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How many shirt to order on a startup??

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5K views 34 replies 10 participants last post by  drcigg 
#1 ·
Hey All,

I've heard alot of great this about this forum, so I've decided to Join the Community. (YEAAAA!!!, LOL)

So as the title says, I wanted to know whats a good number of shirts to order for a fresh new Startup.

So far I have 5 Solid designs ( I actually have more then 5, But I have a limited budget so 5 designs to start). Whats the best way to go, How many designs to start with and how many should i start with on each design?

THANKS FOR ANY AND ALL FEEDBACK!!!!
 
#5 ·
I think it's all gonna depend on the sizes you are going to stock and how many of each size. I carry up to 5XL. So I would stock up to 8 to 10 s-xl and 5 2xl - 5xl.

When I started off I carried 2 designs and worked my way up from there first. Its easier to identify your popular sizes and get a idea of what you need to stock. I let the two designs pay for themselves and the next design I released. Don't blow you wad all at once if you know what I mean.

Sent from my LG-E980 using T-Shirt Forums
 
#6 ·
So is it good to just start with 2 designs?

What if you have more then 2 designs?

What if the 2 designs you pick dont sell well?

What step did you take on picking the 2 designs? Did you post on Social media Drafts to and allowed people to choose?

If only 2 design how many shirts in ALL did you order?
 
#7 ·
I keep 2 designs with me on hand in my truck. I sell where I go. most sell but I get oneoff orders and they like them and order again.if you have 5 designs then do all 5 and have at least 5 of each design with you. but I would just do 1 or 2 since your starting out.
 
#8 ·
Well i'm trying to sell to Females and Male, so i have 2 Designs for females and 3 For men right now. And i'm trying to make each time i order a new collection. so this order i have a name of the collection in mind. The Next order a completely different name. All to be LIMITED EDITIONS and NUMBERED in the collection.

but the question is, should i start with an order of 50, 100, 200????.... HOW MANY SHIRT SHOULD I ORDER IN THE FIRST RUN??
 
#13 ·
What if, what if, what if! Apparel is a risky business. Lol before I even started my brand I had over 50 designs. Like I said before, just be patient and don't blow all your wad at once.

I had a poll on my FB page asking which I should release first. Worked well and it paid for itself and then some.

I can say you can go hard at first, but your customers are going to expect it from you all the the time. So pace yourself.

Sent from my LG-E980 using T-Shirt Forums
 
#18 ·
What does your marketing plan say? You have one, right? You should also have a business plan. Skipping these steps places you in a position to get lucky
 
#19 ·
I have a marketing and business plan. I'm asking for outside opinions. Is it better to sketch a design and have someone professionally design it to get print? I'm no designer and the last thing i want is a design to not look as professional as possible.

I can somewhat Draw, and i'm pretty familiar with AI. but i've never designed anything to compete with others that has alot more time in the game.

Now, i'm not saying just leave it up to some random to completely design the image. But someone to fine tune it to it's great point do sound nice to my ears.

I was asking this forum to get an understanding of the pro's and con's of

Ordering To Little

Ordering To Much

Self Designing the images then sending of for production

Drafting the image to get fully developed by someone who has either Experience Design or has went to school for it.

Should i go with Soft water base Inks?

If this isn't a place where someone can ask these elementry questions about T-shirt startup. Then Why even advertise this place to be that?
 
#20 ·
We are a new business as well. We have ALOT of designs that are waiting to be transfer printed as the funds just are not there to do them at once. We launch 2-3 designs a month and order between 15-25 of each (transfers), we then order the same amount of shirts. We press a few just to have on hand for when orders come in, then press again to restock inventory.

For us it's working. There are vendors that you can order minimums. F&M you can order as little as 1 transfer (assuming it's a 1 color transfer) but there is a setup fee of $22. So for 12 transfers would cost you $23.80 plus shipping.
 
#21 ·
There is no magic formula, it is up to you and how much confidence you have in a design and it's sell-ability. Starting with a smaller size is less risky but can be more expensive, however you don't want to get stuck with a lot of shirts that don't sell because you were trying to get the cheapest price. My preference is to test the waters by starting with about 30 - 100 of each design.
 
#24 ·
The most flexible way to go is to get Plastisol transfers printed up for your designs and then press them to the blank shirts yourself as you have orders ... but that requires that you invest in a decent heat press, which is an investment itself.

You are still out the cost of printing a batch of transfers (price breaks for the more you print), but assuming all your designs go on the the same style/color shirt (two if men's and women's) then you can get by with a smaller investment in shirts since they are blank until you fill an order. If you have some designs that require a different color of shirt, I would skip those for now.

You may end up with some leftover transfers if a design doesn't sell well, but no wasted T-shirts.

As to how many transfers and how many shirts to have on hand to start with ... I would consider these factors:

- The turn around time for ordering transfers and blank shirts (there is probably a local distributor of shirts)
- The volumes at which there are price breaks
- How much money you have available to invest in inventory
- Your worst and best case sales scenarios
 
#27 ·
If you are looking to have the shirts printed by an outside business, then you want to use a company that screen prints directly to the shirts. (Plastisol transfers are themselves screen printed, so better and cheaper to just screen print directly to the shirt if you are going to outsource all of the production work.)

The downside to having the shirts screen printed is that you must commit to how many you want of each color, size, and style before you have any idea what sells well for you.

^ I know that is pretty much what you were asking to start with, but we really can't tell you which of your shirts will sell well in which sizes and styles.

If you are going to go with outside screen printing, I would make the first order of shirts pretty low in volume--even though it will cost you more per shirt--so that you can learn more about your target market and how they respond to your product before committing to a larger print run.

To speedup turnaround times, I would use a local print vendor and use T-shirt styles/colors that they keep in stock or can source locally.

^ That will allow you to run with a minimum of inventory while you sort out your product and its market. It does not matter if it costs more per unit and squeezes your profits, as that is much, much better than being stuck with thousands of dollars of merchandise that you cannot sell.

As to quantity and sizes. Unless your designs skew toward kids or older fatter adults, most of your sales would be Medium, Large, and XL. When dealing with a small sample size it is easy for a few outliers to skew the numbers, so I would always stock a little more of the lower selling sizes than you expect to sell.

So a starting place for size distribution is: S 10%; M 20%; L 20%; XL 20%; 2XL 10%. I would not mess with XS or 3XL+ unless you find there is a market for it.

You mentioned that you are on a limited budget (aren't we all!). I would limit your initial offerings to your strongest designs--as others have said, seek some outside opinions on this.

I think you got off track a few times with the lingo we used in our responses, sorry, jargon :eek:. Still, you need to be more familiar with your options in order to avoid avoidable mistakes. Mistakes will be made and you will learn from them, but better to learn what you can from the mistakes of others, first. Which is exactly what you are trying to do here :).

All that said, I would research your options more before investing in inventory or equipment. Don't throw all your effort and money at the first try, or you won't be able to leverage what you learned from it.
 
#29 ·
NoXid... Thanks for the response.

Since this post i've researched around to figure out whats the best option for me at this time. Right now i'm running a few sample order through a DTG fullfilment service. Also, I've reached 1,000 followers on Twitter for my Brand account and 989 Likes on the facebook page. I surveyed both accounts with the designs i came up with and now somewhat have a Following/Waiting list of people who has a higher chance of buying verses if i printed with out seeing if the designs are hot.

The website is getting about 25 hits per day ( 400 hits in this last week ) and i've printed 2500 flyers and 200 posters and placed them in every bizzy location in my city ( Barbers, Salons, Gas stations, Candy Stores, Boutiques, Bus stops, and Stop light poles). I've also written and syndicated a press release for my new line which has been picked up by 2 mag's and 1 newspaper so for. I located Bloggers in my state who has the most following and I'm planning on reaching out to them to possibly write a piece on the Brand. And i have a photoshot setup for this Thursday with MidWest Leak Mag photographer to have really good photo representation.

The shirts is costing about $13.55 Per which is including shipping. So I can easily price at $20 and say FREE SHIPPING.

My next stop is going to be to setup a Youtube channel. I'm always looking for a way to expand my brand, so Hats, Shirts, Button up shirts, Fleeces, Jackets, Coats, Hoodies, Belts, Socks, and eventually Denim Jeans in the near future is all apart of the plan.

I think my end plan after i've gotten into stores is to look for investors to go Nationally. Right now i have 38 Orders ( Pre Ordered ) coming in this week, and i've put together an Instagram team of females who has alot of followers who's going to be posting pictures everyweek or every design.

I would like to know more about these startup mistakes you was speaking about.

~Thanks
 
#30 ·
people will say they want this and that preorder dont mean nothing unless u have a deposit. I have 5000 fb followers and they all say itd nice. I sold 1 shirt from there. I would make the 38 orders and get them out the way. Having people wait will show them how slow or fast you can produce a shirt. If u male it yourself then you have a leg up but if u have to order the stuff then ur behind.
 
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