Building an Apparel Brand: One Man’s Journey That Could Quite Possibly End in Failure

I couldn’t find a relevant photo so here’s a picture of my favourite coffee mug. It belonged to my Grandfather. My brother got his shotgun and I got his coffee mug and whiskey jug. I never met him because he died before I was born but I’m assuming he must’ve been at least a bit of a badass.
Back to the matter at hand. This is the first post in what will be a series of journals illustrating my attempt at building an apparel brand. Yes, that’s right, another person who got the bright idea to make millions selling t-shirts on the internet.
I swear it’s not like that! None of my designs involve cartoon cats or the word “hustle”… yet.
Let’s take a step back.
Like I said before, the purpose of this blog will be to document my personal experience of starting an apparel brand from scratch. My goal is to be as transparent and authentic as possible. Even if it means that some days I don’t work on the brand at all or if the brand turns out to be total shit and no one likes it and I give up. I just want to report the day-to-day journey so if at some point it does blow and and becomes a significant aspect of my life I, as well as others, will be able to look back and see how and where it all started.
If you’re a fan of Gary Vaynerchuk you’ll recognize this style of content as the “Document vs Create” idea he talks about.
Now, let me just say that I’ve already done quite a bit of work with my brand. I have a name, concept, website, Instagram page and friends who know what I’m up to. I do not yet have physical products, a considerable “following” or any real sales other than my Mom. For now, in this journal my brand will remain nameless until I have actual garments to sell. After that I will open up more about the brand and show photos of designs.
I figure I’m still about 2–3 months away from being able to afford my first batch of shirts. The reality of it is I’m moving in a month and need to save for that. Plus the print shop I want to use is in the city I’m moving to. To give you some context I’m moving from Vancouver Island to the mainland British Columbia in Canada. I’ll still be working a full time construction job with a company I’ve worked with before, which I might talk more about in future posts. And right now my girlfriend and I are looking for a place to move in to. So right now all I can really do for the brand is keep coming up with designs and refining what I want the brand to represent.
To end this off here’s a list of some things I’ll be talking about in upcoming posts.
- Why I decided to create the brand
- How I make my designs (I don’t have/know how to use Adobe Illustrator)
- The long term vision for the brand
- What I’m currently struggling with
- Strategies I use on social media
- What I did on September 1, 2018. (That’s more of a reminder for me)
Thank you so much for reading.
I love to engage with real people so I encourage you to leave a comment or just say hello!
If you are starting or already have an apparel brand of your own I’d love to hear about it!
