How to Start a Clothing Brand

Introduction

Most complicated things can be broken down into steps or chunks, so what I’m doing here is deconstructing the process of starting a clothing brand. I’m making the assumption that you’re going to start with a graphic t-shirt brand and then maybe graduate into custom clothing pieces later on. This route is generally the best and most affordable way to get started. Most major independent brands got their start this way, probably because of the capital constraints they had on them. It doesn’t take a lot of money to get t-shirts printed, it does take quite the investment to start with custom cut and sew pieces right out of the gate.

The following is a somewhat basic, and sometimes more detailed list of starting and maintaining a clothing brand. You probably need to be doing most of these parts in parallel with each other, this will save you a lot of time in getting things off the ground, just dedicate a little time each day to accomplish a small task in each area.

Why

The first question you should ask yourself, and I mean actually force yourself to answer is: “Why am I starting a brand?”. Following that question you should then ask yourself “should I start a brand?”. Not to be negative but the world really doesn’t need another clothing brand, starting them has become very popular in the last 10 years which has resulted in even fiercer competition. This doesn’t mean you can’t be successful but you really need to know why you want to startup, what is the actual result you are after? Why are you doing it? If your reason is to ‘get rich’ then you should probably reconsider. Yes there will always be a select few new brands at the top that get wealthy seemingly quickly, but the odds are about the same as becoming a top rapper or pop star, the chances aren’t high. If you’re doing it because you ‘just want to’, then I think that’s actually a pretty good reason. That was my reasoning, I was just curious about how to do it. I saw someone else running their own brand in my town and basically just thought ‘that’s cool, if he can do it, so can I’. I carried a notebook around with me, sketching down everything from business ideas and lyrics to just doodling and so the creative release aspect of a brand, creating an entity from scratch, fascinated me. Getting to pick and choose all of the characteristics of this new thing, creating its image, was just really intriguing. So if you’re doing it because it’s calling you, and you’re willing to put 10 years or more into a project like this, then I would say it’s worth doing. Anything you’re willing to commit long term to in general, and to go through whatever it takes, is probably worth doing.

Find a Name

One of the first steps is finding a name to build a brand around, this by itself can be pretty intimidating. Trying to form the perfect name can feel like a lot of pressure and might be used as a reason to procrastinate starting on everything else. My advice on picking a name would be to spend some time on it, maybe a couple days, and then just go for it. Always remain open to the possibility of changing your name later if you have to. Don’t get too attached to any one name, be flexible, because a lot of them will already be taken when you research it further, and then there is always the chance you will be forced to change it later on. I was about 2 years into my first brand when I received a ‘cease and desist letter’ from a bigger company. They were in a different industry altogether, so their threat had no merit, but even big players like Marc Ecko have had to change their brand’s name after already being established. He just changed it from Echo to Ecko and kept going, you have to learn to be creative and just roll with it.

The name of your brand both matters and doesn’t matter. Don’t be too concerned about it, but also don’t make it an afterthought. One strategy is to pick a name that’s a blank slate, a word or phrase that doesn’t have any connotations. Unless you are intentionally trying to evoke a specific feeling or style, then you can take advantage of certain names by tapping into an existing source of feeling and emotion that people have already tied to that name. If you do want to start with a clean slate, your best option might be making up your own word entirely, Jeff Sheldon did this with his brand Ugmonk.

Remember to keep your social media accounts in mind when thinking up your name, you don’t have to have the exact name for your instagram, twitter, or snapchat handles, you can add something like your city onto the end (‘_____nyc’, for example). Just try to ensure that you have consistency of handles across the different social media platforms. It looks unprofessional to have different names on different networks, and it doesn’t look clean when you have to list all of the separate account names on promotional material. It’s best if you’re able to present all of your social media logos and then just use one ‘@________’ beside the icons.

Get a Domain

Securing a quality domain name can be pretty tough, and because most simple .coms are taken by now it can even influence the name you end up picking for your brand. Like the name of the company itself, the domain is both important and unimportant. This is because what matters most in running a business is generating sales and whatever name you pick isn’t going to do that for you.

You do want to try to get the .com as it’s the TLD with the most clout, but there’s a high chance that it won’t be available. Fortunately there are a lot of other options to choose from now, like .supply, .clothing, and .co to name a few, so that can be a cool way to still get your name if and your precious .com is unavailable.

Some people will use dashes (for example: my-clothing-brand.com) if there domain of choice isn’t available, this isn’t the worst option but try to stay away from it. I would add a different word in front of my domain name before using slashes, or getting an alternate TLD. If I wanted to name my brand ‘Empirical’ for example, I would do something like ‘TheEmpirical.com’ or ‘LongLiveEmpirical.com’ instead of ‘empirical-brand.com.

Online Store

After you’ve found your domain the next logical step is to find an ecommerce platform, the website that will power the backend for your online store. There are quite a few to choose from but Shopify has really emerged as a leader in the space. They have countless features as well as a suite of 3rd party apps that help you manage a large part of your business, from making shipping easy, to sophisticated reporting that can tell you exactly what’s selling best, where that traffic is coming from, customers who haven’t purchased in a while, and much more. The more advanced features are only available in the higher price plans which is $100-$200 per month but even the basic version is powerful. In the beginning most of these advanced features aren’t really necessary so I would recommend starting with the lowest pricing plan to save money. I started with a different ecommerce platform altogether (Big Cartel), which at the time, started at $10 per month. They even had a free version, but it limited you to only 5 products in your store. They may still have these plans available. I wouldn’t necessarily recommend the free version once your brand has launched because anyone that visits your store will probably think it looks too empty. The lack of products and the fact that your chosen theme or design will be too simple (because you aren’t able to customize the look on free versions) can potentially come off as unprofessional. You don’t want your store to look basic, in most cases you need it to be well designed and customized in some way, even if it’s just little design elements woven into the site that are in-line with your brand and theme. But then again you need to start somewhere, so just get started and try to make progress on the design side quickly.

Setup an LLC

Setting up an LLC can seem intimidating, but it’s actually quite easy, especially if you use a service like LegalZoom. I personally wouldn’t even worry about setting one up until you’re making enough to justify being a legitimate business. It’s a good idea to get everything set up the right way, but don’t use this as a justification for not starting at all. I would say it’s better to just start and get the LLC setup after the fact. Now there is a valid point in that if you don’t form an LLC and just operate as a sole-proprietor, you’re leaving yourself open to the chance of lawsuits that can touch your personal estate (as an LLC limits the liabilities to just your business and they generally can’t touch your personal assets in the case of a lawsuit). I would argue that when you’re just getting started you need to save as much money as possible, and setting up an LLC can cost between $500-$700 on the cheap side. I cannot give legal advice, the decision is your own, but sometimes ‘getting all your ducks in a row’ is an excuse for busy-work, which often isn’t ‘real’ work at all.

Get a bank account

You want to set up at least one bank account, ideally one with an easy to use site like Bank of America or Wells Fargo, so you can do as much online as possible and save yourself the time and headache of actually having to go into the bank. Set up one checking account and one savings account, so you can separate your funds into operating capital and savings for future projects, even if it’s a small amount. You probably need to start a PayPal account as well as it’s a really convenient way to send and receive payments.

Define who you are

Let me take this opportunity to quickly define the difference between a regular company and a brand, they are not the same, a brand is also a company but a company isn’t automatically a brand. Brands have themes, the themes can change over time, but they have feelings associated with them. The theme and imagery you choose to build your brand around will affect the feelings you evoke in people. You don’t have to create a brand, some clothing companies are just shirts with designs on them, but your company should evolve into a themed brand over time. This is because it’s hard for a customer to be emotionally attached to your company unless you give them feelings to be attached to, if they’re not emotionally attached then it’s hard to make your customers come back for more business. I don’t have strong positive feelings about the t-shirt kiosks in the mall that will slap just any graphic on a shirt, but maybe I would if they had strong consistent imagery and well built retail details to accompany it. You need to build up associations. This is a whole topic in and of itself, but I will simplify it here by just stating: come up with a brand theme — start thinking and developing on this early and often, keep it in the back of your mind and regularly ask yourself: “What is my brand, what defines it? Who is it for? What words or imagery do I want associated with it?” These are pretty tough questions to ask, so again it may be a good idea to just start with a vague theme or none at all and evolve from there. When we start something new we’re often heavily influenced by those that came before us. It’s hard to avoid, some if not all of what you make will look derivative of something else that you’ve seen. This is okay as long as it’s not too obvious, as often times we don’t even realize who we are mimicking, it just comes out of our subconscious from things we’ve absorbed along the way.

Find Graphic Designers

If you’re not an experienced graphic designer yourself it’s extremely important that you find great (not just good) graphic designers for all aspects of your brand. You need high quality designs for not just the graphics that will be on the clothing, but all graphics associated with your brand. This includes the typography on your website, the fonts in your email marketing, and the designs of the hangtags on your clothing to name a few. The previous step of defining who you are leads into this step because if you’ve properly defined who you are then you can choose artists that have shown they are able to execute the particular style you are looking for. Thanks to the internet It’s easier than ever to discover them. You can find a lot of affordable ($100-$200 per design) designers on Instagram, there are a lot overseas that will work in this price range. Just search by hashtag, find the contact info in the bio section of their profile and send an email. Treat them with respect and ask if they have time in their schedule for you, they will almost always make time, but you want to make them feel important, because they are. You want to develop good relationships with them so they’ll work faster when you need it, enjoy having you as a client, and be more flexible with you regarding any revisions/changes you might have.

Logo & Design

A great logo is essential to a strong brand, it can change and evolve over time, but you want to try to come up with something that is pretty unique from the start, if you can. Use the graphic designers you found above.

I would recommend getting 6 to 8 shirt designs (other than the logo) to start, any more is too much choice for your customers and too expensive for you. Having less than 6–8 designs in your store will probably make it look too sparse, it will be noticeably empty. If you’re thinking that this many designs is going to cost too much then you may be able to hack the system by asking your graphic designer for a ‘pattern design’. For example you could say ‘I want a repeating pattern of a skull, arrows, axes, and sparrows.’ Afterwards, if you’re able to strategically break the design apart and just use the individual elements, one per shirt, then you just got 4 designs for the price of one.

To make your online store appear fuller and also give customers enough options (and more potential sales for you) put the same design on different items like a shirt, long sleeve, and hoodie. The graphic could be the same size on a couple of the items and then a smaller breast print on one of them. You’re probably going to want to offer these items in alternating colors (not just all of them in white, and black) to add a little diversity to your store.

Find screen printers

Should you print on your own? Probably not. I could argue that doing my own printing is what actually enabled me to survive in the business, so it can definitely be an asset, but it takes learning another separate business and skill set on top of what you already have to. It will take up a large amount of your time. If you are indeed going to learn how to print I would still recommend starting out with someone else printing all of your products and then just learning along the way. You can learn almost everything you need to know online but I would suggest trying to get a job at a screen printing shop or taking some classes. Getting employed by a shop, even if only temporarily would be great because you would learn everything you need to know, get paid, and then also be able to use it as a resource for your own printing, sourcing, and knowledge later on.

Do not fret, there are screen printers everywhere, usually at least a couple in every small town. But that doesn’t mean they’re all great. Search Google for ‘screen printing’ and check out the local ones. See if they have any reviews, or checkout their website for a portfolio of their work. Treat them with respect. Maybe this should be its own section as you should generally treat everyone with respect. You have even more incentive to do so in businesses because people will want to continue doing business with you and even help you out, making you more successful in the long run. After you’ve found a couple printers, reach out and ask if you can make an appointment to checkout some of their work. You kind of need experience in order to know what a good print looks like, but it shouldn’t be too hard to tell by just looking and feeling the shirt.

I would suggest finding at least 2–3 printers: a primary one and another two as backup. Shops can get super busy, meet their maximum capacity, and be backed up for weeks. If you’re ever in a pinch for new prints it would be better to have a backup in place now than scrambling then.

This is the end of Part 1. Join my list to get Part 2.

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