Hooded Sweatshirt Production Advice (please help)

[LA Guy]

$40 is huge for wholesale - just huge, like Whiskey said. By the time small companies factor in the other costs (printing, laundering, etc...) we are looking at $100 wholesale or thereabouts. Retailing at 60 points, that's a hoodie over $200. Hell, at those prices, if I wre a small independent, I'd go with, say, a generic 50/50's (about 12-16 USD, depending on volume), and pay another $10 to get the hardware changed (say, a better zipper). And then I'd look to CYC or another established company, for custom cut-and-sews, when I am ready.

[CL Smooth]

ill take a Medium

[Parker669]

I think if you decide that you want to go through with this your best bet would be to sell them as your product rather than wholesaling them to others. Do some sort of minimal branding..ie: gold zipper (i think thats been mentioned), and some sort of small detail that sets your product apart, and then sell them as a final product. With the costs your dealing with you're going to be hardpressed to find small brands willing to pay so much for blanks, and since that was your original goal you may want to reconsider your plans. I think you could sell these fine as a your product to individuals rather than companies.

[super]

Quote:

I think if you decide that you want to go through with this your best bet would be to sell them as your product rather than wholesaling them to others. Do some sort of minimal branding..ie: gold zipper (i think thats been mentioned), and some sort of small detail that sets your product apart, and then sell them as a final product. With the costs your dealing with you're going to be hardpressed to find small brands willing to pay so much for blanks, and since that was your original goal you may want to reconsider your plans. I think you could sell these fine as a your product to individuals rather than companies.

--- Original message by Parker669 on Feb 18, 2006 05:02 PM

Best idea

[heartsandcrafts]

i agree with these comments ^

also another idea for minimal enhancement or whatever (this dosent work well with black) it to have the cuffs and the stretchy part at the wait to be a slightly lighter or darker shade than the body, i always liked that detail. heres the only examples i could think of off the top of my head:

[DAVE LABELS]

has there been any new progress? i too have been stuck with this dilema yesturday. i will inquire about india very soon and relay my answers here.

[homi29]

yes Please someone make good thick, thermal blanks, with great construction

id definetly pay 40-60USD for it..

i'm sure u could craft a brand out of a company that does basics right, i mean its hard to find that perfect compromise between quality, construction, and price

[CactusArmy]

It's a very nice idea pete, stick it out and you'll be alright. If it this stuffs up in your face, you'd have learnt a great deal more than most people ever will and you'll be able to take it from there. Anyway when those sweats are done, show us some pics yay

[Kane]

At 500 units minimum per colour, CYC can do thick sweats at $40 - $60 a pop with Made-in-Canada goods. No need to go to India or China.

[yuljo]

I would rather buy made in canada goods, you should go with CYC.

[starvinglawstudent]

The sample will be coming in later next week.

I called in yesterday and was told that the fit is pretty much the same as the supreme hoody. It is slightly heavier, but the construciton is the same.

Here is some production informaiton for you. We are purchasing matering from a mill in Taiwan that supplies material to Japanese distrbutors. I was told that the material we selected is commonly used by man Japanes brands. I was assured that we can expect a higher quality.

The material is cut at a factory. My family will then take the material and send it to be handsewn. There isn't a company that does such small numbers in Taiwan, and thus my family have found independent contractos to do the sewing. That explains why I can only promise around 100 sweatshirts a week.

Ok, now I need to send a sample of a medium or small to Taiwan. Is there a particular cut of medium and small that SF prefer. If not, then I will be sending in my Supreme medium to Taiwan, and using some Jerzee small as our sample.

The goal is to provide the sweats to high end indie brands, and if they cannot cough up $40 for a quality hoody then I guess we will be stuck with 500 sweatshirts. There will be no labels, but I have decided to take the advice of a SF and print a distinc sizing tag (it will probably have SML, and chinese characters reflecting the same, and washing instructions).

There will eventually be a website. I have some ecommerce experience and this should be up and running a week after I get confirmation that the sweatshirts are in production.

I am giving myself 2 months to move 500. If it can be done then I will throw caution in the wind and do other colors. And if that can go well for one season, then you can expect some really reckless crazy shit.

Thanks for the interest, and I hope I have addressed your questions and concerns.

-pete

[starvinglawstudent]

KANE-Does that price include shipping? If i can get CYC hoodies for $40 shipped then I would drop the entire project. This was just an idea that I have been running with, but from the time spent I realized all the factors that go into creating the project. After weeks of going back and forth will production managers I don't think a 500 minimum is ridiculous any more.

-pete

[homi29]

whichever way u go ill probably wanna grab on

id prefer that u all BUY CANADIAN though haha

[heartsandcrafts]

PLEASE do not use a Jerzees brand small, they come nowhere close to fitting correctly, the torso is too baggy the shoulders are too wide and the sleeves are too short. An AA non-zip would be good for sizing, or an AA thermal zip, (I think the non-thermal AA zip-ups are a little strange.)

[powerglov]

Count me in for a Medium.

[misterdobalina]

Quote:

The sample will be coming in later next week.

I called in yesterday and was told that the fit is pretty much the same as the supreme hoody. It is slightly heavier, but the construciton is the same.

Here is some production informaiton for you. We are purchasing matering from a mill in Taiwan that supplies material to Japanese distrbutors. I was told that the material we selected is commonly used by man Japanes brands. I was assured that we can expect a higher quality.

The material is cut at a factory. My family will then take the material and send it to be handsewn. There isn't a company that does such small numbers in Taiwan, and thus my family have found independent contractos to do the sewing. That explains why I can only promise around 100 sweatshirts a week.

Ok, now I need to send a sample of a medium or small to Taiwan. Is there a particular cut of medium and small that SF prefer. If not, then I will be sending in my Supreme medium to Taiwan, and using some Jerzee small as our sample.

The goal is to provide the sweats to high end indie brands, and if they cannot cough up $40 for a quality hoody then I guess we will be stuck with 500 sweatshirts. There will be no labels, but I have decided to take the advice of a SF and print a distinc sizing tag (it will probably have SML, and chinese characters reflecting the same, and washing instructions).

There will eventually be a website. I have some ecommerce experience and this should be up and running a week after I get confirmation that the sweatshirts are in production.

I am giving myself 2 months to move 500. If it can be done then I will throw caution in the wind and do other colors. And if that can go well for one season, then you can expect some really reckless crazy shit.

Thanks for the interest, and I hope I have addressed your questions and concerns.

-pete

--- Original message by starvinglawstudent on Feb 22, 2006 08:31 PM

usually when it comes to production you don't mess with sending in samples in every size.

you do one (perfect) salesman sample (sz. L), than you use grading scales for each size up and down (approx. 2.5-3%). there's even international production guidelines for that. that's how every label does it. even your beloved supreme hoodies are made using grading scales.

maybe you can ask someone who studied textile design for help. bodies and sleeves are graded differently.

[sriracha hot sauce]

I'll take a large if its anything remotely close to CYC.

can you give a brief summary of the details of the final product, and what u will be charging since it cost 40 to make, etc? Thanks a lot.

[icegrillz]

is this going to be one of those all over print? if so, i am interested.

[dystaind]

Quote:

PLEASE do not use a Jerzees brand small, they come nowhere close to fitting correctly, the torso is too baggy the shoulders are too wide and the sleeves are too short. An AA non-zip would be good for sizing, or an AA thermal zip, (I think the non-thermal AA zip-ups are a little strange.)

--- Original message by heartsandcrafts on Feb 22, 2006 11:02 PM

2nded-- please please please do NOT use Jerzees small.

[boystory]

Quote:

Quote:

PLEASE do not use a Jerzees brand small, they come nowhere close to fitting correctly, the torso is too baggy the shoulders are too wide and the sleeves are too short. An AA non-zip would be good for sizing, or an AA thermal zip, (I think the non-thermal AA zip-ups are a little strange.)

--- Original message by heartsandcrafts on Feb 22, 2006 11:02 PM

2nded-- please please please do NOT use Jerzees small.

--- Original message by dystaind on Feb 23, 2006 11:30 PM

thirded.

i find the AA non-thermal zip in an M to be my ideal fit

[Kane]

I'll put in an inquiry for you. You mentioned you have deposit for this project, right? I'll PM you soon as I can get some answers.

I'm fairly certain we can get you blanks for $40 shipped, though to be perfectly honest, I don't know how you're going to flog these at that price without an already-established network or channel of distribution.

Also, in terms of timing, you're going to have to inventory a whole lot of heavyweight sweats right through summer. My suggestion would be for you to think a bit more about this project, and how you're going to sell these garments instead of flying by the seat of your pants.

Consider that you're selling blank sets about 2-3 times as much as any other generic brand, and even at that price, you're not pulling in a profit.

500 gmts X $40 = $20,000.

So you're doing this to cycle $20Gs? If you sold your garments at a profit of $5 per garment, you'd only make $2500, or roughly more than 10%, and that's after you've sold all your merchandise.

How much is your time worth?

To do something like this properly, you're going to have to tell us how you want to spec garments. As numerous people have chimed in, it'd be a travesty to just randomly throw in fits from generic brands. Worst of all, you'll have returns on your hands and you'd probably lose a wack of cash and credibility when all of your size smalls and XLs are shipped back to you. Who's going to eat shipping charges for returns?

Aside from these crazies who've chimed in, do you really know anyone else who'd drop good money on sweatshirts they've never seen or tried on?

Man. If I were you, I'd sit down and think hard before looking to spend all that money on a crazy venture like this.

Alternately, you could save a lot of time and just PayPal me the money.

[chimpanjesus]

like many other small clothing label owners im intrigued by the idea. there really isnt anyone out there providing a quality blank hooded sweater. for someone to fill that gap makes sense and could be a very profitable business. but if youre charging $40 wholesale to labels who then have to get the sweater printed (add $10-$12) and then wholesale them to shops the final retail cost of these sweaters is reaching the $200 mark. that is a unreasonable amount of money to be charging for the type of product that would be produced. it just doesnt make sense. i want a quality blank as much as anyone on this board but when it comes down to it if youre marketing this is a alternative to small clothing lines its really not going to go anywhere.

www.flyingcoffin.com

Edited by chimpanjesus on Feb 24, 2006 at 01:18 AM

[witts]

this thread is amazing, why not speak to some mods, see if they wana invest in a superfuture hoody? theyve already done the tee?

count me in for a Large!!

SUPERJUNKIE

[andewhall]

Quote:

Quote:

The sample will be coming in later next week.

I called in yesterday and was told that the fit is pretty much the same as the supreme hoody. It is slightly heavier, but the construciton is the same.

Here is some production informaiton for you. We are purchasing matering from a mill in Taiwan that supplies material to Japanese distrbutors. I was told that the material we selected is commonly used by man Japanes brands. I was assured that we can expect a higher quality.

The material is cut at a factory. My family will then take the material and send it to be handsewn. There isn't a company that does such small numbers in Taiwan, and thus my family have found independent contractos to do the sewing. That explains why I can only promise around 100 sweatshirts a week.

Ok, now I need to send a sample of a medium or small to Taiwan. Is there a particular cut of medium and small that SF prefer. If not, then I will be sending in my Supreme medium to Taiwan, and using some Jerzee small as our sample.

The goal is to provide the sweats to high end indie brands, and if they cannot cough up $40 for a quality hoody then I guess we will be stuck with 500 sweatshirts. There will be no labels, but I have decided to take the advice of a SF and print a distinc sizing tag (it will probably have SML, and chinese characters reflecting the same, and washing instructions).

There will eventually be a website. I have some ecommerce experience and this should be up and running a week after I get confirmation that the sweatshirts are in production.

I am giving myself 2 months to move 500. If it can be done then I will throw caution in the wind and do other colors. And if that can go well for one season, then you can expect some really reckless crazy shit.

Thanks for the interest, and I hope I have addressed your questions and concerns.

-pete

--- Original message by starvinglawstudent on Feb 22, 2006 08:31 PM

usually when it comes to production you don't mess with sending in samples in every size.

you do one (perfect) salesman sample (sz. L), than you use grading scales for each size up and down (approx. 2.5-3%). there's even international production guidelines for that. that's how every label does it. even your beloved supreme hoodies are made using grading scales.

maybe you can ask someone who studied textile design for help. bodies and sleeves are graded differently.

--- Original message by misterdobalina on Feb 23, 2006 04:57 AM

Iusually work with a 5cm grade for hoodys, Sweats and tees which is pretty standard.

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

[starvinglawstudent]

KANE-Thanks for the info. If you can give me a number to call I will try again.

Update-Sample is coming should be here soon. I will be sure to post pics. My semester break is next week, it is referred to as reading week in law school. I will be using it for this ventue. I will be flying back to Taiwan to do some site seeing, but mainly to get an idea of how production is to go. I will be visiting the mill, as well as seeing how the garments will be produced. Is there anything I should be looking for, or asking about.

I was told to use riri zippers, and will be asking about that while I am there, aside from that I don't know about any other specific questions.

[obsessis]

whoa whoa slow down a minute.

everybody here thinks they are going to buy hoodies from you for $30 or $40. you stated a wholesale cost of $40...that is for bulk purchases right? what if you were going to sell one hoody to a SF member, how much would it cost?

it will be super hard to get rid of a bunch of $40 hoodies in the summer, as mentioned before. I think that your idea is awesome but is really going to set you up to lose your ass.

I would think about buying one, to help out someone trying to do something DIY, but I can't really spend too much on something I haven't seen. What if you end up getting them and they are nothing like the sample? Then you have 500 hoodies that are the same quality as a $8 one from WalMart. Be really careful about that.

As was said before, I thought you were trying to do this to get a low-cost alternative out there...I don't see anyone buying 25 hoodies for $40 a piece wholesale so they can screenprint their design on them and try to sell a DIY, no-name up and coming design for $60 maybe (if they don't want to really make any money themselves).

I think this is great if you want to sell 1's and 2's of hoodies to people but I can't see someone dropping $1,000 for 25 hoodies to paint on.

[obsessis]

Don't get me wrong, I think it is cool as shit that you are actually trying to do something instead of sit around and bitch about how shit sucks and think you can do a better job and not try. Just be careful, I don't want to see anyone fail at something like this.

If your shit comes out nice I would buy one, maybe two...you might sell 30 on superfuture, that's about it when it all comes down to it. Most of the people who say 'yeah, i'll buy one' will back out, just like anything else someone tries to promote, shows, parties, cd's, etc...

[alm8319]

obviously its a nice idea to try to come out with an alternative, but this is a seriously flawed business plan.

who buys hoodies in april? also, are you just doing this to help people out, or to make money? if you're trying to help people out, thats noble, but not the smartest. try applying some of the skills you leared in law school and really analyze this.

also, you seem to know nothing about the entire process and are just trying to knock off supreme hoodies.

maybe stick to torts and civ pro.

[jiomitori]

Wow, the past couple of posts have been very negative.

Yes, starting a business is a big risk. But this is always true of any new endeavor.

I'd buy a hoodie in April, and I think a lot of people would, depending on where they live.

[starvinglawstudent]

I understand that ramifications of selling the hoodies in April. It is not the soundest idea. But, it is not because of the lack of business acumen. I have owned my own coffee shop, and have worked on various ecommerce based businesses.

The product is not going to change. It's a simple hooded sweatshirt. Whether I push them now or wait until August does not change the fact that they are a hooded sweatshirt. The reason business is conducted now is because it takes approximately 2 months to complete production. Ordering 500 is so small that the people I spoke to could not, or are not willing, to dedicate that much man-power to production. Since this is all hand sewn the can only dedicate a few hours to our project at a time, thus the long wait.

However, the plan is to get a few quality samples and then visit start shopping around. Hopefully the sweats will be picked up for a few fall lines. I want to support the independent companies out there with this endeavor, however I am not doing this for the run of the mill t-shirt printer. This product is being produced for those who want and expect quality, and unfortunately there is a premium.

I appreciate all the comments and thanks again for reading.

The cost to me is arround $30. Wholesale is priced at $40, but will be lower depending on the amount. A website should be up. And the cost for them there will be at $50.