How to start a Clothing Company

Hello, sorry I don't understand the point of that article : maybe because english is not my mother tongue but what do you recommend so? If we do the print by ourselves we lose time and we're not dedicated to the business so what could be the solution??? I know there's no magic recipe for success but I can't see the point of it now…:S I'm confused and sorry if I misunderstood your post for language reasons.

Cordially,

Roman

Yes, that's the main idea I thought I understood, and I really loves this site, it's a real bible for me, I still didn't begin my shop but it's on its way and everyday a little bit more thanks to all that information and in my goals was the one to find a good printer, reliable, with experience, if physical contact possible better, and in the best case not too expensive, so I think I'm getting the idea, I fastly uinderstood that 'spredshirt-like” website were the one that were the real winners in the end even if they can look attractive in the beginning, THX!!!

But isn't print on demand good for testing new shirt designs before printing an inventory? You could use the services to see which designs are the hot sellers for your clothing line, then invest your capital into those designs that sell well, without having wasted too much money on the designs that didn't sell very well.

I am not posting your newest message Blair.

In your last comment you posted “what about this new site that does screen printing on-demand?” and gave the link to your website. You were posing as some random guy when in fact you were just spamming for your own profit. If you can't be up front and honest in a comment, why would anyone trust you with their business.

Not really unless you want to have them send you a tshirt and you pay for it as a sample. Even then I am not really feeling the whole cafepress thing.. Find a low minimum local printer. That would work for samples.

-Javaboi

I'm not sure I totally agree with you here.

I confess, I'm a Cafepress commando. I make between $30 and $50 a month on average, but in the months leading up to Christmas I it is about $100-200/month. I don't really how well other people do, but I assume I am on the low side. My thing is entomology t-shirts, so I kind of have a narrow audience.

In my mind, Cafepress (and other sites like it) are all about the long tail. You can create designs that only a select few will be interested in, and you may only sell them every now and then, but if you have many different designs in your store they can all add up. That kind of a thing is hard to do if you have create your own inventory. With your own inventory I would think the better strategy would be go with the most popular designs so you don't get stuck with extras. So I think Cafepress gives you some freedom to go out on a limb with designs and be a litte more creative. Also, they do some marketing themselves, so you really don't have to committ too much of your time to get your ideas out there. “The greater the risk, the greater the reward” is a good axiom, but maybe not always true. Why not minimize as much risk as you can?

I do agree with you and others who have commented here that quality is an important issue. Folks who are really into t-shirts will probably never consider buying anything from Cafepress, Zazzle, etc. And if you're really into your craft, you would probably never consider having your work produced through those sites.

For me, I just like to have fun thinking if clever ways to make designs related to insects and entomology, and Cafepress is an easy way for me to tranlaste that into a tangible product that people can buy. Who knows? Maybe one day I'll experiment with having someone screen print some shirts for me and selling them myself.

i've been selling shirts online for a long time, and i used to think that holding an inventory was the only way to go. but now there's no way i'd go back to that antiquated model. it just doesn't make business sense unless you're doing a very large volume of sales.

when sites like cafepress came along i tried out that service and just wasn't impressed with the digital print quality at all. so i continued doing business as usual, but it was a pain because i still have boxes of shirts sitting unsold in my closet – that will probably never get sold. that's money sunk!

i decided there had to be a better way. so i started calling all the screen printing companies i could find online and asking them if they would screen print my shirts on demand. of course most of them said no, some laughed, but finally, one company said yes. and that's the reason i'm still selling shirts online today.

if i still had to carry an inventory and fulfill the orders myself, i probably would have quit the business a long time ago because i just didn't want to deal with it anymore.

but now, customers order shirts on my own website, their orders get sent straight to my screen printer, and then he prints them up and ships them out to the customers, then he charges my business credit card for the printing costs plus shipping (which i have my buyers pay).

i normally charge $19.95 for one of my shirts, and my printer charges me about $9 per shirt. so that's $10.95 in profit, more than 50% margin, and i don't do anything directly involved with the sale and fulfillment of each order.

of course i still put a small amount of work into my business with marketing, maintaining the website, etc. but really, the business mostly runs itself.

so basically, i've given up maybe $3 per shirt in profit in exchange for the convenience of an automated, hands-free business, and not having to hold an inventory, manage that inventory, fulfill orders, etc etc. and for ME, it's TOTALLY worth it.

so while i agree with you, jon, that the print-to-order sites like cafepress or zazzle don't really work for serious t-shirt entrepreneurs, i think print-to-order as a business model is a MUCH better idea than continuing to do it the old way.

i found a “local” screen printer that is doing the prints for me. i say “local” because he's just got a small local shop, but he's not in my town, he's a few hours away.

i pay a little bit more for the screens up front so that he doesn't have any money tied up in the screens himself, and he just keeps the screens handy for use whenever he needs to print my designs.

of course there are some limitations, for example, he prefers that i don't have shirts with custom ink colors (which he would have to mix by hand), and he doesn't do oversize prints. he's usually pretty good about getting orders out in a couple weeks or so.

i guess it just depends on managing your customers' expectations. i've found that if i tell them up front that it will take that long to get their shirt, i don't get any complaints.

would be great if storenvy did this..took care of shipping

as i live in australia

What is the system you found?

So… we haven't decided what a good printing site would be then? Jon, do you print your own then at this point? All of your info is a great help, really.

I liked the subject, but only talk about clothes. And watches?
Do you like watches?
I know a site that allows you to create your own collection of watches (both straps and dial). 20% of each sale.

i would like to research this company if you dont mind? : )

threadbird