What is Streetwear and should you start a brand?
What’s up everyone! Let’s discuss some basic questions that are extremely simple yet incredibly complicated at the same time.
What s Streetwear? Why is it special?
This is subjective, but my take is this:
Streetwear is a representation of culture via fashion and clothing. It’s simply a way for people to represent a culture through clothing. The beauty of it, is that “starting a brand” does not take a lot of money. The bar to entry is low. Not everyone can start an automotive brand, but a clothing brand, hell yeah.
Is the market too crowded?
This is my favorite, let’s rant:
Competition exists in every market. When there is no competition, the consumer suffers. They have less, or no other product choices, and the quality of product goes down while the price goes up. This is true across all markets, not just clothing. Competition is good. Only the best will rise to the top. The more brands there are, the better the market becomes, and the better the products become. It’s the definition of capitalism. The reason streetwear became a THING, and the reason it is special, is because the entry cost is so low. Everyone has a shot at making it big. You can create a concept, print shirts, and start selling and you are in the game, competing.
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Have you ever heard someone who loves Streetwear say *”Dam, I wish there were less brands. I hate that there is so many choices and new products coming out al the time.”* Fuck no they never say that! The consumers of Streetwear LOVE IT. The more options the better. Quality goes up, price goes down. The ONLY people who complain about the Streetwear market being “too crowded or “over saturated” are people who run brands with moderate to little success. Anyone who says there are “too many brands” is someone who has an average brand, and can’t manage to stand out.
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Think about it like this: How does an NBA player make it from high school to college to the league? They don’t do it by eliminating the other players at their level. NO, they got BETTER than those players and surpass them! They didn’t get rid of everyone on their college team, they got better than them and stood out. They become the best and they are the one that got drafted. It’s competition!
Should you start a brand
Fuck yeah, if you want to. Starting a clothing line is an incredible way to be creative, make some money, learn about business, add to your skill set, meet new people and make connections.
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Here is the reality of it. Starting a brand is not what every beginner thinks it is. The first questions that run through their mind is *”How do I make the clothing? Where do I get it from? Who do I get it from? How much should it cost? How do I set up a website? How much should it all cost?”* These are all steps to starting our brand that are necessary, but not that important. THE MOST IMPORTANT THING about starting a brand is actually *creating the brand.* A BRAND is not a couple shirts. A BRAND is a culture that stands for something. It can include a symbol that means something to people. It can include a name that means something to people. But a BRAND is not a logo. A BRAND is not line of clothes. Your *BRAND* is what you want to focus the majority of your effort on, not your logo, not your name, not your products. Every successful streetwear brand represents an underlying culture. It’s customers and followers embody that culture. They respect it or they look up to it. They live by it.
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They craziest part about it all is that building a brand, is hard as fuck. You need to approach it *just right* and you need to put everything you have into building it. If you half ass it, you will not gain a following. The crazy part, is the the people who do make it big, deserve it. They put everything they had into it. They ate, slept, breathed, and lived it.
So what am I getting at here?
Why am I taking the time to write this? I started a clothing line in 2008. ( Cronk Studios ) I went through all the trials and tribulations. I learned a ton. I eventually got my brand very well known in my hometown and surrounding towns. That was the goal. It was achieved. What took me 8+ years to do, could have been done in 1–2. I spent SO MUCH time and effort on actually producing the clothing and figuring out how to sell it online, that when it came time to building my brand, my gas tank was empty. I spent 80% of my time on the products and 20% on the brand. Don’t get me wrong the product is important, but I can tell you right now how to print a shirt that looks just like SUPREME classic logo tee. It’ll cost you $5 and the quality will blow Supremes out of the water. BUT, Supreme has the brand! The brand is where the value is. Use 80% of your time on THAT.
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Here’s my pitch. This is why I took the time to write this. I want to help anyone who is starting out. Out of the good of my heart, yes, but also because I’m a broke college graduate with 8 years of experience in a specific area, and I want put it to use! I have created an online course. The course is designed to help ambitious people get through the nuts and bolts in starting a brand. It teaches you how to set up your supply chain. It teaches you how to design the clothing. Where to get wholesale shirts. Where to get them printed. How to get them printed. What you should expect to pay. What you should and should not do. How to set up a website, and a whole ton more. The course teaches you everything you need to know about starting a brand, so that you can spend more time and energy on what matters, which is differentiating your brand, being creative, and building a following. Buying wholesale clothing, decorating it, and putting it online does not take any special talent, nor is it a big secret. What does take talent, creativity, and hard work is building a brand. I designed the course to be EVERYTHING that I wish I had know when I started. I hold nothing back, I keep no secrets.
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To all the people who have already started brand, get ready, cause you’re about to have a whole lot more competition. You might want to take the course to to brush up and learn an extra thing or two. It’s time to step your game up! The best will rise to the top.
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Here is the course link — https://www.udemy.com/streetwear-brand/?couponCode=MEDIUM
I set up a discount for you guys. It has a limited number of signups so get to it fast! I hope it helps. And as always, ask me any questions you have along the way!
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Ben
