How to start a brand of clothing [FAQ]

Last updated : Sept 24, 2022

How much does it cost to start your own clothing line?

Startup costs can vary greatly across different clothing lines, but in general, a small-sized clothing line will need a minimum of $500 to get started, a medium-sized line should have between $1,000 to $5,000 for startup costs and a large line will need approximately $25,000 to $50,000 upfront.

How profitable is a clothing brand?

On average, a clothing brand can make profits of anywhere between $23,751 and $140,935, depending on its expenses, marketing efforts, company size, product types, location, and target customers. A clothing line owner can also make over $51,000 per year.

What makes a clothing brand successful?

Arguably, the key to their success has been having a clear brand identity that resonates with their target customers, staying authentic to that identity, and knowing how to communicate it to the desired audience. So, take the time to think – really think – about your brand from the start.

How many designs do you need to start a clothing line?

Fashion Brain Academy recommends 10 to 12 styles for your first collection. As for how many items to produce within each style frame, test out the waters first. Start with an equal amount of each style and if one style gains popularity, order more of that particular style.

How do I start a luxury fashion brand?

1. Identify a Niche Segment.
2. Brand Positioning with High levels of Differentiation.
3. Emphasize the Symbolic Value.
4. Create Exclusivity Perceptions.
5. Intransigent Delivery on a Superior Brand Promise.

Is it hard to start a clothing line?

Starting a clothing line requires a lot of time and dedication, plus you need money to get it started and might not see a return on your initial investment for a while. With all of this in mind, take the time to consider whether this is really what you want.

What are most successful business ideas?

• Tuition/ Coaching Classes: What was your favorite subject in school?
• Event/ Wedding Planner: Weddings never go out of fashion.
• Cooking Classes:
• Driving School/ Cab Service:
• Food Catering Business:
• Fitness Centres:
• Computer Training Center:
• Boutique, Salon, Spa, etc.:

How can I design my own clothing line?

1. Identify a need in the market.
2. Develop a business plan.
3. Identify your target audience.
4. Start designing.
5. Find a clothing manufacturer.
6. Choose a brand name, logo, and market profile.
7. Choose a price point for your items.
8. Begin the marketing process.

Is clothing a good business?

A clothing brand isn't a very profitable business. Most people think you'll make a kajillion dollars and be well on your way to overnight stardom. But the reality is that the profit margins on clothing are notoriously low. According to industry analysts, you're looking at 4-13% profit margins.

What do people look for in a clothing brand?

Good brands come from a balance of honesty, taste, and self-awareness. That means if you know your ideas aren't truly original, at least own that and find a different selling point. Look at companies like SSUR and Black Scale.

What website can I use to design clothes?

With Spreadshirt, you can create custom clothes using your own personal photos and designs. Embrace your creative side and personalize custom clothing such as T-shirts, jackets and caps. You can also include names, messages, and slogans by using the text function.

Do you need a degree to start a clothing line?

Do You Need a Degree to Start a Clothing Line? Starting an online clothing business doesn't require a degree. Many people don't have formal fashion-related education or even experience in the fashion industry when starting a clothing line.

How many products should I launch with?

Roughly Magic Initial Numbers Like I said, there's no one magic number for how many designs to have in your shop. But the golden range seems to be around 6-12 items to start with.

What makes a brand expensive?

Innovation and creativity are the driving factors for luxury brands, which allows them to command the prices they wish for. Adding to that, in today's scenario the brand's price in the saturated luxury market places will also be defined for “what they truly stand for”.

Do fashion designers make a lot of money?

Fashion Designers made a median salary of $75,810 in 2020. The best-paid 25 percent made $101,700 that year, while the lowest-paid 25 percent made $54,470.

How do you create an exclusive brand?

1. Your look & brand essence.
2. Your demographic alignment.
3. Your final product & or service delivery.
4. Your customers' feedback.
5. Your timely response & authentic communication.
6. Your ongoing activity.
7. Your perceived dedication to the product & or service.
8. Your ongoing consistency.

What is the fashion industry called?

Clothing industries are also known as allied industries, fashion industries, garment industries, or soft good industries.

What is a fashion brand?

Fashion branding is all of the ways a fashion business establishes an image of their company in their customers' eyes. Branding includes names, colors, symbols, design or any other distinct characteristic of your business.

What unique business can I start?

• Be the head chef of your own food truck.
• Become a virtual interior designer and sell home decor products.
• Start a dog-walking and pet-sitting business.
• Become a virtual teacher and sell memberships to an online course.

Which is the easiest business to start?

• Pet Sitting. Hero Images / Getty Images.
• Residential Cleaning Services. Paul Bradbury / Getty Images.
• Delivery Services. PeopleImages / Getty Images.
• Grass Cutting and Snow Removal Services. Kativ / Getty Images.
• Scrapbooking.
• Hauling Services.
• EBay Selling.
• Gutter and Siding Cleaning.

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what's going on guys John Santos and today we made it into downtown LA and we're gonna show you guys how to start a clothing line with no money that's right haters will say it can't be done but in this video I'm gonna show you the exact steps resources and information that you need to launch a build a branded business from the comfort of your home alright so let's jump into this video but before we do that make sure you hit that subscribe button if you're a new visitor to this channel let's get going this video is brought to you by the ground up Academy an online training programming community designed to help build your brand and business from the ground up take advantage of the free online training mentioned at the end of this video to jump-start your clothing line well they said it couldn't be done in this video we literally just took our art files for the collection that we're designing and we're gonna make it in real time to show you guys how made-to-order works and how you can leverage this technology in this new way to actually build and launch a clothing line with no money down the legit way all right so let's head on over here to get started on that process and what's important to note is that during this process you need to find the right partners and the right people in order to help you fulfill that all right so today we're here Oh likewise thanks for having us here and I was speaking with everybody about the importance of made-to-order but what better way to get it than from the man himself Thanks so if you're looking to start a clothing line and want to keep things legit I would definitely consider doing a made-to-order type of process it's essentially where you're getting orders on your website and in the back end you're working with a partner that's fulfilling those orders as you're getting them the benefits to made-to-order is that it reduces your upfront capital risk you're not shelling out a ton of cash upfront to go and get product made and said you're just keeping even right so as cash is coming in you're spending cash to make products the second thing is major orders like a really fast process so it lets you rapidly prototype designs test out things find out what's gonna work for you for your brand for the niche market you're going after and then as soon as you find something that works scale it up really seamlessly and then the third thing is focus focus focus so by working with a partner to get your products created you don't get sucked into all the manufacturing and Stocking things in your closet and every day you're opening up your laptop and shipping orders those are all the things that you absolutely need to do to have a clothing line but if you're doing those things you're not focused on marketing sales and really growing the clothing line so it's it's a really good way to get started it starts with the DTG guys so the DTG is essentially direct-to-garment printing and we literally created these borders earlier this morning in order for them to get fulfilled right here as we're making this video so throughout this video you guys will see that let's zoom in to check it out so as you can see this is artwork that we submitted it's getting into the system here and this DTG printer is actually reading those files and it's gonna print full-color quality photo onto a t-shirt that we provided and that they actually are able to source and you could choose from online what's going on right now literally we sent our design over this guy just laid the t-shirt down and it's getting printed right now as we're speaking okay so this is all being done in real time and DTG allows you to essentially print full color on any garment whether it's cotton polyester or any blends and it's key as you guys are building a made-to-order brand and an e-commerce brand there it is guys it's one part of many that come in to actually creating your own collection using mate to order now it's important to note that this video is also a part of a full course that we have available which is also going to be linked down below so if you guys are really interested in building out your brand and you need the resources additional suppliers or perhaps a little bit more help definitely make sure that you consider checking that out but before we get to all of that I want to show you guys this entire process to really help you see how you could build your brand with no money alright so let's head on over to the other side of this I guys so what you're seeing right here is the actual dryer now the during the drying process the artwork that was applied with the DTG is actually cured into the shirt allowing the shirt design to last all right so I'm actually like getting ahead of myself but I really want to grab it right now there it is check it out this is one of the designs that we submitted and as you could see this is obviously just a black on white design thumbs out super clean and you wouldn't be able to really tell the difference if this was screen printed or direct-to-garment printed which is the beauty of using a direct to garment printer to make the designs you're not limited by the colorways obviously this was just a simple black and white one but we have a full-color one coming out right now what's important to note is that you want to make sure that you create a collection that's cohesive and later on in this video we're gonna jump into those details as well as to light what you really need to consider to design the collection that's gonna sell online now if you were to do this design on a screen print you now have two different colors which they would charge you a screen charge alright so just out of the gate being realistic you guys would have to pay $50 just to create one sample all right by using applique or a made-to-order system you are able to design all of these different apparel designs and literally you don't have to make them until they're sold that's the key with building your brand with zero dollars is in using the funds in the right way all right so instead of spending a thousand dollars on a hundred screen printed shirts you can use those thousand dollars to actually go market your brand and start making the sales and then the shirts are being made at the same time isn't that genius so that's the beauty of working with a supplier like applique and utilizing a platform such as Shopify and we're literally going to show how that is all made in a few minutes right upstairs right now what we want to show you guys is how the labeling and how the affixing of those labels helps create your brand cool guys so now that we had the DTG completed the next step that I feel is very it's very original - what applique does is the labeling of your garments so I constantly get questions like John how do I apply my own labels to the garments how do I you know like I'm using blank t-shirts how do I actually put my own brand in them so people don't know that I'm using blank t-shirts well what applique does here is they actually real able your apparel which is which is genius because it allows you to use blank apparel to actually build your brand and

Thanks for your comment Stormy Kemmler, have a nice day.
- Dawne Kaanana, Staff Member

this episode of the casual is brought to you in part by Squarespace from websites and online stores to all the marketing tools and analytics Squarespace delivers it in an all-around package so you can build an easy streamlined and beautiful online presence what's up everybody and welcome to unscripted now I have a confession to make the casual has always been about the business of fashion giving you insight into brands their history and case studies with the dash of Japanese culture and style because why not we're here in Tokyo but the bread and butter of what we do is always about understanding the fashion industry with that said today we're gonna talk about starting a clothing line in 2020 but it's probably not what you expect and it's probably good for anybody looking to do something in the next few years let that said I'm your boy Reggie casual let's get it now before we get into the nitty-gritty it's important to remember that starting a brand requires a lot of planning and if you're looking for one one video to tell you all the nuts and bolts of starting one you got another thing coming because it's because it's hard and most of what's out there especially on YouTube is more inspirational than technical usually to the effect of look what I did so you can do it too and I'm not gonna give you that there's a multitude of ways to start a brand but the secrets are in what it's not said because the reality is starting a brand in 2020 is really no different than starting a brand at any other time funny that the only real difference is the year and access to more tools even more tools we are truly an integrated world for that reason alone there's never been a better time in history to start a clothing brand or any business for that matter however it is quite saturated every tutorial out there will tell you plan out the brand make a logo find a manufacturer get an e-commerce site take some product photos or have somebody do it for you reach out to some influencers maybe even use some promotional ads on some social networks make some sales rinse wash repeat some will even suggest using a print on demand service like printful to start for cheap and yes I recognize I skipped a few parts but that's essentially the nuts and bolts of starting but for anybody who's ever tried this they know yeah that ain't all it chief because making a brand isn't necessarily hard but making a successful brand is so let's take a detour of the just making and talk about something that is often omitted from the other tutorials out there because largely they they do they do it but they just didn't know it's called personal branding one of the most useful tools of starting a business in today's world we'll start with a question what do you do like what do you do out there sitting there like what's your talent what is something you can showcase are you an artist a photographer are you funny are you motivational can you make a dress from scratch or a blazer can you style others are you good at setting up parties and events are you a DJ what are you and what do you do now why why why do I ask this because whatever you are maybe the key to getting noticed because that is your personal brand and if you can garner enough support with your personal brand when you start a physical brand you'll be in a way better position because you'll be able to talk about it from the standpoint of you think of all the individuals out there who are big in fashion a great many of them started and created a personal brand before ever starting a physical one Virgil was known for a curating style and design before he met and worked for Kanye for 10 years before he started anything Jerry Lorenzo was known for a club promotion for ROH music of course you know she Fujiwara was known for his knowledge of Western pop culture Nikko the same Verdi made flyers for punk concerts religiously before becoming the biggest street wear designer in Japan the point all these individuals built personal profiles well before starting labels aka they put in work on themselves so what can we learn from this small sample size well it means that what you do is far more powerful in attracting followers than selling them something this is the core of personal branding selling your talent now before we continue established brands don't necessarily have to do this they use celebrities for outreach because they have the money and you could too but have to be on a lower level but essentially you can still use the same tactics by becoming sort of a pseudo celebrity or self take for instance Magnus Ronnie running I forgot how to say his name he's my man's no you probably have seen him he's successful brand because he built a personal brand talking about his full raisin fashion via YouTube can eg my guy who I've spoken to like once but he also used YouTube to talk about his escapades in Japan and linked that to a high street brand that sells out every time he releases and he only releases a few pieces at a time and I don't have to mention the hundreds of artists on Instagram that for years make artwork accumulate an audience and then drop merch featuring that artwork now some of these people didn't even have a plan to start a brand or at the very least a merch line but decided what the hell and started an additional stream of revenue and voila from personal brand to bonafide business now you may be saying right about now well Reggie I don't want to do a YouTube channel or an Instagram or be it influencer or whatever I want to start a brand and I am asking you to do just that start the brand of you your photography your artwork your story your expertise whatever if you can't start a brand about you which should be infinitely easier and much cheaper how do the hell do you expect to start a brand when money is on the table with personal branding not only are you creating dedicated believers in what you do you're also learning valuable tactics that you'll be able to apply to your eventual physical brand and if you are a fashion designer let people in on the process show them sketches how something is made engage with people you have the power to do this tell them a story you have to be willing to become sort of an influencer in your own niche but also have a purpose the purpose of not simply being an influencer but with the intent of starting a label plan everything ahead and strike while the iron is hot take for instance young and famed designer Jacques musts who created his namesake label by first creating his designs having his friends wear them and showcasing them at Vogue fashion night out in Paris he had no buyers no interest he was just bold enough to showcase the work he was doing little under a year later his brand is started fast forward a few years and he's one of the most celebrated designers on the runway now we're not all JAC muss but he did something most don't do he was bold enough to not only create but to showcase and engage because he was proud of his ability and that's what he wanted to do because starting any business involves marketing but more importantly engaging and what better way than to use yourself

Thanks IsibamboJ your participation is very much appreciated
- Dawne Kaanana

About the author

Dawne Kaanana

I've studied astrodynamics at Truman State University in Kirksville and I am an expert in organizational psychology. I usually feel ashamed. My previous job was home health aide I held this position for 8 years, I love talking about noodling and teqball. Huge fan of Bernard Hill I practice marathon swimming and collect beanie babies.