Is this possible ?

[nahtino]

Hey guys ...

Im involved in a venture with partners in a Sportswear Company ...

we'r still very small and pretty much starting out ..

however

long story short ...

I want to find out, is it possible , say after a few years in bussiness ...when the bussiness has more legs and going forward , that I can approach(or coaix)intrest at an already established Large or Medium Company (eg Kappa / Nike) to act as a mentor ...

Benefits
- we could have colaborative lines, tailor made ranges that appeal to regional tastes
- An Exchange programme of promising designers, staff , management ...between the two companys
- Shared Market Research info
- They gain access to a new market sector , without diluting/affecting their brand

We'l benefit by
- Professional direction
- greater Indusrty exspeirence
- Greater Marketing strategy and Muscle
- Co-Promotion and Wide Distribution of products

The X company can act in a parternship or I'd offer a relative small stake of my company .. and they atleast have some representaiton ...

--------------------------------
this could lead to a long term deal, where by hopefully they can buy a bigger stake .. as th co grows ..

or they sell wen we'r Big enough ...

What yall think ....

[Paint and Air Sportz]

All you have to do is ask, what type of sports wear are you into? Do you manufacture your own products? and do you have a website?

[jboydni]

When you say sportswear company, do you mean you will be selling other companies sports wear (for examples Nike's) becasue if you were in direct competition with places that would sell Nike then they would be more inclinded to deny you.

But like Paint said, all you have to do is ask. He who dares, wins.

Also if the big guys turn you down (Nike etc) which they proabably will they you could also just try other big local business names to help mentor you.

[nahtino]

well, so far ... we'v only been in business for 2 months .. and we'r still setting up a lot of things , getting clients ,selling our wares .. all that

our plans are to start out small, and feel the market out ..
we'r looking into t-shirts ...shorts (training and swim shorts ),
basic stuff ...

we'l build on our product offering as we get more business ...

we'r looking into doing our own manufacturing asap, but right no we want to operate at design and development

currently we'r close to getting a contract to supply a local high schools Hockey an Soccer teams ...

but that is something for later in the year

but basically , we'r into Soccer , Hockey , basketbal uniforms ...

No website ... yet

[AstarothSolutions]

It is unlikely that you will get a competitor to act as a mentor but either a large supplier or client may.

Before giving up the day job I worked for a multinational bank as part of their internal strategy & projects consultancy team and whilst the majority of the time we were out in different divisions of our own company assisting their senior management team over come an issue etc we were at times sent off to work for one of our suppliers and help them... for example we wanted to implement a new piece of automated ordering software and our main supplier was uncertain how it could fit in so myself and a colleague went in with some of our IT guys etc and helped them get it installed and leveraged it to win a number of other contracts.

[nahtino]

I hear you ... that sounds more like a possible route to take I guess ... theres a few consultancy type org's around ... and that would be neat ...

a competitor would be unlikely , its true ... but Im a firm belivr in partnerships ... linking up to cover each others weakness and go for our stregnths ...

thanks a lot for th advice though guys ...