggest always putting the size sticker on the same side. For example, I always put the size sticker on the bottom right because I am right handed and when I pull out the bin I always grab for the bottom right so it makes it easier to just flip the tees until you get to the size you want.

-I also think that if you did a hang tag and it can be hung outside of the tee in the bad I think you should do that as well because (in my opinion) it looks more professional. Especially when you have a tag that is unique or is pushing a sale or advertising something that it should be showing. that might make someone checkout your site or sale you are having because they instantly saw that unique tag when they first pulled out the poly bag from your mailer.

Those are just a few tips I have learned over time.

-Tim
Subeco
www.wearsubeco.com

Post from: How to start a Clothing Company

Storing and bagging your shirts

Getting your line into boutiques/ shops

Jon Kruse — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 22:06:00 +0000

What you should know before you approach a boutique/shop

Being in a room with two buyers can be a very tense situation. Throw
on top of that inexperience and you are quickly driving down the road
of wrong decisions with signs of regret along the way. I felt like an
amateur with terms like Consignment and Keystoning, but eventually I
learned how pricing worked in a boutique, the hard way. So I decided
to write this article to help you become more prepared with the basics
before you approach a shop. My name is RoyLyn Palmer-Coleman and I
have been running a brand called Vaughn de Heart out of California for
a little over a year now. You can find us at www.vaughndeheart.com

Should I put my clothing in stores?

Before you approach the shop

1. Become a regular-Before you approach the shop with your product.
If possible, visit the shop a few times. Talk to the employees about
the shop, or just fashion in general. Show them that you are not just
an average consumer. Make them comfortable with you and when you
finally do approach them with your business proposal they may be more
willing to sell your product and may even give you insights on what
the buyers for the store are looking for and what they like.

2. Buy from the shop-One of the greatest satisfactions and signs of
support is money. Imagine if a designer wanted to collaborate with
your brand but before he did he bought 3 of your shirts. How much
better would you feel about him when he finally approaches you and
says he wants to work with you? It goes a long way toward building
credibility. If you support them, chances are, they will be more
willing to support you.

Pricing in a boutique

1. Consignment-This is when a store will carry your product and take a
percentage of each sale. For example a store might agree to take 30%
of each sale. So if you choose to sell your shirts for $10 they will
take $3 from the sale and you will get $7. Most of the time under
this method I have found that you will determine the price in their
shop.

2. Wholesale-Wholesale is when a shop will buy your product from you
and then sell it in their shop. The advantage to this method is that
you get your money for your product regardless of how many items they
actually sell in their shop.

3. Keystoning-Keystoning is a type of pricing method that is a
standard in the industry. How Keystoning works is you determine a
wholesale price to sell your product to the store for. They will
double that and make it the selling price. For
example if you want your shirt to sell for $20 dollars in a particular
shop, that means you have to sell your shirt to the shop for $10.
Keystoning seems to be the standard wholesale method that I have run
into with most shops. So if you go into a boutique, chances are they
have bought most of the product in that shop for half of the original
selling price. If you are a new brand and your strategy is to make
your shirts cheaper than most and still make a profit, you need to be
able to make your shirts for less than half of the selling price.
This method was all new to me. I thought I would just sell my shirts
to the shop at whatever price I could negotiate then they would turn
around and sell it for whatever price they wanted (similar to
wholesale). But with Keystoning the two are related and gives the
shop more power in the bargaining process.

4. Keystone Plus-In this pricing method the final selling price is more than
double the price the boutique buys the shirt. For example, you sell a shirt
to a store for $5, the store could turn around and sell it for $16.
This would be called Keystone plus 3, because the final selling price was
determined as if the store bought the shirt for three more dollars than it actually did.
The regular Keystoning method would have priced the shirt at $10.
The advantage here goes to the shop because they make more profit, which
of they like. So when explaining to the shop what you want the shirt to sell for
you would tell them Keystone plus 3.

Marketing through a boutique

1. Pop up shop- Team up with the store that is carrying your product
and have them feature it in store for a limited period of time. You
can have giveaways and special displays to bring people out.

2. Behind the counter goodies- You can create a flyer or some other
promotional giveaway and ask the store if they would put one in the
bag of whoever buys something from their shop, not just people who by
your brand, creating exposure.

Keep Adapting

1. You are not trapped. Just because your product is in stores does
not mean that you have to be carried by stores forever. You can
change your mind later or even choose a timeline to pull your product
from stores.

2. There is more than one way to start a brand-There have been some
who have chosen to be the only ones to carry their product, some who
allow their product to be carried by others, or both. All of these
methods are respectable and I feel that is not being said enough. It
is important to understand your customer to determine witch method is
best for you. Sometimes exclusivity will drive your customer directly
to you, sometimes exposure, it truly depends on what you are selling
and what stage you are in during your development.

Hope the information helps you be a little more confident when you
approach a shop. Thanks for reading!

Post from: How to start a Clothing Company

Getting your line into boutiques/ shops