I Started A Clothing Line: Why It Failed And What I Learned From It

Cédric Girard
Aug 23, 2017 · 5 min read
A$AP MOB

So you think you’re an entrepreneur and always wanted to start your own business ? You’ve been scrolling down your Instagram lately and stumbled across plenty of pictures of rappers and celebrities wearing some really RAD clothes and decided to take part in the whole game and become a top player ? You see A$ap Rocky, Justin Bieber, 21 Savage and Lil Yachty wearing some new brands that pop every single day and decide it’s time for you too to crush it ?

Hold on, fella. Let me tell you my story so you can avoid getting your dreams crushed because of mistakes most of us do when we start out.


I’m 19 years old and I’m from Quebec City, Canada. In January 2017, I dropped out of school and decided to start my own clothing line with one of my friends. At first, we were just dreaming. We talked about how we would get some of the best fabrics on the market to make our clothes with, and then sell them to youngsters in our state. We talked about how we would design our line and why it would undoubtedly blow out. We talked about how we would get the Migos and Chance The Rapper to wear our jackets. We talked about how we would outclass Vetements, Yeezy, Fear of God and Off-White as the baddest brand out there. It was a nice dream. Quite ambitious for two 19 year-olds who just dropped out of college and who knew absolutely jack shit about the fashion industry.

But then, we kind of got practical and really started to invest time, energy, and money into this new venture.

We went into some local stores to meet with designers and entrepreneurs and asked them how they took off. Most of them gave us some really nice insider infos. Some even gave us a few contacts for us to get started. It was beginning well, and we were excited af.

We then started designing our line with old school sketches on paper and hired a pattern maker to design samples of our products. This was our first misstep: we didn’t know how to sew, and one of the biggest mistake you can make is making your business dependent on somebody, especially when that person is not a shareholder in the business. We were impatient. We wanted to start a brand, and we had some money aside. We gave ourselves seven months to launch our line. We wanted to start selling during the summer so we could get a push. This was our second mistake. Starting a clothing business requires a tremendous amount of time because when you’re starting out, you depend on everybody: your pattern maker, your suppliers, and your manufacturers. One simple delay can radically slow down the whole thing and add months to the process. Brands normally give themselves eighteen months to develop a line, not seven.

So that’s basically what we did. We paid for our patterns, our fabrics, and our samples, and eventually ran out of money. As simple as that. Some people in the industry say that whatever the amount of money you think is going to be required to start your line, multiply that by ten. Really. If you think about starting your brand, remember that rule.

Clothes are simple products. But production is extremely complex. You have a tremendous amount of steps, and something as insignificant as finding the right buttons for your jeans can really drastically delay the whole thing. Good planning is everything. You need to divide your process into separate segments, and have a plan A, B and C for everyone of these segments. Contingencies will happen, and you absolutely need to be ready when they come in order not to add three weeks to production and piss off people you do business with.

Main takeaways

  • Know your shit. In order not to make your business dependent on anyone, become an expert in the industry. Know everything there is to know about how to design and produce a piece of clothing and that will be a real good start. One book worth reading is Tommy Hilfiger’s autobiography called American Dreamer. This one will give you a nice preview of the industry and will give you good insights on how to start.
  • Be patient. If you do it just for the end goal, you’ll most likely fail. You’ll have expectations about how long the whole process will take, and if it’s waaaay longer than you thought it would be -which will probably happen- you’ll get discouraged and you’ll quit. You need to fall in love with the process and the hustle in order to make it work. There’s no short cut. If you outwork everybody everyday, one day you’ll get your shot.
  • Don’t be fancy. I know. You own a fashion business. You have access to almost any fabric at a cheaper price than what any normal consumer would have to pay. It’s tempting to just call your designer and ask her to make you the greatest bomber jacket ever. But when you start spending money like you were already on top while you’re still just starting out, that’s a path to imminent failure. “Fake it ’til you make it” is I think a bad mentality. Like Gary Vaynerchuk says, “you’ll only trick the 10% losers”. Winners don’t get fooled by that, and when a winner comes by, you’ll want to have him/her on your side. Instead, embrace the startup lifestyle. Cut down your expenses to the minimum, live in a shitty apartment with five of your buddies, work your ass off during eighteen hours a day and stay focus on your vision.
  • Bonus. You might want to start with only one or two products. Let’s say you make bomber jackets. Become the best at designing those, sell a few online using Facebook Ads and your website, and then think about expanding. Starting out with five or more products can be overwhelming, and you’ll be exhausted trying to sell all those products at once.

Bottom Line

Starting a clothing brand is hard, but it’s possible. Many people have done it. You just need expertise, creativity, huge amount of hustle, great marketing skills, and financial literacy. The last one is quite important. You can’t afford to lose money that you could have kept if you knew how to manage it. This one really can make the difference between success and failure!

Thanks for reading ! If you enjoyed it, hit the clap 👏 button in the right down corner. It would mean a lot to me and it helps other people see the story. 🚀

Cheers !

)

Cédric Girard

Written by

Interested in marketing, business, entrepreneurship, tech, AI, and likes to write about it. 🚀

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