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.
The answer for me is simple, I don't compete with the cheap shirts. I do first quality items only, no yard sale items no junk no seconds. I also don't negotiate my prices unless they are buying at least 10 or more. I do custom work at a fair price. I deal with a lot of small companies looking to buy 5 or 10 shirts at a time with their name or logo on them. You can't buy that off the shelf at the department stores and the screen printers aren't interested in such short runs so I fill a niche market. If you are selling your own designs they need to be unique and good quality. Everybody sells the same old transfers on the same old shirts so if you sell upscale yours will get noticed. But you have to give it time. People grow to trust you if they see you there week after week.
Also you need quantity, even if it's just blank shirts. I have about 450 different license plates displayed (down from 600, I needed space for other stuff). If someone is interested they have to take time to look, they have to stop, not just glance on the way by. It also cuts down on competition, because it will look like they would have to spend too much money to compete with you. You don't see a Target next to a Wal-Mart very often.
If possible set up by the womens restroom!!!! I get a lot of husbands because they are waiting for their wives. When the women come out of the restroom my booth is the first thing they see, filled with the sublimated tiles, murals and of course jewelry. All high dollar custom made, women spend money on pretty, men spend money on cars. I win.
All markets are not good for all things so you have to check them out and see who shops there and what they are buying or if they are buying. If everybody is just standing around talking with no bags in hand and it is like that for the whole day it's a visiting market, there's no money in talking about the weather unless you are a weatherman.
Just like choosing a store location it has to fit or it just will not work.
BRC got a couple of questions for you but first my plan.
Im taking a computer, printer, heat press (shirt, hat) along with a digital camera so I can do on the spot stuff. Everything from faces on bodies, to babies to someone wanting to send something to there ex girlfriend is what I plan on doing. I have serveral Ideas for matching pair (hat and shirt) designs, plus a little nick nacks here and there.
How many shirts do I need to take for a "general" crowd, pre-printed and blank? Hats? I have allot of money to back me but the 1st month we decided on a limited budget that we have not officialy set yet. Dont want to blow all my money of the first event on unneeded items, the second or third I will splurge after I test the waters a bit with designs and customers attention.
How do you display all of your wares? How do you hang them and stuff?
I am not the best person to say how many simply because I have the greates arrangment possible. I am friends with a t-shirt dealer and I don't even need to take my press to the market. I have only a limited inventory at home and just have them order the shirts I need. They do the same old transfers and I do only the custom work. I have a few general preprinted shirts displayed and some of the custom ones to get attention. They send me the customers who want custom and we split the profits because they press them and stock the shirts. For the logo and company work I take orders and do them myself at home. I do sublimation for them and they do shirt work for me. Saves us both time and money with very little overlap. I display my 20 or 30 shirts on a store fixtures just like in a department store or hang them on the wall. You can usually find a store going out of business and buy the racks pretty cheap. Or dealers come and go all the time and you can buy from them real cheap.
I tried to go into a flee market here in rockford IL. I din't have any luck...The person that said that you had to server your time at the bottom was correct. I paid 35 for the weekend and ended up selling like 5 shirts the whole weekend...not profitable at all...Might have been the line of products i took with me. I didn't have any luck at the flee market at all going back this summer withmy over stock and selling it for next to nothing to get my money back out of it.
Just my 2 cents- becuz I'm just starting out myself, but have been doing a Local Flee Market, Farmers Market thing... and I have learned quite a bit. Make your booth FULL or at least look full, if you can make them walk in and look around (with your set-up), don't make your set-up so people can just walk by and "think" they can see what is in your booth. That happened my first 2 days and it was horrible. I changed it and then my sales went up quite a bit. Also, so you aren't competing with the 3 for $10 deal, make sure you have truely original stuff. If they can't buy your idea at the 3 for$10 place, then you have the business. I also do embroidery ON THE SPOT, which people are lured in by. They hear the machine and wonder what is going on, and then they want their stuff personalized ( I do the personalizing for free)... Like I said,, I have learned a lot just by doing. I hope to open a brick and mortar store, but Like many have said before, some people need to start smaller and work their way up. And I think I am going to get there! Good Luck!
i had my first weekend at the flea market and it was not good. i was contemplating rather to let people walk into my space or not. i decided not to have them come inside because the potential for theft. anyone has any suggestions on how to effectively set-up in this manner and still draw customers to your booth?
If they can't walk in, most will just walk on by. You need to make them stop and take time to look. You either need to wow them with choices or wow them with something unusual. As far as theft goes , it happens but not as much as you'd think or by the ones you would think will steal from you. Most of the items I have stolen have a religious theme, I guess they think God will forgive them for stealing religious items.
Re: Fleamarkets vs. Retailers 
