Discuss the process of getting your t-shirt line into brick and mortar stores and selling offline. Topics include industry tradeshows, events, line sheets, sales reps and other retailing tips and advice.
yeah Know one can to the craft show , there where prombles with the signs and the man who held the show didn't advties or anthing. i think we had 1 lady who came and looked at our stuff. I am not real sure on the other prombles as well but now i know to look in to the Show/ or fair better before driving 300 miles to go to one. i learned alot.
BOBBIE
Show selection is key and you learned a valuble lesson. When you search for events try and find the sites that list public attendance figures and if its an annual show or not. We have all been there so dont get down on yourself.
I remember our first show, I cautioned Deb to not be too disappointed if she didn't sell much. Neither one of us got any sleep the night before. I had to work the day of the show and she was home by the time I got off work. She managed to keep a straight face as I asked her how she did. She sold out. the entire inventory (dolls, at the time). Jubilation.
The next show was a couple months later and we were well prepared, more inventory, better displays a wider range of products to appeal to a greater number of people. We had it locked. We didn't even make lunch money that day, first snow of the season, poor advertising, the venue hosts had polarized the community a bit, etc.
Ultimately, you win some and you lose some and, sad to say, the blow to your ego doesn't ease with time. After a good show, you are on top of the world, after a poor show you ask yourself why you are in this business at all.
One suggestion, someone previously mentioned a gameboy for the slow times, in my experience (admittedly, not in the T-shirt trade but in a lot of craft shows ranging from the local church to juried shows with a multi-year waiting list) the customers really like to see you doing something with your craft instead of isolating yourself from them with your head down over an lcd screen. Even doodling a new design shows the customer that you are involved with the product. In this day and age of imports coming in by the shipload, many customers are looking for something created by a real human being.
Wow, this makes my first experience last weekend sound pretty good. I was expecting to sell 4 shirts an hour and to gross about $900. I did $420 with bad weather. If the weather was good, I would have met or exceeded my forecast.
I know now which designs are more desirable than others and how to target events that is more fitting to my target demographic.
My first times out was good....but my first big show with 1,000s attending was an experience. Three of us split the $1,100 for a 3 weekend event including Labor Day. I made my $300 the first weekend. This was my first time out with this design. I had 100 tees printed. It was a trip. The other two sat back like wow. I dont think either of them make their 300 back during the 3 weekends.
This year, I am thinking going it alone for the entire 3 weekends. I like to rent some space to others who like to sell and dont want to make a commitment for the entire time. Its very hard on the body to vend 3 consecutive weekends...all I can think about where is a jacuzzi.
I have vend at lots of small events and have always done well with sales. Usually those events are $50-$75 for vending and I can make a $200 or so. I am thinking about another event, lots of people with money but $200 for vending - one day. I know its important for me to attend, but not sure if I want to invest. This past weekend, I vend at a small event, $75 for vending and I only made $25, so not so good.
I prefer the big events, where there are 1,000s promised to attend.
Re: going to our first craft show/ fair 
