[anteater]

Now that my whole license question has been cleared (Thanks), I was wondering what the best methods are to approach or attract brands that I want to sell? What does it take?

 

[manufacturer2006]

Depending on the brand you must have rights to sell their products. You may have to buy from their distributors. Most brands list their appointed distributors on their site. If you try to do search on trade sites or any other way its very risky. Higher chance of getting counterfeit items, although they may look very well more than 90% chance they are fake.


Hope I have helped you a bit.

 

[Rodney]

, I was wondering what the best methods are to approach or attract brands that I want to sell? What does it take?

What type of brands are you talking about? Blank t-shirts, or actual printed t-shirt fashion lines.

What type of business are you trying to setup?

 

[anteater]

What type of brands are you talking about? Blank t-shirts, or actual printed t-shirt fashion lines.

More on the lines of t-shirt fashion lines.

What type of business are you trying to setup?

I really don't know yet. I am doing my research and seeing what others advise.

Would it be a good idea to attend a t tradeshow looking for brands to approach? I am not going for those big brands, but rather the smaller companies.

 

[Comin'OutSwingin]

So you want to be an online retail store that sells different brands? I think you could find lots of people here that would probably let you sell their shirts on your site!

I don't know if you've heard of Dr. Jay's. They have physical stores in New York and New Jersey, but also an online store. They sell just about every "big" brand of urban wear and some that are a little smaller. Check out their site www.drjays.com. Is this the business model you are shooting for?

Again, I don't think you would have much of a problem with smaller companies. But you need to keep in mind, that they would be selling to you wholesale. Which would mean that you would either have to purchase enough (a lot) to make it worth their while to give you a lower price than they retail for, or provide a site that gets lots of traffic and has high visibility (lots of marketing money!)

 

[Rodney]

I agree with Comin'OutSwining. If you're opening a store (either offline brick and mortar or online) that carries and promotes other t-shirt lines, I don't think it will be too hard for you to get t-shirt lines to be in your store. Most will jump at the chance if you have a legitimate store and a decent way of promoting it.

A tradeshow would be a good place to reach a lot of brands at once. You'll catch a lot of the "bigger" brands at tradeshows like Magic in Las Vegas and find a lot of the "independent" brands at the smaller tradeshows that happen around the same time as the larger tradeshows. Here's a list of tradeshows in this thread:
http://www.t-shirtforums.com/showthread.php?t=1245

 

[anteater]

So you want to be an online retail store that sells different brands?

Yeah, thats basically what I am going for.

Check out their site www.drjays.com. Is this the business model you are shooting for?

Generally, yeah that's what I am going for. However, I have some other ideas up my sleeve.

Thanks for the help everyone. I really appreciate it.