Hooded Sweatshirt Production Advice (please help)

[Kane]

Quote:

Dystaind, a brand here in Canada, that is soon to be in the US, called lulu lemon actually makes a hoody called the Scuba. It has all the elements you have commented on. They "made it big" based on womens yoga wear, but they have soem great men's stuff that is not very logo'd or anything. I have a hoodie from them that is like nothing I have seen before in terms of quality (90 CDN) and is double lined throughout, has mesh within some of the pockets to hodl stuff inside, a pocket and cord run for an MP3 (I do not use this and you would not know it is there if you do not care to use it), and many other features. If you can call them that.

Any how, I got ragged on for promoting this hoodie in another thread, but I though I would point it out to you if you want soemthing like this but are having trouble finding it.

Cheers,

--- Original message by HEWSINATOR on Feb 8, 2006 11:05 PM

Lululemon's an interesting line.

The owner was originally a partner(?) in WestBeach, and he split off some years back to do his own 'Yoga' line. This was before Yoga became all the rage.

They really took off when they came up with this awesome pant design for women that made their asses look HOT. Even the larger women. I shit you not. With a pant like that, they took off FAST.

I think it's something to do with the fact that they're low-rise and that they usually have a bold horizontal panel or stitch that accentuates the hips, that and the pants are usually dark so any unsightly buldges are neatly hidden.

Their garments are typically well-made, with well thought-out technical details. They've recently been purchased by some big US company, so it remains to be seen if they'll move any of their production offshore. Far as I know, all their garments have always been made in Vancouver.

I don't quite know how I feel about their men's pieces. Their speciality is in women's fits, and this is quite apparent even in their men's garments. The garments tend to be both fitted and flowy.. a little hard to describe. Also, they tend to use a lot of synthetic fabric for their garments. I personally like more cotton content in my clothes, for most part.

[SENDkylHISPASSWORD]

I agree with you about the mens stuff, however I have a tshirt that is too strechy for me, but I wear it when I work out and Just some cotton shorts I wear when I'm just kicking around. They are really comfortable but a bit to heavy, they are like sweatshirt thick.

my favourite things

http://mfthings.blogspot.com/

[starvinglawstudent]

Here's an update. There are a number of manufactures that can match the sweatshirt dollar for dollar. The cost is a bit high. Materials will cost in the ball park of $9, and the stictching (done by hand) wil lbe around 2 per garment. And getting shipped to the states would be around $3-$5 depending on what bulk rate we can get. Alright, just an update.

-pete

[wild_whiskey]

Dude, that's dirt cheap. $11 for a hoodie? Wholesale prices of nicer hoodies is in the 20-25 range.

[sybaritical]

where I work I'm surrounded by women wearing Lululemon everyday, and it makes me very happy.

I'm going with my collection of Ninjahoods though cos I'vebeen rocking them years. Perfect fits, available in every material you ever knew about and then some that they made up, plus they'll make them to order if you ask nicely. My leather one is getting on for the best thing I've ever worn.

[url=" http://www.ninjahood.co.uk/"] <a href="http://www.ninjahood.co.uk/" target="_blank">http://www.ninjahood.co.uk/</a>

[Dangydang]

If you actually go through with this, hook the scrawnier dudes up too. I love Supreme's sweats and outerwear, but I can never buy anything since they don't offer a size small.

[starvinglawstudent]

I will def do a run of smalls. But here is the dilema. This is strictly fly by night. I had an idea and ran with it. I am taking money out of my bar preperation fund to develop this endeavor.

As the idea of production is looming I have to decide on sizes, and more importantly colors.

Like I mentioned earlier there will be smalls, should I even bother with XL?

And what colors? Tentaively its brown, navy blue, black, and white.

Oh, this was strictly oem, no lablels. But what if there was a smal inconcspicuous logo? And what's a good name? Everything and anything will help. Thanks again for all the feedback, I am glad I did not have to defer to niketalk.

-pete

[eastcoastrider27]

Those colors sound really boring. Brown and Navy Blue? Bleh. That's so bland. People can get those colors anywhere. Even if your's is a better quality shirt, I'm not going to pay more money for a Navy Blue sweatshirt.

I think you should at the very least have a Royal Blue in there. Purple and Red would be very nice too.

If the sweatshirts run true to size (along the same sizing as Supreme) then I don't think XL is necessary.

S, M, L would be perfectly fine. Considering I'm 6'2" and a Supreme Large fits perfectly. If demand warrants, then perhaps you should do XL as well.

As far as labels go, I'd say keep it as simple as possible. The whole purpose of this was to keep it label free, but then again, you wan't people to know it's your sweatshirt. If you put a size tag on the shirt, just have it read something like: "(insert your name) Design". That way people know it's yours, but it's still a blank sweatshirt.

Can we get the specs on the shirt?

-What's the weight of the fabric?

-Will it be reverse weave?

-Dual metal zippers?

-What do you estimate the price for consumers to be?

-etc...

Prefiero morir de pie que vivir siempre arrodillado

[starvinglawstudent]

Metal Zippers, not sure if they will be dual just yet. These things cost a pretty penny, and was asked if we wanted to go with cheaper YKKs.

We will be using a reverse weeve to ensure a quality product.

Not sure of the exact weight. I was told by my contact in terms of weight the product is close, but texture is slightly softer then recent supremes. So still looking.

Price? We are thinking of pricing it for 25-30 for wholesale (depending on the number), and $40 for the end user. Again these numbers are up in the air.

Boring? Yes, they are boring for now. But, thats because the market we are looking to target is the oem t-shirt market, not necessarily the ultra fabulous superfuturist. Once this gets off the ground expect some wild shit, no lie, if this works I will dump everything to actualize my visions.

-pete

[jiomitori]

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Edited December 6, 2022 by jiomitori
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[jiomitori]

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Edited December 6, 2022 by jiomitori
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[starvinglawstudent]

I will definetly inform SF once this is done. And thanks for the suggestion. I am either going to go with a small tag inside, or nothing at all. Zilch. Nothing to distinguish it from nothing.

-pete

[SENDkylHISPASSWORD]

See if you can get a tweedish colour ala the Spruce Tiger Fleece, also fuck the logo and if you want to do a tag just get some natural colour tags (once again ala spruce) and have them sewn in.

You have potential to make this good, maybe look at some fabric samples if your into the leroy jenkins thing.

my favourite things

http://mfthings.blogspot.com/

[dystaind]

yeah, this has definitely sparked my interest.

i'm holding out on buying a new hoodie and waiting to hear what you got.

[eastcoastrider27]

Why go all out with quality if you're not going to cater to the "superfuture type" market?

The average consumer isn't going to notice the subtle nuances of a quality garment. They just care about price/color for the most part.

Why would the average person want to buy your sweatshirt for $50, when they can buy what they perceive to be the same sweatshirt for $30?

Regardless, if you make the sweatshirts in Royal Blue, I will be the first person to buy.

Prefiero morir de pie que vivir siempre arrodillado

[Bing Bing]

I think you need some sort of 'branding' identification. You could do sizing tags, but put them somewhere other than the collar. Then use the size tag to distinguish your brand by using a specific font/color/pattern. That way, you retain some sort of 'ownership' of the product eventhough someone else is printing on it.

I'm so self-conscious...

[powerglov]

I've been waiting for someone to do this. Good luck!

I'd do some in purple..

[andewhall]

Yeah I agree with Bing Bing. You would be best to call your venture/blank garments something. "Superblanks"? And put the size label and your Name label down the left side seam, leaving the inside back neck clear for other companies labels. You can get fabric size labels and custom fabric Name labels printed quite cheaply. Good luck my friend.

http://www.image-label-systems.com/

http://photobucket.com/albums/y278/andewhall/

[norcal]

in the beginning of the thread, dystaind mentioned that he wanted a hoodie that zips to a full collar, which is also something i would spend some money on to get a full suite of colors. check out the design and quality of dunderdon's small emb hoodies to 'reverse engineer' it...i'd buy a handful...

[erl1580]

I just got a FL hoodie size L and it seems a bit too fitted for me. Not sure how Supreme's L fits but I would think XL would sell better than S anyways. You got my vote for some XLs.

[wild_whiskey]

If you go through with this, count me in for a case or two.

[starvinglawstudent]

This is the latest news. The minimum is 500. We have to buy the material in bulk. It is better quality then Supreme (well the sample we provided). The told us that the material Supreme usese is just heavy and thus more durable, we will be using some slightly higher. But, here is the bad news. The 500 minimum is for each color. That's a 10 grand investment for one color, since each sweatshirt would cost roughly $20 shipped to the US.

The dual zipper added another fifty cents to each sweatshirt.

Each sweatshirt is completely hand sewn/stitched, and production is at roughly 20 a day.

I am wondering if I could manage to sell 500. I was thinking I would be able to do 200 for the first run. And that was under assumption that there was more then one color. Do you think it is worth bringing quality to the masses?

Well, thats the update I should have a sample in a few weeks.

BTW I think the color I will do is black with silver zipper.

Alright more later.

-pete

[yuljo]

once you have some samples, I might get a case to do screenprinting if it is the quality you say it is.

[adsurgo]

Quote:

once you have some samples, I might get a case to do screenprinting if it is the quality you say it is.

--- Original message by yuljo on Feb 15, 2006 04:44 PM

im gonna second this.

[eastcoastrider27]

Wow $10,000?!

That's a lot of money.

If you do go through with it, I think black is the best color.

If it matters at all, if and when you get them in, I'll take a Large.

Prefiero morir de pie que vivir siempre arrodillado

[gomi no sensei]

Yeah, definitely sign me up for a small.

And with all the people on here that do screening and whatnot, I'm sure you could offload a good chunk of them just to superfuture folks.

[jiomitori]

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Edited December 6, 2022 by jiomitori
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[misterdobalina]

Quote:

This is the latest news. The minimum is 500. We have to buy the material in bulk. It is better quality then Supreme (well the sample we provided). The told us that the material Supreme usese is just heavy and thus more durable, we will be using some slightly higher. But, here is the bad news. The 500 minimum is for each color. That's a 10 grand investment for one color, since each sweatshirt would cost roughly $20 shipped to the US.

The dual zipper added another fifty cents to each sweatshirt.

Each sweatshirt is completely hand sewn/stitched, and production is at roughly 20 a day.

I am wondering if I could manage to sell 500. I was thinking I would be able to do 200 for the first run. And that was under assumption that there was more then one color. Do you think it is worth bringing quality to the masses?

Well, thats the update I should have a sample in a few weeks.

BTW I think the color I will do is black with silver zipper.

Alright more later.

-pete

--- Original message by starvinglawstudent on Feb 15, 2006 04:39 PM

thats way too expensive if you're doing these quantities.

if they provide you lighter cotton, it means they're buying it from the market. my best guess is it's some standard 350gsm which is easily available. such hoodies should cost you less than $8 if you're doing 500. hoodies with side seams are even cheaper to make because they can cut them out of whatever. tubular ones or side inserts are more expensive.

i wouldnt risk this whole adventure if all you do is process standard cotton from the market...

if you wanna have "supreme" quality (450+ gsm) it means the manufacturer has to go to a mill to have the cotton especially made for your order according to your specifications. and this is one of the MAIN reasons why smaller independent labels dont make they're own cut n sew. because they cant meet the production minimums... which is usually 500. per colorway. ouch. good luck getting rid off that.

i'd say a regular store orders 6-8pcs per colorway from smaller labels. do the math... if you dont have at least 60 retailers you can't even dream about having your own cut n sew.

[starvinglawstudent]

Ok, the reason why 500 is the minimum is because we are going through a mill. I was told that I can expect Supreme quality or a something superior to it.

I have some connections within the LA design scene and feel comfortable getting rid of approximatly 100 through this channel.

Again, I believe that 500 is a lot. But keep in mind that this is completely OEM. I have some sales experience and feel that if I did not have school to contend with that I can move 500.

I guess I am really asking if you think this venture is worth it. Law school is great, being a lawyer seems pretty sucky. So I guess I am looking for an out. Well enough rants.

-pete

[gomi no sensei]

What's your markup going to be? If say, you only have to sell 250 or 300 of them to make your money back, it might be worth it.

If you have the cash, I say go for it. If you don't you'll be kicking yourself for not doing something you really want to do. And hell, you'll always have the lawyer gig to fall back on, it's not like you're going to be ruined if this flops with your education.