THE BOOK IS NOW AVAILABLE Apparel Entrepreneurship The Apparel Entrepreneurship E-Book is now available for order here on our site. In the book, you’ll learn about apparel entrepreneurship from idea to market launch, and beyond. It is an inspirational and educational book that will guide you in the achievement of starting and running your apparel brand. This book is extremely detailed [...] Continue Reading
OUTDOOR INDUSTRY AWARD JURY PROCESS Ana from Apparel Entrepreneurship was part of the OutDoor Industry Award jury panel at the 2018 OutDoor show. Watch the process behind it in this short film.
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APPAREL ENTREPRENEURSHIP IN NEW YORK Apparel Entrepreneurship is presenting How to start a Sustainable Apparel Brand at the Functional Fabric Fair in New York, July 23, 2018.
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5 STEPS TO MAKE A PROFIT You want your business to evolve, to be successful in order for you to keep doing what you love. Of course you want to make a profit, but it doesn’t happen by itself. Look over your processes and every step along the way to envision how you want it all to enfold. Plan for profit from the beginning and don’t leave the numbers to chance. Consider these 5 steps when making your plan.
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QUALITY CONTROL Quality control means ensuring, at a minimum cost, that the quality requirements of a product is being achieved at every stage of manufacturing, from raw materials to boxed stock.
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THE DESIGN When designing, revisit your inspiration, the brand image, and your customer profile. The styles should fit in with the vision and identity of your brand. You will have to give the customer the connection between the brand image and the product. They need to correspond.
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ACHIEVING WORK LIFE BALANCE Being an entrepreneur and running your own apparel business means there is always something to work on. No matter how much you work, you are never really done. At the same time there could be other things in your life that you want or need to do. Maybe you have a family that you want to spend time with or maybe you just have to catch the morning surf. The stress level is different from person to person. Don’t leave the day-to-day work-life balance to chance. Plan on living a balanced life with these tips.
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WEBINAR: HOW TO START A SUSTAINABLE APPAREL BRAND Are you about to start a sustainable apparel brand? Are you new in the apparel business? Are you a young professional who is just starting your own company with a sustainable profile? Where do you start? What do you do? What’s the process?
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These questions and more are addressed in this lecture. You will learn about the process and different steps of launching a sustainable brand and about common and costly mistakes to avoid.
USE A PRODUCT RANGE PLAN FOR YOUR APPAREL BRAND A product range plan is a detailed written overview of your entire collection. It helps you keep track of product parameters such as style numbers and names, number of styles, colors, variations, and features. It also includes financial information and sales forecasting.
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THE IMPORTANCE OF A BILL OF MATERIALS Don’t start any manufacturing before making a complete Bills Of Materials. You need it together with a solid tech pack for each and every garment.
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HOW TO RUN A KICKSTARTER CAMPAIGN How to run a Kickstarter campaign. Video interview with Founder & CEO of TrueREVO.
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READ THIS BEFORE STARTING YOUR APPAREL BRAND You have a great idea and a vision of what you want to do with your brand. You are ready to kick off your project and get started with your apparel business. You probably have a picture in your mind how it will go, and it is for sure good to have a clear vision and goal. Before you make your business plan, think through what your expectations are. Here are 5 areas where you may need to reset them.
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HOW TO SCREW UP A CLOTHING BRAND 37 mistakes to avoid if you want a successful apparel brand.
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APPAREL ENTREPRENEURSHIP @ PERFORMANCE DAYS Listen to our presentation HOW TO START A SUSTAINABLE APPAREL BRAND & join our guided tour SUSTAINABLE SOURCING @ PERFORMANCE DAYS, Munich.
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TIPS FOR BOOTSTRAPPING YOUR STARTUP Starting a new apparel brand can be challenging. It is even more challenging to do it with limited funds. However this is a reality many of you are facing, but you don’t want it to stop your plans. So how are your money best spent? What should you pay for and where can you save your money? Read our guide to bootstrapping.
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HOW TO CREATE A MOOD BOARD A mood board is a visual summary of inspirational images, objects, material swatches, trims or product examples that explain the concept and feeling of your brand, collection or customer. Basically a brain dump of whatever you are inspired by.
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GARMENT COSTING EXAMPLE If you are all new to the apparel industry, you may wonder how much it costs to make a garment? We are now going to look at the product development costs. Here is a typical example of the costs involved in making a hoodie.
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MUST READS Studies show that successful people have reading as a common denominator. There are endless examples of people that have created well-known businesses, who read daily to gain knowledge. Knowledge builds up like compound interest and there is no upper limit. We love reading and we have put together a list of books for you that can do wonders for your personal development and your apparel brand. These books are must reads!
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DON’T START YOUR ONLINE SHOP UNTIL YOU READ THIS Selling online is becoming increasingly popular. Over 50 % of global internet users have made an online purchase. That is around 1 billion users. Data shows that worldwide ecommerce sales will reach $4.5 trillion in 2021. Read this before starting your online shop.
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HOW TO START A SPORTSWEAR BRAND Do you want to start a sportswear brand? Do you have some great design ideas or a cool new apparel concept? Can’t you find the styles you are looking for? The time could be now for you to start up that brand you have been thinking of. But where do you start? How do you go about to make it all happen?
If you want to set up your own sportswear brand, then this article is for you. This is the complete guide!
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MANUFACTURING CHECKLIST Source material, create patterns, order fabric, create prototypes… There are a few things to manage when making your garments. Use this manufacturing checklist to stay on track with your product development without losing yourself in the process.
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BECOME YOUR OWN BOSS – START AN APPAREL BRAND We have been entrepreneurs for around 10 years now. On and off we have taken on traditional employments, but every time we have been drawn back to the freedom of entrepreneurship. Once you get the taste of it, it is really tough to do anything else. So what’s so appealing about running your own business? For us, these are the main reasons you would like to be your own boss.
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HOW TO PICK A BRAND NAME Early on in your business you need to work on your brand identity. You need to think about the meaning of your brand to your customers. Encapsulate that meaning in your brand name. In this article we take a closer look at picking your brand name.
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THE GARMENT PRICE You know which garments your collection is based on, you know the price for fabrics, trims, and production including prototypes. With this new information that you didn’t possess when you started out, you can remake a more accurate budget. When making the business plan you thought of the price level you wanted to place your clothing brand at. So let’s see if that is realistic.
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WEBINAR: HOW TO START & RUN AN APPAREL BRAND Are you about to start an apparel brand? Where do you start? What do you do? What’s the process? These questions and more are addressed in the webinar How To Start & Run An Apparel Brand. Watch it for free at ISPO Academy.
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GAME CHANGER MASTERMIND We are launching our mastermind groups for apparel entrepreneurs 2018. Are you ready to take your business and entrepreneurship to the next level? We are hosting live interactive video calls, designed to move your ideas into action, to raise your game in business and life. Secure your spot, only 5-8 spots available for the first Mastermind round. You must apply before January 26.
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SPORTSWEAR INC. @ ISPO MUNICH Meet us at ISPO Munich 2018. Attend our workshop, visit our panel at the CSR hub, arrange a personal meeting or watch our webinar at ISPO Academy.
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HOW TO BUILD AN ONLINE SHOP In this Sportswear Inc. article about how to build an online shop you will learn how to create a cost-efficient e-com store for your apparel brand. There is no need to pay large sums for design and development of your site. Set up your e-commerce in no time with an existing, well established open source systems.
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WHO DO YOU NEED ON YOUR TEAM? 17 ROLES TO FILL There are many roles that need to be filled in your business. As a small sportswear brand you can and probably will take on several of them. But ask yourself which roles you actually can fill and which ones you need to outsource. So what are the typical roles you need to fill? Here they are, your dream team.
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PRODUCT BRANDING CONCEPT – LABELS & HANGTAGS A very important part of the product development is the product branding. How and where do you want your customers to see the brand identity? This is what you need for your garment!
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ISPO – SPORTSWEAR BRANDS 28th to 31st of January 2018, the world’s largest sports trade show for the sports industry takes place in Munich. We can recommend you to visit this yearly event in Germany for 6 different reasons.
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COSTING SHEET TEMPLATE As an apparel entrepreneur you need to be on top of your financials and already from the start keep track of your costs. For you to get the overall economic picture of your business you need to know the cost of producing each garment. To help you keep track of all costs associated with producing each style you use a costing sheet.
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5 WAYS TO FINANCE YOUR BUSINESS As your business grows and your sales increase, your costs for running your business will also increase. Improving old styles and developing new ones will add costs to your budget. You will most certainly come to a point where the sales revenue isn’t enough to finance the growth of your company. You will need to look at ways of financing your business and cover the costs until you make enough revenue to pay it back. Here we take a look at 5 different options for financing your business.
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HOW TO START AN APPAREL BRAND Do you want to start an apparel brand? Do you have some great design ideas or a cool new brand concept? Can’t you find the styles you are looking for? The time could be now for you to start that brand you have been thinking of. But where do you start? How do you go about to make it all happen? If you want to set up your own clothing brand, then this article is for you. We’ll give you an overview of the steps involved in starting your own business, and information that you have to think about.
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BUDGET TEMPLATE Before you make money you have to figure out how to spend it. It is a vital part of your business to make a financial roadmap for your company. You need a roadmap to understanding where you are going. By anticipating future spendings and cash flow you’ll improve your changes of succeeding in your venture.
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BUSINESS START-UP CHECKLIST Business name, domain name, trademark, bank account… There are a few things to set up when you launch your business. Use this start-up checklist to make sure you tick everything off and get started on the right foot.
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HOW TO CREATE YOUR BRAND IDENTITY 11 questions to ask yourself before starting your sportswear brand. Branding is the process of building a product image based on associations, feelings, lifestyle, and identity that is projected by a label. The competition is tough out there. Just look at all the brands that exist on the market.
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HOW MUCH DOES IT COST TO START AN APPAREL BRAND? Let’s take a look at the different areas where you need to spend your cash. Of course, to give an exact answer, we have to know the specifics for your brand, such as the size and type of your collection, marketing & sales strategy etc. So what we’ll do here is to look at the different areas where you need to spend some money. How much it will cost depends on if you can do it yourself, if you know some friendly soul that can help you to a low cost, or if you have to outsource it.
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THE NEW COLLECTION New season, new inspiration, and new possibilities. Once you’ve launched your first collection, it is time to start thinking of the upcoming one. With the feedback you have received and with the stats you have collected from the previous collection, you’ve got a good restarting point.
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APPAREL ENTREPRENEURSHIP ACCEPTS BITCOIN We accept Bitcoin because we embrace forward-thinking approaches. We like the power of new technology and the questioning of authority. We also like people and businesses that challenge the importance of middlemen, and strive for self-sufficiency.
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WHAT TO DO AFTER LAUNCHING YOUR FIRST COLLECTION While the first collection is out you pretty quickly have to start thinking and sketching on the new one. Before starting all over again it’s vital to pause and reflect. Ask yourself all these questions, and give yourself time to answer them as honestly as you can.
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7 REASONS TO BE A JACK OF ALL TRADES A Jack Of All Trades is someone who is decent at everything, but not especially adapt at any one thing. However, there are advantages of being in charge of many areas of your business. Here we list 7 positive reasons to be a jack of all trades for your brand.
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CROQUIS TEMPLATE – WHAT IT IS AND WHY YOU NEED ONE A croquis template can be used both in the early design idea stage for quick hand sketches, and when constructing a tech pack.
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APPAREL ENTREPRENEURSHIP PARTNERS WITH PERFORMANCE DAYS We are proud to announce a new partnership with the functional fabric fair PERFORMANCE DAYS. The fair is the world’s first address for innovations, trends, and sourcing of fabrics and accessories in functional sportswear, athleisure, corporatewear, and workwear.
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BULK PRODUCTION At the end of your product development cycle it is finally time to sew and make all the garments in larger quantities. Hopefully you had a great sell in and have written orders and actual production quantities for each and every single style in your collection. Now there are quite a few things to coordinate and you need to start well in advance.
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CUSTOMER CARE As with marketing, customer care should be present at all times. You are making a great product to meet a specific customer need. This is why you are in business, if you’re in it for the right reasons. So you better pay attention to your customers before, during, and after they purchase from you.
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TIME TO SHIP! The bulk production is ready, your stuff looks amazing, the world is anxiously waiting for your collection and it’s time to ship. First you need to transport the garment from the manufacturer to e.g. your office or warehouse and then to your customers. Take a look at your agreement with the supplier to see what is included in the deal and what you have to sort out yourself.
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RECEIVE SALES ORDERS & PLACE PRODUCTION ORDERS It is very common that you have to show your collection a couple of times before buyers place an order. You could have different packages for them, that you have picked out in advance, to best represent your collection. Pick your strongest pieces, to have a good range and diversity of your brand. Now it’s kind of tricky to juggle the orders received on your styles with the minimum quantity orders for materials and factory capacity.
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SELL IT! – TO YOUR TARGET CUSTOMER / SHOP Once you have your salesman samples and your story ready, it’s time to sell. What we talk about now, are the orders from your customers. Let’s take a look at the most common ways of selling your collection.
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WHAT’S YOUR STORY? Marketing should be embedded in the whole company, in everybody that works there, in everything they do. Answering emails and answering the phone is marketing, sending packages away is marketing, talking to a customer in the shop is marketing, the pictures on the website are marketing, EVERYTHING a company does is marketing.
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