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How to take it to the next level.

7K views 29 replies 16 participants last post by  hongkongdmz 
One of the biggest steps you can take to get your t-shirts to that "next level" of being in retail stores is to go to a tradeshow.

Tradeshows are where retail buyers specifically go to find new clothing lines to carry in their stores.

They range from the biggest (Magic in Las Vegas) to other smaller tradeshows around the US.
 
Obviously - there are different levels t-shirt companies operate at, is it possible to be very successful and not have to go retail? Is it possible to remain relatively small and still do very well at this?
You have to define "very successful", because that is a very relative term.

There are MANY "small" sellers/one many operations using cafepress/printmojo or shipping shirts from their home that make good money. Whether it meets your standards for "very successful" is a whole 'nother question :)

If you want to stay home and not go to tradeshows, I think there is a "limit" to what you can do based on time and marketing constraints, but who's to say that "limit" is not enough for you?
 
It's funny, my next door neighbor just happens to be at that level. I was just at his house a couple of days ago looking at his new linesheet and production samples.

It's weird that we live so close to each other and are both in the t-shirt business. He is way more on the wholesale end (direct to stores) and I am more on the retail end (direct to customers).

The one thing he keeps telling me is to hit a tradeshow. Tradeshows are where the buyers are and where you'll make the right contacts.

I think with his help, I might be at my first t-shirt tradeshow next year.

I hope to interview him one day for this site once we can sit down and talk more.
 
Rodney or anyone

Can you tell me of any Tradeshows in Dallas, Texas?
Don't know of any offhand, but if you do a search of the forum for tradeshows, you should find a topic call "tradeshows for t-shirts" that will list many t-shirt tradeshows. You can look through those to see if any are coming to the Dallas area.
 
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