Hi everyone, Ok so I am starting a new urban tee shirt line, I decided to go with the Alstyle AAA 1301 shirts and I was wondering being this is my first time how many shirts should I get printed up??? We have 5 designs, but we are wondering for each design how many shirts we should put out??? Please help me ASAP..Thanks
how many t-shirts should I start out with?
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First of all, Who are you selling to? How are you Finding them? And most of all, Have you sold any yet? If you havent sold any yet, I would start with 1 case of shirts 72pcs. with sizes ranging from med-Xlarge, breaking the sizes up evenly amongst your 5 designs. It may cost you more to print in smaller quantities, but will save you from loosing your *** if you cant sell allready printed t-shirts.
Well I live in NYC so I'm pretty sure they might sell, but I was going to be selling to places that sell urban street wear, but alittle more higher class stuff like Jimmy Jazz,etc...And no I dont have any printed up yet, cuz we were unsure of how many to put out...I appreciate the feedback...
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312 Posts
I wouldn't be placing large orders, at least in the beginning, until you can establish some sort of base of clientele. I'd place a few orders so that you, and if you have any partners, can begin wearing your gear around town. Then stop by the shops you mentioned and see if they would be willing to sell your shirts. Typically they'll ask for consignment, as opposed to outright purchase, but it's a start.
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Why don't you go to the retailers first and see how many they will buy from you. Get a committment from them first, then print them up.
I mean so far I had alot of good feedback from people I showed my designs to, like I went to karmaloop.com and they have some shirts going for like 35 or 40 dollars and I'm saying to myself, hey my shirts look better then that, ya know..
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312 Posts
As I'm not sure what type of shirts you are trying to sell, I really can't give a good estimation of your costs. By my first inclination would be to really research your costs. For example, my company we have our staff scrub 40+ websites per week to ensure that our material costs are the lowest possible price, which in turn we can pass those saving on to our customers/affiliate stores. If you're looking to break into a 'higher' end type product type such as the Affliction style then you're costs are going to be increased due to the cost of the material, but will be harder to push your line and you'll have to reduce your profit margins, at least in the beginning.
Always helpful to note that profitability typcially doesn't come for at least 2-3 years after intial product roll-out, so including that in your business/operations plan is imperative to keep your company afloat.
Always helpful to note that profitability typcially doesn't come for at least 2-3 years after intial product roll-out, so including that in your business/operations plan is imperative to keep your company afloat.
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There's many ways to promote your company, you'll get a lot of different ideas on here about the best way to do it. First, select your target market, i.e. who do you think will be purchasing your gear? Then think about the other events, outside of clothing stores, your market demographic goes to. For example, Harley did a survey on their customers a found out that +/- 45% of them went to a bowling alley on a weekly basis. Based upon that information they rolled out a Harley marketing campaign based on bowling alleys. I'm not saying that you have to do, or have as much money as Harley, but thinking about your brand and image whollistically, will enable you to see where your target market goes which will give insight in how to best promote your brand.
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51,818 Posts
For selling to retailers, you should be looking at these threads that should answer all your questions:
retailers related topics at T-Shirt Forums
Research, research, research and read. Reading those threads could save you a lot of time and money.
Here's a good thread that talks about how to price your t-shirts correctly: http://www.t-shirtforums.com/general-t-shirt-selling-discussion/t28928.html
As far as how many shirts you should print up, you should read here: number of designs related topics at T-Shirt Forums
Definitely take some time to read through the answers that have been posted, you'll find answers to most all the questions you may have (and some answers to questions you haven't even thought of yet
)This is also a good overall starting point: start related topics at T-Shirt Forums
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58 Posts
Here’s what you do..
Start with 48 shirts total for each design…I say 48 because you have buy in dozens to get wholesale pricing with Alstyle.
So at 5 designs you’ll have 240 shirts total (5X 12) . Broken down it would be 12 shirts in each size ( S-2X OR M-3X ). How ever you choose but you get the idea.
It’s wise to do it this way because you’ll have just enough to make a nice profit without printing too many shirts and not having a true demand for them.
LISTEN TO ME VERY CAREFULLY…..
NEVER BASE YOUR POTENTIAL SALES ON WHAT PEOPLE SAY THEY LIKE!
Those are the same people who will NEVER PURCHASE ONE!
Go on your own instinct. Just make sure it’s something you would wear.
Hit me any time if you have any additional questions!!!!!!
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46 Posts
I used to get a lot of my shirts in Hottopic, pacsun, zoomies and some of the department stores like Pennies and Koles. I found the most of the shirts were at least a 3x mulitplier. If they did not sell well in the hottopics and Urban outfitters type stores, they would then be sold even cheaper to the Pennies and Kole's of the world.. and if they didn't do too great there they would be sold even cheaper to the Ross's and other bargain stores. By the time they hit those 3rd level stores.. the were selling for .5x multiplier. The store that take the big orders like 100,000+ units require you to buy back the unsold shirts. So having that large multiplier gives you room to have sales, on sales on sales. I could branch this rant off into a number of separate threads right here but to be fair to readers I will leave you with this. The true value of most shirts is far less than the perceived value. Often when people see an Affliction shirt for $65 that is exactly why the buy it.. because it has a perceived value and they saw there UFC hero wearing it too.. but they got it comp'd. Don't undersell yourself.
Cam
Rj Dollen
Cam
Rj Dollen
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58 Posts
Alstyle all the way! you will not be taken seriously with gildan shirts. those are for promotional use in my opinion. Alstyle is a great shirt. the 1301 comes in a variety of colors as well. Not to mention they come with the tear away tag! meaning if you want to re-label your shirts you don't have to worry with taking the original tags out. Gildan doesn't come with tear away tags/labels. Plus it's a cheap thin shirt and when you wash it, it draws up never keeping the original shape....
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