Progress Thread: Starting a Basics Clothing Line

[JoelA]

Finally launched after months of delays, although I'm only accepting PayPal right now, credit cards will be accepted next week. Check it out people. If you want a discount code let me know through the contact form.

I will update accordingly now that I have a business that is open for business.

Joel

 

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

[TJPB]

Nice work so far! I'm starting to see quite a few of us here that have chosen apparel as a fastlane

I like the shirts. I like your website. I also like the name. The one thing I don't see at all is a brand.....something the consumer can latch on to and say "yep....this is me." Or simply..."damn, this is cool."

Otherwise, great product.....just needs some support structure (branding).

 

[Talisman]

I hate clothes. Going to start a "nude" clothing line.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Emperor's_New_Clothes

 

[TJPB]

Any update? Or are you drowning in orders!!?!

 

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

[JoelA]

Any update? Or are you drowning in orders!!?!

I wouldn't say that I'm drowning in orders but I've been selling at a high rate. For every 8 people that stumble upon my website, I get an order. I've had people from other countries buy the shirts and everybody says the same thing, best material ever. Im selling without brand recognition and a brand that is basic. I plan on making the brand less basic by changing the name soon. I think this is the business for me.

 

[Bigguns50]

JoelA....I missed something... What's your website URL ?

 

[JoelA]

JoelA....I missed something... What's your website URL ?

ohh the URL is pimabasics.com

 

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

[TJPB]

Do you have a FaceBook page?

 

[JoelA]

Do you have a FaceBook page?

Yes, I do but never really posted anything on it yet, been busy with other things. I got friends likes and some customers.

www.facebook.com/pimabasics

 

[stefan]

Yes, I do but never really posted anything on it yet, been busy with other things. I got friends likes and some customers.

www.facebook.com/pimabasics

Props to shutting up that one individual hater in this thread (who thought your biz be would be too expensive to start) by taking action and getting sales.

I think your website looks clean and Peruvian cotton is my favorite.

I have a question for you since I'm also interested in the apparel industry. You mentioned Peru having informal customs agreements with the US to make importing apparel easier for us - perfect..that's great. No one wants to deal with formal customs for small orders. My question is are there manufacturers in Peru who can also take care of your designs, logo, screenprinting and/or just branding in general, in addition to manufacturing the Peruvian shirts for you?

I'm genuinely interested because I'm raising some capital for my own fashion startup. I think that I can get started with 4-5k or so.

 

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

[TJPB]

I'd say the LAST thing you want is to have a manufacturer designing your clothing or brand and logo. Manufacturers do one thing **manufacture clothing.**

 

[stefan]

I'd say the LAST thing you want is to have a manufacturer designing your clothing or brand and logo. Manufacturers do one thing **manufacture clothing.**

Perfect. I had no idea so I'm glad you cleared that up. I'm assuming you'd import from oversea's then have your textiles customized to your liking locally in the States? That would still be more cost-effective than buying bulk clothing from the states I'm also guessing, right?

By the way I was really sad to see your KeepTight progress thread closed. I wanted to comment on it pretty badly to let you know that your website's theme looks GREAT and that you found a niche that is extremely significant. I hope your brand really takes off. I'll eventually start my own progress thread with my brand once I've acquired my own capital and web presence.

 

[TJPB]

Probably best to start up your own progress thread so we don't dirty JoelA's here.

Thanks for the props

 

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

[ray210]

3- Bought numerous books on starting clothing companies

Hi, Joel. Thanks for creating this thread and sharing your experiences. It's truly awesome that you're operating a business that you envisioned and built.

I was wondering:

1. Which books about starting clothing companies did you find best/most useful/informative for your purposes?

2. Did you have a business partner or some other collaborator, to bounce ideas off of and to help you execute? Or was it just you, working alone, completely directing the course of things and making your own decisions?

3. How did you break down the venture into monthly, weekly, and daily goals? Or did you? How did you know the steps to take, and at what time and in what order to take them? Did you break down larger goals in categories (for example, design, manufacturing, distribution, marketing), so that on certain days you had, say, tasks related to weekly goals for more than 1 category?

4. What tools, if any, did you use to envision the venture as a series of steps/smaller goals that you executed on, and to track your progress (if indeed you did)? Is there any program/site you recommend to do this?

Thanks very much, Joel.

 

[JoelA]

Props to shutting up that one individual hater in this thread (who thought your biz be would be too expensive to start) by taking action and getting sales.

I think your website looks clean and Peruvian cotton is my favorite.

I have a question for you since I'm also interested in the apparel industry. You mentioned Peru having informal customs agreements with the US to make importing apparel easier for us - perfect..that's great. No one wants to deal with formal customs for small orders. My question is are there manufacturers in Peru who can also take care of your designs, logo, screenprinting and/or just branding in general, in addition to manufacturing the Peruvian shirts for you?

I'm genuinely interested because I'm raising some capital for my own fashion startup. I think that I can get started with 4-5k or so.

Thanks for the comments, yes it was extremely easy to get things from Peru, all I had to do is pay live 300 port fees plus $150 to a company that did the paperwork. The $300 depends on the value of your shipment and is something like $5 for every $1000, or something like that.

The same manufacturer that made the shirts can print and do anything that can be done to a shirt and even the packaging, its all in one place, so you end up saving a lot since additional things just add cents to each items final price.

Thanks again.




Sent from my RM-877_nam_att_205 using Tapatalk

 

[JoelA]

Hi, Joel. Thanks for creating this thread and sharing your experiences. It's truly awesome that you're operating a business that you envisioned and built.



I was wondering:



1. Which books about starting clothing companies did you find best/most useful/informative for your purposes?



2. Did you have a business partner or some other collaborator, to bounce ideas off of and to help you execute? Or was it just you, working alone, completely directing the course of things and making your own decisions?



3. How did you break down the venture into monthly, weekly, and daily goals? Or did you? How did you know the steps to take, and at what time and in what order to take them? Did you break down larger goals in categories (for example, design, manufacturing, distribution, marketing), so that on certain days you had, say, tasks related to weekly goals for more than 1 category?



4. What tools, if any, did you use to envision the venture as a series of steps/smaller goals that you executed on, and to track your progress (if indeed you did)? Is there any program/site you recommend to do this?



Thanks very much, Joel.

I read some books like:

Start a kick a$$ tshirt company
Starting a clothing empire
Tshirt profits

I started and did everything alone so everything was on my terms. The goals were setup as development, manufacturing and marketing/selling. Those were pretty simple. I didn't use any tools just kinda freestyled everything.





Sent from my RM-877_nam_att_205 using Tapatalk

 

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

[Sindi]

This thread is extremely helpful, Joel! I checked out your website too- it's great. I would never have guessed that you did this all on your own! Well done. Thanks for the information.

 

[TJPB]

Update??

 

[tafy]

Just found your thread thanks to TJPB here, website looks great! This is exactly what I want to launch but with branding! Your t-shirt costs were $10 each right?

 

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

[Bosstradamus]

subbed

 

[Bosstradamus]

Any updates joel?