Ok so, me and my husband are starting a clothing business, making T-shirts and other apparel, but while scoping out the competition at the local swap meet, we noticed that many of the vendors were selling there T-shirts for 5 bucks. My question is how is this possible? especially when the T-shirts cost about at the least that I have found 2 bucks and the transfers can be anywhere from 1-5 bucks or more. So where is there profit? and how can they afford to sell them for so cheap. I feel almost discouraged and alittle depressed here. Is there something that they know that I dont? Where are they getting there t-shirts from so cheap that they can sell for so little. I would truly appreciate any advice anyone can give.
Thanks
Jen
Last edited by LoveLife; May 12th, 2008 at 12:49 AM.
Reason: spelling errors
Yes they must be selling mass produced stuff made in countries with cheap labor.
But you are wrong to focus on price. Price is not a very important factor as long as
it isn't extremely high to your target market. I tried lowering my prices a lot and it made no difference.
No, what really matters is how good you are and how much you know about this business.
And selling stuff that customers really want.
If they love your t-shirts, then they won't care that joe blow sells his t-shirts for $5,
unless joe blow is selling the exact same designs and shirts that you are.
They'll buy yours for $20 or whatever anyway.
You just need to make shirts that people love and get a lot of exposure for them.
I often wonder the same thing.last year on vacation is Seatle, I bought 3 tee shirts for $20 and they wer 5 and six color screen prints. I guess they use the white tees and print in bulk. They then sell to many vendors at the same time.I would guess this is what you are seeing . ..... JB
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Sometimes you get what you pay for. A $5 shirt sounds good when you're on a budget, but is it good quality? And think of the products in our stores that are made from China; good price but CHEAP!
I would pay more for your shirts because YOU made them, money that is going right back to my fellow American. So keep going sister and don't let THEM bring you down. There are plenty of us who want American made products!!
Thank you all for you responses, I truly appreciate it. I agree with you Bougie, we are going to focus more on the quality and design of our product. Focusing on new and unique designs. I also agree with JeepWidow on the whole made in America thing, it is truly is a time to focus on our own economy.
Thank you all so much again, I am sure I will have plenty of questions
I saw 2 t-shirts for 25 Hong Kong dollars on Sunday, that is around $3.20 U.S. and people still weren`t buying them. I am baffled as to how they profit. I also saw some t-shirts from Japanese brands for $200 U.S. So I am lost.
they may be using irregulars, also, for .48 a shirt.
Just do your thing, try to keep your price down as much as possibe ,but if you are not making a profit, it will not be good in the long run. there are many places to by retired transfers for $3.00 to $6.00 a dozen.
I have found some sayings at Printex that are .39 a saying, price your shirts cheaper for cheaper ones or more expensive for front and back transfers.
Hope this helps, Check out the retired Transfers at ARtbrands.
Interesting thread.....makes me think of something I saw at my workplace.
At the place where I work, there's a mini-mall and in this mall is a little t-shirt shop.
All the t-shirts are going for like SGD$10.00, and that's about USD$7.60 or so.
At such prices, you would have thought the designs are ugly, crappy, kiddish-fugly design etc....but they're not! The designs are mostly those youth-oriented, tribal kind of designs.
Visit Tribalgear.com is the official web site of Tribal Streetwear International to get a good idea of how the designs look like.
Now, imagine that these designs are 5 times more beautiful, more attractive.
That's how that shop's designs look like and it makes me wanna close my t-shirt store.
However, though, I'm not sure about the quality of the t-shirts and how good they're, but they should be at least pretty good since they can remain in business for so long and the rental fees are high.
It's insane.
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An extremely beautifully rendered tribal design may NOT be exactly what many customers want, just some customers want that, not all. I used to think that I would automatically be beaten by Choice Shirts because they have all these beautiful, elaborate, full color designs on their shirts. That's not true. That's only one little thing and for some customers it's not what they CARE about! There are lots of other factors involved. Sometimes people just want a simple design. You have to find out what the customers really care about, not what you THINK they care about! Don't defeat yourself by thinking you're worse off than you really are.
Getting back to price, I read in a marketing book that oftentimes the biggest tightwads are the rich people, not the poor people! Oftentimes poor people will spend more money on an item as long as they think it's a good product. They do this because they don't want to think of themselves as LOSERS! Hahahahaha. The rich people have good self esteem and they brag about how much money they saved rather than how much money they spent!
This is just another one of those things where the reality of a situation is counter-intuitive and you have to actually test it to find out what the truth is.
Just my .02 but you never want to defeat yourself by your thinking. I have seen folks selling t's for much lower than I would dream but as others have said you get what you pay for. I don't focus on what others are doing because if it's what works for them at the time then I think that's great. However, if they are selling a low grade product for less money then eventually that word will get around. Focus on your quality and what the people are looking for. Make sure you are offering a good quality product and the results will be there for you. I hope this helps you
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