Launched my own clothing line (in less than 7 days)

[Ludachris]

Creating a lifestyle brand has always been very appealing to me. I have an idea for a niche that I think could work, with clothing, products, and content geared towards that niche. I know that it would have to be very well executed with all of the t-shirt stores and blogs being launched every hour. @SinisterLex makes excellent points on how to frame the brand. For me, like with every idea I have, it's a matter of finding effective ways to gauge market demand before I dive into it. I've launched too many ideas without measuring interest first. Intuition hasn't proven to be a good metric for me.

 

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[TheDillon__]

So your cost is how much? Why didn't you start printful? Wow they started in 2013 and look how good they're doing. Already hit millions of revenue in a year. Tons of slowlaners with small clothing websites place an order with them every couple of minutes.



You don't need pictures with models.



Nobody cares. American Apparel filed chapter 11 recently.



The t-shirt designs suck imho. New designs? All the t-shirts basically look the same.



Nobody is going to be interested enough to stick around waiting for your new round of clothes to come out.



There's a LOT more problems than that. It's on all resolutions. Here's a pic on IE.

Notice how the footer is showing but I've only scrolled down half way and also a missing shirt on the last row and first column? The website sucks big time. If Tictail only hired one competent person for one day they could fix all of this but no. There's also a "start a shop" bottom on the top right. So if your customers order from you they'll just go through Tictail next time and not you. It's like starting an Ebay shop to build a brand name. What a great idea.

OP - I was in the same boat you're in right now. My most recent attempt at a project was @WeAreCropNoire on instagram. (Now a dead project.)

I went through Printful and tried to use a lot of their patter on their site as selling points on my own.

It's definitely possible to make good money off of their service, however you give up two big keys of CENTS; Entry and Control. You and I both know that there's nothing special about what we do. You don't control shipping times, manufacturing costs, nada.

Rep+ for this post, wish I would've heard this one last year.

 

[Dsant]

All that stuff is nice, but what's the story and who are you targeting?

Everyone has a nice t-shirt website, so you have to answer the questions nobody else does.

• What niche is this for?
• Who is that person specifically?
• What are they like?
• How do they think?
• What do they identify with?
• How do they want your shirts to make them feel?
• What story does your brand tell?
• What story does each shirt tell?

Regarding stories, I'm talking about the story told in terms of brand imagery as well as copy. There should be an unspoken story and a story told with words. Even those who like your designs won't buy them if there's nothing to connect with.

Shirt stores are a dime a dozen. It's no longer about creating viral designs or mass marketing. You have to target a micro-niche around the people who already want the experience you offer. Right now that experience isn't clear. Right now it's just shirts. I don't know who this is for.

Some people like to watch t.v. <---- These people don't buy t.v. shirts.

Some like to watch Star Trek. <---- These people buy anything Star Trek but they have lots of options.

Some like the Klingons <----- These people buy Klingon shirts any chance they get because Klingon shirts are hard to find, and they identify so much it's all they talk about, it's all they think about, they even learn the language. These people are a micro-niche tribe and they'll pay higher prices for a Klingon tshirt because it defines them. It forms their identity. It tells their story.

Define your niche. Define your customer. Define your brand. Define your story.

Why should they buy from you?

This.
This is so important, you need to find a passionate niche, like cycling, cross fit etc.. something people love, and target them.
Make funny shirts inside the niche, something that people connect to.

For example lets say you go into the dog niche, and you choose pugs, if i saw and fb add where i saw a pug t-shirt and i had one, i would definitely check it out.
And you could use Instagram influencers like a pug page and pay them to put your shirt there.

What do you prefer? that 200 people come to your site and 1 buys a shirt
Or
50 people come to your site and 5 buy shirts?

If people connect to the your cause they will be taking out their wallet a lot faster than someone who thinks "eh it's cool" but they don't are willing to take 25$ to buy it.

And i recommend you watching the Justin Cener's Mastermind group, he does T-shirt dropshipping and has a lot of people following him, on his page with amazing results, he has a course, it's paid but from what i see there, it's worth it. But still you can get really good information for free there.

And why Printful? they have good quality but they're so expensive, you should check out Teelaunch, or custom cat you would have better margins and you could lower your price a bit.

 

[Ludachris]

This.
This is so important, you need to find a passionate niche, like cycling, cross fit etc.. something people love, and target them.
Make funny shirts inside the niche, something that people connect to.

For example lets say you go into the dog niche, and you choose pugs, if i saw and fb add where i saw a pug t-shirt and i had one, i would definitely check it out.
And you could use Instagram influencers like a pug page and pay them to put your shirt there.

What do you prefer? that 200 people come to your site and 1 buys a shirt
Or
50 people come to your site and 5 buy shirts?

If people connect to the your cause they will be taking out their wallet a lot faster than someone who thinks "eh it's cool" but they don't are willing to take 25$ to buy it.

And i recommend you watching the Justin Cener's Mastermind group, he does T-shirt dropshipping and has a lot of people following him, on his page with amazing results, he has a course, it's paid but from what i see there, it's worth it. But still you can get really good information for free there.

And why Printful? they have good quality but they're so expensive, you should check out Teelaunch, or custom cat you would have better margins and you could lower your price a bit.

This is why Teespring campaigns were/are so profitable. Imagine having a niche website that has more than just shirts in a niche where the visitor not only likes the shirt but is drawn to your brand, identifies strongly with it, and wants to be a part of your community.

 

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[Dsant]

This is why Teespring campaigns were/are so profitable. Imagine having a niche website that has more than just shirts in a niche where the visitor not only likes the shirt but is drawn to your brand, identifies strongly with it, and wants to be a part of your community.

Exactly.

Branded website, branded logo, branded products, you can put mugs, shirt's, hoodies with the designs, you name it, all dropshiped from the same company if you don't want to mix things up and keep the dropshipping method, something along the niche.

And you can even make your own community, with a FB page and/or Instagram as well.

 

[Ludachris]

Exactly.

Branded website, branded logo, branded products, you can put mugs, shirt's, hoodies with the designs, you name it, all dropshiped from the same company if you don't want to mix things up and keep the dropshipping method, something along the niche.

And you can even make your own community, with a FB page and/or Instagram as well.

In my opinion, that's the only way to make it work - you have to build communities that you can sell to. If you're just slanging shirts you can't really do it passively. You constantly have to come up with new designs. If you build a brand and a community around your brand you have a far better chance of making it more passive.

 

[Alxander]

This.
This is so important, you need to find a passionate niche, like cycling, cross fit etc.. something people love, and target them.
Make funny shirts inside the niche, something that people connect to.

For example lets say you go into the dog niche, and you choose pugs, if i saw and fb add where i saw a pug t-shirt and i had one, i would definitely check it out.
And you could use Instagram influencers like a pug page and pay them to put your shirt there.

What do you prefer? that 200 people come to your site and 1 buys a shirt
Or
50 people come to your site and 5 buy shirts?

If people connect to the your cause they will be taking out their wallet a lot faster than someone who thinks "eh it's cool" but they don't are willing to take 25$ to buy it.

And i recommend you watching the Justin Cener's Mastermind group, he does T-shirt dropshipping and has a lot of people following him, on his page with amazing results, he has a course, it's paid but from what i see there, it's worth it. But still you can get really good information for free there.

And why Printful? they have good quality but they're so expensive, you should check out Teelaunch, or custom cat you would have better margins and you could lower your price a bit.

I used Teespring but I thought with using Printful it will be a more unique to stand out with my brand, I don't like selling my shirts on another domain lol.
I invest minimum time in this but still try to push it, Printful saves me helluvalot of time, I could find a local company that prints shirts but then I have to ship it etc. I'll do that when I have enough cash flowing in.

The core fans should be on /r/Polyscapes, we get enough likes on there but it seems like they don't want to buy it, I need to market there without pushing it into their face.

Now I approached a designer who creates designs like mine and he got some friends to buy some shirts soon!
From this I got the idea to let people generate awesome designs (IG style) with shapes and filters and if they get enough likes it will become available in the webshop.
Donno how it would work legally wise but I think it will work good, people can create awesome designs that they will probably show to their friends and buy!

But for this I still need a core audience I guess, things are slowly starting to roll right now though. My goals was to double sales each month and it seems like it will go that way for now

 

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[MoreVolume]

Creating a lifestyle brand has always been very appealing to me. I have an idea for a niche that I think could work, with clothing, products, and content geared towards that niche. I know that it would have to be very well executed with all of the t-shirt stores and blogs being launched every hour. @SinisterLex makes excellent points on how to frame the brand. For me, like with every idea I have, it's a matter of finding effective ways to gauge market demand before I dive into it. I've launched too many ideas without measuring interest first. Intuition hasn't proven to be a good metric for me.

sounds like you're more serious than a majority of the "lifestyle brand" entrepreneurs out there. all they have is t-shirts. t-shirts and a name

 

[Ludachris]

sounds like you're more serious than a majority of the "lifestyle brand" entrepreneurs out there. all they have is t-shirts. t-shirts and a name

I've certainly put a lot of thought into it, but it's still just an idea at this point - like all the other ideas out there from all the other entrepreneurs and wantrepreneurs. I am very serious though. I know there is a heavy demand for many of the products that are sold in the niche based on search volume, but whether or not people will embrace my vision for this lifestyle brand is still a big question. I'm running through the exercise of planning out a system for how the business would be run and estimating how passive it can be long term.

 

[Dsant]

I used Teespring but I thought with using Printful it will be a more unique to stand out with my brand, I don't like selling my shirts on another domain lol.
I invest minimum time in this but still try to push it, Printful saves me helluvalot of time, I could find a local company that prints shirts but then I have to ship it etc. I'll do that when I have enough cash flowing in.

The core fans should be on /r/Polyscapes, we get enough likes on there but it seems like they don't want to buy it, I need to market there without pushing it into their face.

Now I approached a designer who creates designs like mine and he got some friends to buy some shirts soon!
From this I got the idea to let people generate awesome designs (IG style) with shapes and filters and if they get enough likes it will become available in the webshop.
Donno how it would work legally wise but I think it will work good, people can create awesome designs that they will probably show to their friends and buy!

But for this I still need a core audience I guess, things are slowly starting to roll right now though. My goals was to double sales each month and it seems like it will go that way for now

I totally agree with you on using your own platform, it's all about CONTROL, but when i told you Custom Cat or Teelaunch they're just the same as prinftul, they're a fulfillment company like them, and they have shopify integration as well.

Custom Cat has a monthly fee but the top seller t-shirt only costs about 6 dollars
Tee launch has no monthly cost and their shirts are around 8.5 dollars

i don't remember printful t-shirts costs, but i do remember trying to use them on tank tops for woman, and they were really expensive like 16$ or something, i had really low margins if i went with them.

 

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[Alxander]

Had a photo shoot with my friend and me as a model #resourcefulness
So I'm looking for a company that sells in the EU with a cheaper price, I see a lot of UK companies but if they go out of the EU it wouldn't be much better than the US I guess lol

 

[fracturize]

Awesome that you taking action, subbed to this thread and looking forward to updates!

 

[GuestUser4aMPs1]

@Alxander how are things now?



...bumping because somebody liked my comment earlier and reminded me of this thread.

 

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[Zedd9165]

The website seems down, further why dont you spend time building your website when you can simply install wordpress and add plugins?

 

[Alxander]

@Alxander how are things now?



...bumping because somebody liked my comment earlier and reminded me of this thread.

Thanks for hitting me up
I'm busy with my end assignment for school right now. I first want to try other projects with deep learning or apps before I get into this space again.

I did hear from the founder of Suav shoes that she liked my designs

Think when i have an existing brand, I'll release some merchandise for that.

The website seems down, further why dont you spend time building your website when you can simply install wordpress and add plugins?

Yeah I took it offline, the domain also just expired.
I did use Wordpress and a theme but I just wanted my own twist to it

Anyway if i don't forget i'll make another thread with a new project of mine

 

[Alxander]

I've got 3 people who want to buy a shirt, so I have enough profit to start a $5 DigitalOcean Droplet

I'm done with college in less than a month, I will be traveling but luckily the internet exists so nothing is holding me back

Hope I can take some lessons from the previous try, but I still have a lot to learn.
Maybe I'll do a rebrand, I'll see, first gotta get my diploma brb

 

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