加拿大进出口外贸Tips & Advice: How to Start a Clothing Line By Ray Masaki



加拿大外贸

好文要转,最浅显的道理。
___________

Tips & Advice: How to Start a Clothing Line     By Ray Masaki · On May 16, 2012

I frequently get emails asking me for advice. I love responding to thoughtful questions, and I try to be as helpful as I possibly can, but most of the time, it’s something like “can you teach me how to do everything?” It’s very difficult for me to recommend starting a clothing brand, when he or she doesn’t understand the difficulties of running a company. There’s a huge distinction between making a shirt and starting a brand.

Anyone, and I mean literally anyone, is able to make their own shirt. I could design a shirt today, and get them printed tomorrow, if I really wanted to. But creating a brand is completely different! A brand is an experience, and a line of products that share a cohesive idea (ie. branding). Here’s a couple things you should consider before starting a clothing brand.

The most common emails I receive are, “Where do you get t-shirts to print on?” and “Where do you get labels to sew into your t-shirts?” The thing about this is, I can easily just email them back and say “I get my shrits from here, and my labels from here” and everyone would be happy and the earth would continue to spin, but that’s not actually helpful at all. If you’re a brand owner, you have to know how to find your own answers.

And seriously, a question like “Where do I get embroidered labels” can be answered with a single google search. If you type in “custom embroidered labels” into google, you can find 435,000 results leading you in the right direction. If you can’t do a single google search by yourself, that tells me that you’re just lazy, and you shouldn’t be running a brand. If you’re that kind of person, I honestly don’t really want to help you. Call me an asshole, but that’s the truth.

It’s quite difficult to build a brand without having experience or knowledge about either design or business. I get plenty of emails saying that they have a great idea that could potentially make a lot of money, but that means absolutely nothing to me. People have “great” ideas everyday, but it’s all about execution. What knowledge do you have to be able to execute a great idea?

If you’re a designer, you’re probably able to see how a collection comes together, and keep a consistent vision. If you’re knowledgable about running a business, you’ll probably have an understanding how to manage, scale, and sell a brand. Ideally you want to be both, or have a partner that can handle whatever your weaknesses are.

I started my first clothing brand when I was 15 years old. And you know what? That brand sucked. I’m not saying it wasn’t a good experience, but I really wish I had done a little more research when I was at that age. When you’re still in high school, you’re often times overzealous about these sort of ventures, and you have a big ego, so you think you’ll become super famous. You want to show off to your friends that you’re doing some cool shit that no one else is doing at your age.

But honestly, you’re most likely not mature enough to actually run a clothing brand, and due to your lack of experience you’re probably going to fail. I get a lot of emails from high school students who are prospective clothing brand owners, but they just don’t have the maturity to execute. You probably don’t have funds to start, and you probably don’t have too much design experience and/or business experience either.

What I would recommend is that you practice drawing and designing as much as you can, and come up with a strong game plan. In the mean time, you can learn about the silk screen process by printing your own shirts that you can sell to your friends or whatever, but don’t think about starting a full-fledged brand until you’re truly ready. If you’re not ready, you’ll just end up with holes in your pockets.

I find that a lot of kids want to start clothing brands, because they think that there’s some sort of potential for a rockstar-meteoric success waiting for them. That really couldn’t be farther from the truth. Unless you’re friends with really really famous people, or have a huge amount of money for marketing, no one is really going to care about your stuff. So you have to be extremely patient, and organically grow your brand. For some people it might take one year, and for others it might take 10 years.

It really depends on how patient you are and how willing you are to keep improving your product. Obviously, if you have a piece of shit product, regardless of how long you’ve been running your brand, no one will care. Also, people have different perceptions of what a successful brand is. If simply running a brand is your goal, then good for you. If becoming a major retailer all across America is your goal, that’s cool too. I would establish early on what your goal is, so that you can plan ways of approaching it.

If you’re serious about starting a brand, you have to eat, breathe, and dream about it. You have to be constantly thinking about new products and new ways to improve your brand. I always carry a sketchbook with me in case I want to jot down an idea or do a quick sketch. If I don’t have my sketchbook, I draw on a napkin or whatever’s around me.

You never know when inspiration strikes, so you always have to be ready. Research, research, research! If you’re starting a clothing brand, you have to have an understanding for why other brands are successful. Look at art, high fashion, paintings, graffiti, books, and basically anything that can inspire you. You have to be completely passionate, and live for your brand, or it will fail!

Hopefully this article has been helpful. Remember, starting a brand is not the same thing as printing a shirt. A brand is something that needs to be planned, researched, understood, and perfectly executed. Don’t rush into anything, and be patient. Good luck!
加拿大电商我的客户需要从非洲免关税国家进口一些商品,所谓的免关税是不是也不用交增值税。 如果要交增值税,增值税的税率是多少? 菜鸟向各位前辈请教了。 评论 关税与增值税是俩个税种 加拿大电商Hallo, bitte schicken Sie uns mehr info uber die QT8-15- Machine MfG Alfredo 评论 晕死 是德语 你去德语区问问吧 评论 要你关于QT8-15- 这个型号机器的信息 评论 跟你要关于QT8-15- 这个型号机器的资料信息
  ·汽车 请推荐一款适合女生开的车(汽油款)
·汽车 我在路边停车时被刮伤了,如何申请保险?

加拿大进出口外贸

加拿大电商关于免抵退问题

加拿大贸易当月销项-进项=-6万元,当月FOB总价*退税税率为10万元,那么当月可退税是6万元,免抵4万元 请问:这免抵的4万是不是要留到下期再进行抵扣????? 评论 这个问题问财务了。 评论 ...

加拿大进出口外贸

加拿大电商EN10204-3.1 材质报告

加拿大贸易路过的前辈们有没有知道EN10204-3.1证书的? 我的客户现在要求材质报告上要注明EN10204-3.1字样,但是原厂的材质报告几乎没有这个字样。国内的大厂,基本上通过了各种认证,是不是他们 ...

加拿大进出口外贸

加拿大电商外贸小白趟过的雷

加拿大贸易本人4个月换了3份工作,现在这份工作月底又要换工作了。我就说说我都遇到过哪些坑和哪些坑人的公司。 算算,去年毕业到现在有一年了。大学毕业就跑市场,自己创业,结果被现实 ...

加拿大进出口外贸

加拿大电商订舱订不到怎么办

加拿大贸易刚接触公司的地板产品,前辈却告诉我,目前最大的问题是除非是大公司订购,否则高昂的运费白搭。今天带我的前辈给我算了一下运费,都一万八了都。而且说订舱也订不到。那我来 ...