Everyone is fighting for market share. Slow fashion is becoming trendy. Shoppers are being thoughtful about where and how they spend their money. How do you stay profitable when growth within the apparel sector slows? There are ways to better serve your current customers so you retain them and find new customers without spending wildly trying to keep up with the latest social media trends.
Evaluate Your Size Range If you only run XS-XL regular sizes there is opportunity to gain additional customers by expanding the size range. What percent of your sales are in XL? Perhaps you need to add 2 and 3X. The best fitting extended size ranges take extra care and often fit on a separate base size because the body shape is different. Additional development is necessary but it’s easier than adding new styles to the assortment. Test running petite and or tall products. We can create petite and tall patterns simply by following rules to adjust the patterns without refitting each style. Customers who struggle to find clothing that fits are the most loyal when they find companies who serve their needs well. Get a Handle on Returns How many of you have returned an item to a store and not even been asked why? Too many companies have given up trying to get to the root cause of returns. Customers don’t buy a garment with the hope of returning it. You have disappointed a customer if they are making a return. These are people who are interested in your products. Not caring why they returned a garment is giving up on someone who already voted yes for you. I meet companies who have the data they need but never look at it. For some, the manner in which the data is gathered makes it impossible to aggregate. They want a magic solution to help consumers find the right size, but meanwhile it could be the shape of the garment that doesn’t fit. Raise Your Retails Our purchasing power as US consumers has eroded 22.3% since January 2020. Yet, apparel retails have only increased 10.6%. Apparel retails falling in proportion to other products has been normal over years and years as retailers chase cheaper labor. Costs have been driven down while the overall quality has eroded. Now is the time to focus on adding value through quality. Selling less at a higher price point for the same gross sales dollars is almost always more profitable. If your clothing cost less than a tank of gas and much less than a trip to the grocery store, the consumer perceives it as a perishable product. Yet, designers, patternmakers, cutters and sewers put in time and effort to make the product. Shouldn’t it be worth more than products that last you a week or two? Raise Perceived Quality What’s your customers experience when they receive their garment? Many companies are simply placing garments in plastic mailers these days. Are you selling $80 shirts and shipping them the same way companies selling $20 shirts do? Try wrapping the product in custom printed tissue with a sticker. Better yet, add a hand written note. Even better, add a card or paper they can fill out IF they return the product explaining why! It can be reason codes with check boxes or a place to jot a note. Raise your retail to cover the additional packaging. You might find that a few cents of extra packaging add a couple of dollars in perceived quality. Be creative and personal. Create a positive experience whether they are shopping in store or from home. Make sure the website and digital marketing live up to the experience you want the consumer to have.
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You have a great concept, but you don’t know the first thing about apparel development. What should you expect? Maybe you have been working with a product developer or factory but you don’t know if your experience is normal. There is a lot to know, but here are some basics.
How long does development take? The timeframe to develop a product before cutting and sewing can start takes anywhere from 6-18 months. Fast fashion retailers can shorten that but if you are starting out, the development timeframe before you start production will be at least six months. You need to locate the right fabric and trims. Patterns need to be made. Samples need to be made and fit on models and then adjusted. Production needs to be booked ahead. Unless you somehow take pre-orders, this means you won’t begin to generate cash as a new company for months. Frustrating yes, but planning accordingly helps to both shorten the timeframe and stay energetic about your new venture. If you are trying to figure out the timeline for your own project this previous post on building a product development schedule will be helpful. How many samples is normal? Usually, 2-3 physical development samples are needed to work through decisions about style, fit and to validate the factory understands how you want the product produced. Knowledgeable staff and a communicative factory can help to reduce the number of samples. These samples are usually made in one size. If you want to review a size run, one sample in every size, discuss this upfront with the development team and factory. Don’t get frustrated if you are working on a collection of several styles and one piece takes additional samples to develop. Some products are simply more challenging than others. If you need photo samples in addition to your development samples or in a different size, plan those into your budget. Minimum Order Quantities Factories and fabric mills have minimums. This is an important starting point in conversations with factories and fabric and trim suppliers. The more you order, the lower the cost. As a start-up this is a trade-off with staying flexible and not spending too much cash up front. Garment manufacturers will have minimums for both styles and SKUs (stock keeping units). For example, a small batch manufacturer may have a minimum of 300 pieces per style and 50 pieces per SKU. This means if you want to run six sizes you must only have one colorway. 50x6 = 300. Or you could run three sizes in two colors and order 50 units of each. This is simplifying because usually the order will be larger for certain sizes or colors and smaller for others. Expect to pay more per unit for small batch manufacturers (low minimums). The advantage is that you won’t need to hold large amounts of inventory. You will learn quickly what sells and can then place a reorder. This is a better alternative for those starting out. You will sell more at full price and learn what your customers want. Look for fabric suppliers specializing in stock fabrics that are already produced. Be sure those fabrics are always kept in stock and available for reorder. Stock fabric suppliers will have lower minimum order quantities. They could range anywhere from 5 yards to 100 yards or more. Don’t forget to figure in shipping when determining the total cost. Stock fabric suppliers can usually ship fabric immediately upon receiving your order. Fabric mills who only produce upon receiving an order typically have significant minimum order quantities. There are good reasons for this. Setting up equipment to produce a fabric can take as long or longer than actually knitting or weaving the fabric. Dye batches for a particular color are determined by the size of the equipment. Minimums might be different depending on the weight of the fabric. If you are just getting started, meeting minimums of 1,000+ yards will be tough. Lead times can be long. Expect it to take 6-8 weeks for a custom fabric order to be produced and shipped. Development Cost Costs for development and production differ based on the complexity of the product, where you are manufacturing and the skill of the team you have assembled. Budget $2,000 to $6,000+ for developing each style. Some overseas manufacturers will fold the development costs into the quoted cost of goods. While convenient for some business models, the lack of transparency means you’ll never know what you are spending on development. If you work this way, you or someone on your team will need the skills to put together a technical package. If your factory, patternmaker, or technical designer charge you line item fees for product development and patterns; you’ll know how much you are spending. Regardless of how you are charged, a technically knowledgeable team will make the process go faster and produce a better product in the end. Service providers (designers, tech designers and patternmakers) will either provide their hourly rate or give you a quote based on your project or styles. If they provide an hourly rate, ask them for an estimate of the hours they think a style will take based on the complexity. The lowest hourly rate isn’t always the cheapest. A higher rate could mean they are more skilled and have access to additional software and tools. They may also have a network of other service providers they can help you meet. Look for service providers and factories with great communication skills. They will save you massive amounts of time in the long run. Samples usually cost three to four times the cost of goods at the production stage. If your production cost for a style is $25 for all labor and materials, each sample will cost $75 to $100. Don’t forget to calculate in shipping to get materials to the sample maker or factory and shipping to get the sample to you for evaluation. Overwhelmed If the product development process seems daunting and you are feeling overwhelmed, that’s normal. Break the process out into tasks. Set time goals for each task that will move you toward the final goal of launching your product or collection. Perseverance and discipline are the keys to making your vision into a reality. Launching any business is scary. There is an additional mental load for designers putting their art out into the world for the first time. You are exposing your vision to the world to critique. If you reach a frustration point, take a mental check of what’s causing the frustration. Then take a deep breath and tackle the next item on your task list. Since launching Fireflyline I’ve worked with a number of organizations that produce uniforms. The companies have covered many markets including grocery stores, military, school uniform and protective apparel. Organizations producing uniforms have unique needs compared to other apparel retailers. Consistency of Fit Consistency of fit across styles is important for any apparel retailer but is absolutely critical for those selling uniforms. If someone purchases a size extra-large polo shirt then they also expect the size extra-large jacket or woven shirt to fit them properly. Employees placing uniform orders don’t frequently have opportunities to try on their uniform. If their uniform wears out they expect they can replace the items by purchasing the same size. Consistency can be achieved through multiple steps. Measurement specs for new products should be compared to current styles. The grading (increases and decreases between sizes) used should be consistent across all types of products. New styles should be started based on established block patterns. If the patternmaker follows the same block pattern for multiple styles, they will have similar shapes in addition to measurements. All production should then be audited to verify the factory achieved the desired fit and all points of measurement are within established tolerances. If sizing changes are made to improve the fit of a product, it’s critical to track how the changes impact both sales and satisfaction. Satisfaction can be tracked through returns or client feedback. Anecdotal evidence isn’t actionable. Companies need to track the percent of each product returned and why it was returned. They also need to capture customer comments, reviews and feedback in a manner that can be consolidated to track trends. Extensive Size Ranges Normally I tell brands not to try and fit everyone. Select a group of sizes and focus on creating great product for that market. But for uniforms, you really do need to fit everyone. There might be fitness standards that refine the size range, such as protective apparel for firefighters. But for a uniform company producing polos for employees at big box stores they are going to need a huge range of sizes. I often grade knit tops from XXS to 7X for these companies. They may order only a few units of the largest or smallest sizes or they may only produce those sizes as special orders. Either way there will always be someone outside of the size range. Production of single garments for unique situations needs to be considered ahead of time and accounted for in costs. Discuss these needs with your factory when initially costing the production. Fitting everyone well can require creating options for multiple body shapes such as curvy and straight fit pants for women or slim, husky and regular kids’ styles for school uniform. The number of stock keeping units (SKUS) can quickly escalate. Don’t Try and Create Unique Sizing Systems There are no body measurement standards for women in the US apparel industry. A woman who is a 6 in one brand could be a 10 in another brand. A size Small might be a 4-6 for one company and an 8-10 for another company. Do the research and try and be similar to competitors and the retail brands that you think are shopped by the end users. There are standards and research available from organizations like ASTM and Alvanon. Put in the work. Don’t create a really unique sizing system that the final consumer can’t follow. Menswear and Children’s apparel is a bit more standardized in the US so follow US ASTM standards or recommendations from a service provider like Alvanon. Understand what other companies are doing and compare your own grades to competitors every few years to validate. Product Line + Custom Offering both an existing product line and customizations for retail companies can be a huge advantage. Those customizations should focus on style, not fit unless the client has a very particular niche. Customizations can be as simple as a colorblock or custom embroidery or as complex as a specially designed product line. Avoid creating unique size standards or custom fits for separate companies. If car rental agency A has a blue fleece jacket and car rental agency B comes to you for uniforms; you want to be able to offer the same jacket in red without having to refit and resize the whole style. Only if the client has a unique niche market should the fit be altered for a specific industry or client. More companies are realizing that their brand is represented in everything they do. This includes what their employees wear. Service companies such as hotels and restaurants can create unique brand messaging through customized uniforms. Presenting custom designs to companies outside the apparel industry can be challenging. Traditional fashion illustrations or flat sketches may not tell the desired story to executives working in other industries trying to select uniforms for their employees. I’ve assisted clients who produce uniforms by creating 3D renderings of garments in the proposed designs. 3D can be easier for clients to visualize and we can create the 3D renderings in any sizes desired. Viable for US Manufacturers
Uniforms are steady, non-seasonal business. Uniforms don’t need to be redesigned every few months. This makes them an attractive proposition to factories. Many of the styles are simple and fabrics are frequently shared across many styles. Lead times can be critical to fill large orders from corporate clients. Manufacturing uniforms in the US is not only possible but can be an advantage. The US military and many municipalities require US production of uniforms so the skills to produce these items still exist within US factories. Manufacturing costs are frequently higher but don’t forget to calculate all logistical costs when comparing to overseas production costs. US manufacturing isn’t usually the right fit for cost competitive polyester/cotton polos sold to industries with high employee turnover such as grocery or big box retailers. But US manufacturing can be a great fit for uniforms focused on specialty service industries or protective apparel. |