Clothing Brand start-up, first business

[Fabian1999]

At what stage will you attempt to get people to open their wallets?

As soon as i have my first order of my 3 different styles, and a good website with good copy up and running. Or what did you mean with stage?

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Odysseus M Jones]

As soon as i have my first order of my 3 different styles, and a good website with good copy up and running.

Have you actually validated your jeans?

Aren't you worried you'll have boxes of unsold product, a shiny new website, great copy and no customers?

On a positive note you'll have jeans for life.

I was going to say make sure they're all in your size.

But we get fatter as we age.

And fashion goes in cycles.

You'll be trendsetter when you're 70.

Skinny jeans, they were called drainpipes when I was young.

 

[Fabian1999]

Have you actually validated your jeans?

Aren't you worried you'll have boxes of unsold product, a shiny new website, great copy and no customers?

On a positive note you'll have jeans for life.

I was going to say make sure they're all in your size.

But we get fatter as we age.

And fashion goes in cycles.

You'll be trendsetter when you're 70.

Skinny jeans, they were called drainpipes when I was young.

Sure, im worried. But the good response on my designs gave me motivation to try it. And now i will give it a try. And i was holding back for too long. Sometimes you just have to say f*** it and go on, to find out what happens. Im taking the risk to lose my money if nobody wants to buy them, but will at least learn something from my failure if thats the case. (And i have a lot og good looking skinny jeans for myself)

 

[woken]

Sure, im worried. But the good response on my designs gave me motivation to try it. And now i will give it a try. And i was holding back for too long. Sometimes you just have to say f*** it and go on, to find out what happens. Im taking the risk to lose my money if nobody wants to buy them, but will at least learn something from my failure if thats the case. (And i have a lot og good looking skinny jeans for myself)

Like I said, these are mistakes that everybody in this position can avoid but most don’t because you have to “see it for yourself” .
“Great response/ feedback” is very different than actual sales.

The only way of validating an idea is getting paying customers.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Kaizen502]

I know a brand who started with organic cotton jeans made in Portugal. I can give you a contact for a good sourcing agency that can help with that. They also have office in Turkey which is even cheaper than Portugal and has good quality jeans brands like Mavi etc.

 

[Fabian1999]

I know a brand who started with organic cotton jeans made in Portugal. I can give you a contact for a good sourcing agency that can help with that. They also have office in Turkey which is even cheaper than Portugal and has good quality jeans brands like Mavi etc

I know a brand who started with organic cotton jeans made in Portugal. I can give you a contact for a good sourcing agency that can help with that. They also have office in Turkey which is even cheaper than Portugal and has good quality jeans brands like Mavi etc.

Sure, i can check it out!

 

[Fabian1999]

Like I said, these are mistakes that everybody in this position can avoid but most don’t because you have to “see it for yourself” .
“Great response/ feedback” is very different than actual sales.

The only way of validating an idea is getting paying customers.

I will try it out with my 3D models of the jeans before going into production.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Odysseus M Jones]

Sure, im worried. But the good response on my designs gave me motivation to try it. And now i will give it a try. And i was holding back for too long. Sometimes you just have to say f*** it and go on, to find out what happens. Im taking the risk to lose my money if nobody wants to buy them, but will at least learn something from my failure if thats the case. (And i have a lot og good looking skinny jeans for myself)

**This is my unfinished reply, I'd given up trying to make you see sense until I saw your latest reply**

Please don't order product until you've validated that people will buy them.
And by validate, I mean you must get paid orders from customers before your first order goes into production.

Learn landing pages, sales funnels, finding a niche & building an audience.

I will try it out with my 3D models of the jeans before going into production.

Don't you have samples yet?

Get some or make prototypes.

Then get some attractive people from your target demographic in them & make some videos to run ads & get orders.

Once they hit "pay now" they can be redirected to a message that says "out of stock"

Offer them a choice of instant refund or a generous discount for pre order.

Get enough orders, your first production run is paid for & risk free to you.

 

[Fabian1999]

**This is my unfinished reply, I'd given up trying to make you see sense until I saw your latest reply**

Please don't order product until you've validated that people will buy them.
And by validate, I mean you must get paid orders from customers before your first order goes into production.

Learn landing pages, sales funnels, finding a niche & building an audience.


Don't you have samples yet?

Get some or make prototypes.

Then get some attractive people from your target demographic in them & make some videos to run ads & get orders.

Once they hit "pay now" they can be redirected to a message that says "out of stock"

Offer them a choice of instant refund or a generous discount for pre order.

Get enough orders, your first production run is paid for & risk free to you.

Sounds like this is the way to go. Thanks for giving me advice to avoid to loose money and motivation before even getting started. I can write a little update as soon as i have the 3D designs and a protoype.

 

[Fabian1999]

Sounds like this is the way to go. Thanks for giving me advice to avoid to loose money and motivation before even getting started. I can write a little update as soon as i have the 3D designs and a protoype.

*UPDATE* Business failed

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[hexelbyte]

Hey Fabian,

Before you even did anything, did it make CENTS to you?
How does your product compare with others?

Why would I buy your jeans if I can just buy one from Walmart?

The issue is that you need to valid the problem in the general market.

Here's my take on clothing business:
C: Control? You rely on a manufacturer and distributor. If they go on strike? You're out.
E: Entry? Competition are the biggest companies in the world. They have their own factories and supply chains. If they want to sell jeans for $5, they will.
N: Need? Everyone needs clothes. But does the world want your clothes vs Generic Brand?
T: Time? Assuming you automate the whole process of making clothes and distributing them.
S: Scale? You could sell thousands of clothes, since you automate.

That is what you needed to evaluate before even making anything.

How would I give it a go?
Test the market, make a few prototypes, then hire people to wear them.
Take pictures and market the clothes on Instagram, TikTok, etc.
Create a landing page for people to visit and sign up for a newsletter.

If there are enough sign ups, then you can assume there's a chance.

 

[Fabian1999]

Before you even did anything, did it make CENTS to you?
How does your product compare with others?

Why would I buy your jeans if I can just buy one from Walmart?

The issue is that you need to valid the problem in the general market.

Here's my take on clothing business:
C: Control? You rely on a manufacturer and distributor. If they go on strike? You're out.
E: Entry? Competition are the biggest companies in the world. They have their own factories and supply chains. If they want to sell jeans for $5, they will.
N: Need? Everyone needs clothes. But does the world want your clothes vs Generic Brand?
T: Time? Assuming you automate the whole process of making clothes and distributing them.
S: Scale? You could sell thousands of clothes, since you automate.

That is what you needed to evaluate before even making anything.

How would I give it a go?
Test the market, make a few prototypes, then hire people to wear them.
Take pictures and market the clothes on Instagram, TikTok, etc.
Create a landing page for people to visit and sign up for a newsletter.

If there are enough sign ups, then you can assume there's a chance.

Youre right. My biggest challenge was to make a significant difference that would lead people to buy my jeans instead of already existing brands. And I learned along the way that the clothing industry maybe is one of the hardest industries to get started in without a massive social following.

Im currently looking at new projects to start. My first idea was starting an onlyfans management agency, as the popularity of the platform continues to rise at such a fast pace.

But next time, as you said. I have to do more work in the beginning before I throw myself out there and lose money. First step is the CENTS model to check if the business is a good idea in the first place.