Clothing Line-Requesting Feedback

[ocash]

Clothing Brand: Oliver Cash

Mission: To inspire a new alternative to the current world of fashion, providing quality and unique style for consumers.

Target Audience: As a starting point Male dominance [with a view to expand to women, due to little knowledge of current trends] UK Based with worldwide as a future target, University students to those late 30 style icons. with a view to expand to kids ranges.

Sales Strategy: Firstly I'd like to start on-line with a mission to expand into store base. In terms of an on-line sales, I'm looking for someone with expertise in website design for an eCommerce website at a respectable price.

Alongside on-line eCommerce, looking into other websites with high numbers of publicity to gather sales, i.e Ebay- let me know your thoughts on this specifically.

Production: I'm currently undergoing designs for a production of t-shirts, a starter for the clothing line, get the name out there and expand into trousers, knitwear etc...

With this in mind, looking for a manufacturer who is able to produce my own styles in bulk, using good quality materials again at a respectable price. Either UK Based/worldwide.

This is a basic plan to what I believe could be something unique and valuable.

I'd be very much grateful for feedback on whether this seems something fee sable for an 18 Year old, also if anyone has experienced this. Also I'd like to hear from website designers and manufacturers who would be interested in making this journey successful.

Thank you- Oliver Cash

[majormajor]

Hi,

My honnest feedback has to begin with the name. Oliver Cash is an uguly name and could make for a hiddious clothing line name. I am sorry to have read down and noticed your name is in fact Oliver Cash. Sorry if I have upset you stating my opinion but I wanted to reply to your post as I noticed you had many views and no replys....

I h8 when you get many views and no replys, I can not understand why these ppl reviewing it bother to do so in the first place if they will not reply. So I sympathise with that.

I think you seem to have a strong drive to make this or something similar work some day. I would suggest you learn the ecommerce side of things yourself as based on your initial start up you will have a very tight profit margin if you do make a profit at all. So you don't want to spend all your money paying someone else to do what you can do yourself. Particulary as a start up you should have the time to work on your ecommerce website when business starts off a little slow. And I would imagine you are creative being interested in fashion design, so you can use a bit of that creativity in other fields supporting the business.

I'm not sure if a "Mission: To inspire a new alternative to the current world of fashion, providing quality and unique style for consumers." is in fact a feesably good idea for an 18 year old begining out in something like fashion. I would imagine you would need a reputation and respect in the fasion industry before anyone would take notice of you enough for you to have an impact (inspiring a new alternative). However I'm not confident I know exactly what I'm talking about.

Finally I wouldn't waist too much time scouting for manufactures in forums by asking if theres anyone out there interested in doing it. That's fine, but focus on reasearching your options with that and go find them rather than waiting for them to come to you.

[soccerprodigy777]

Yeah its very "feasible"...just need to tighten up your plan a little, and figure out how you want to brand yourself...and Oliver Nash is a fine name...its very offensive for Major to say otherwise. He really shouldnt speak on what he doesnt know. Speculation serves no one.

Now, I can offer plenty advice...question is are you going to listen? First, what specifically is your apparel niche? Males age 18-30, ok great...but what types of clothing? Urban/Streetwear? Sports Wear? Formal Wear?...you have to be very specific. Have you studied that demographics likes and dislikes? If youre doing tshirts, you really dont need a manufacturer, unless youre creating custom cuts. Youd only need a tshirt printer and a place to buy blank tshirts. A lot cheaper this way.

Now, youre mission is hardly original. Every clothing line seeks to do that. This is why its important to have a specific niche, and conduct your branding and marketing around that niche. Starting online in terms of sales is a good idea. As long as its your own site, or a site specifically meant for clothing sales. Selling on ebay is tacky. So yeah tighten up your plan a bit.

[soccerprodigy777]

Web developer here. Take a look at Magento for building an ecommerce website. It's my go-to recommendation whenever a client needs an e-commerce site. It's a lot like WordPress or Drupal but with a lot of functionality built in to support shopping carts, products, categories, etc.

Magento is kind of expensive though if you need a robust ecommerce solution, right? Wordpress WP-Ecommerce plugin is a good solution, and is constantly being improved upon...best of all its free...though youd have to pay for someone to design it per your preferences.

[ocash]

In reply to your comment, I'd totally disagree with your brand name statement, for the likes of most clothing lines and brands around, the brand name comes from the designer themselves, and at first thoughts wouldn't seem so appealing but as things grow in business and reputations start to build names seem far more appealing. Who would've thought McDonalds would be such a global name for selling burgers until it gained reputation.

I'd very agree with your thoughts on eccomerce and my levels of creativity and this is something i'm going to seriously consider.

In terms of my mission, my mission is a long term and short term statement, being able to inspire creates reputation and gain respect which inevitably leads to a mission being achieved.

But thank you very much for your comments, i'm appreciated and respectful of your thoughts and things i'll consider currently

Oliver Cash