Here are my 5 steps on how to start a clothing brand in 2019 and some tips I have for people who want to start a clothing brand with no money.
My Brand: www.animalclubapparel.com/
t-shirt.com
www.blankapparel.com/
www.customink.com/ndx/#/
Fiverr.com
upwork.com
1.
The number one thing to do before you start would be to figure out your unique selling point. If we are gonna be real, everyone these days is starting a clothing brand. The question to ask yourself is: how is mine going to be different? There could be many reasons for people to care, perhaps you have a new design that no one else is doing. Maybe you’re targeting a specific group of people that doesn't have a clothing brand that fits their lifestyle, maybe its nurses, or carpenters or people who like bird watching.
For me, that was people who are interested in wildlife conservation. I had seen clothing brands that choose one animal on like turtles or the ocean as a whole, but I wanted to dive deeper. I always saw people wearing clothing with wildlife designs, so I decided to incorporate conservation with the idea that people like animal designs. Every piece of clothing comes with a design of an animal and for each item sold 20% of the profits go towards that species. Now that I had that figured out it was time to move to step number two.
2.
It’s impossible to start a clothing brand without any money for your inventory unless you use a print on demand service but that’s not what we're here to talk about. If that is something you are considering google “print-on-demand services”.
To buy your own inventory, you need a little bit of an investment, and if you don't have any money saved up it totally ok. You don't need much to start! I personally started with $2000 Candian. This included the clothing, the print and my website! If you have the money saved up, then your good to go, if not $2000 can sound like a lot, but there is nothing a month of working part-time at your local store won't fix. I got my start by reffing Ice hockey part-time. It was the highest paying job I could get and all the games were at night, I was still in school at the time, so throughout the day, I would be in school and also researching and preparing everything so when I had the money I could start right away.
3.
The next thing you could do is to find the right clothing you want to sell. I did this while I was working, I researched clothing manufacturers I would be interested in and used my first paychecks to order a sample to test them out. Don’t just blindly order a batch of clothing before testing the quality, I always make myself a sample that I wear and wash a few times before I start selling it. I’ve had this sweater for a few months to test the quality and now just recently ordered a bunch of them which I am getting ready to release for the winter.
Just to make your life easier, I've added some websites where you can order samples to test out your clothing. Most of the clothing you can find on the websites I’ve linked you can purchase directly from the manufacturer which is a lot cheaper and tax-free. This step takes some time because of all the trial and error. You have to order, wait for it to ship to your house, wear it and wash it. It takes a bit of patience, but don’t worry it’ll be worth finding the right ones and something you can be proud of selling. Some criteria I looked for ways that the clothing was soft, I hate wearing rough clothing, that they don't shrink a lot or fade in the wash, also that it’s made in humane environments and environmentally friendly.
4.
If you are artistic and you know how to draw this would be second nature to you. You just draw what you want and then get it printed on your clothing. If you’re not very artistic like myself, I needed to get someone else to make the designs for me. There are tools to help you with finding a freelancer who will do it for you, I'll put a couple of them in the description. Websites like Fiverr or UpWork allow you to find someone to do some sort of creative work for you. This is how I got my designs.
Another tool that helped me through the design and creative process is a t-shirt mockup generator. I really liked the one by custom ink, you just drag and drop your design and easily change the colour of your items. You can also choose t-shirts, long sleeve shirts, hoodies and other items to kinda get an idea of how your items will look.
5.
With having all your clothing ready for sale, you need an avenue to sell them. The most popular and easiest way is to sell it directly to the consumer through an e-commerce store. There are many to choose from but the most popular currently, in my opinion, are Shopify and WooCommerece. The “best” one really depends on your needs for an online store and of course your budget. Take some time to look at the options and their prices. I started and currently use Woocommerce because it was in my price range.