Build Your Business: Management

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March 3, 2022

Looking for a new niche to tackle? Try fashion/retail; it’s a large channel and has so many divisions, you’re sure to find a sub-genre that fits your shop’s strengths and capabilities. The trick is choosing the right fit and learning what your chosen market wants.

According to research firm eMarketer, fashion market sales in the United States hit $437.29 billion in 2021. And while only a percentage of that can be attributed to decorated apparel, all signs are pointing toward continued growth in 2022.

Whether your services target true fashion or traditional retail, the emphasis must be on quality, uniqueness and creativity. You also must be willing to function as an educator and consultant for your clients, who will come to you specifically for your knowledge and expertise.

Nathan Leber, owner, Leber Design and Print, Columbus, Ohio, started his own operation five years ago after working for a large contract print shop that catered to brands such as Abercrombie & Fitch, Express, Pink, American Eagle and Lane Bryant. He saw the fashion niche’s needs changing.

“Brands started shifting,” he remembers. “Quantities were drastically dropping. I had an idea to take what I had learned and combine quality, creativity and an aesthetic eye to see if we could help smaller brands and those just starting out. What my shop does today is help companies who truly want to bring a retail feel and quality to their brand.”

It didn’t hurt that Leber is in Columbus, Ohio, which happens to have the country’s third-largest number of apparel fashion companies, behind New York and Los Angeles.

Mark Bilentnikoff, owner, First Amendment Tees, Erie, Pennsylvania, got his start in the retail T-shirt niche with the launch of fat-tee.com, which specializes in humorous designs. He now runs five high-volume direct-to-garment (DTG) printers and has branched out into screen printing, embroidery, vinyl cutting and heat transfers. His experience starting his own line now allows him to assist other entrepreneurs and designers in creating decorated-apparel brands.

Like Leber, Bilentnikoff saw a need for higher-quality shirts and printing need that wasn’t being filled. “I wanted to offer T-shirts that were durable, soft and more form-fitting than traditional T-shirts. I wanted thinner, softer necklines; longer length; and rich, vivid colors that wouldn’t easily fade. I sought after a product that wasn’t junk — a shirt that was better than what competitors were offering. I did a lot of research and compared different materials, equipment and technology. I asked questions and listened to customer feedback.”

Todd Moen, president and CEO, Kreativlaunch, Phoenix, specializes in apparel; streetwear; retail; promotional and consumer products; and packaging. “Most of my business is large, bulk orders,” he says. “We also do small jobs, but most of our work starts off in quantities of 15,000-20,000. We’ve got a couple of orders now that are running at more than half-a-million shirts. Some of what I do is overseas, and I’m also a partner in four shops here in the United States.”

Clients Who Want More
The typical buyer in this niche may require more guidance and direction, but you’ll also find it rewarding as you become a part of the customer’s team.

“I have found that my typical customer is someone who has ordered apparel before and didn’t like the quality of the garment or the print,” Leber says. “It may have had a bad feel, a bad look or it didn’t drape, and it didn’t fit the way a high-level, fashion-quality shirt should, and that’s what they want for their brand.

Moen has found that customers really value the ability to meet deadlines. “Delivery time is really important,” he notes. “I pick up a lot of business from companies that may have done a pretty good job on the shirt, but they can’t deliver. If you don’t deliver on time and do what you say you are going to do, no one will stay with you.”

One of things Leber loves best about this niche is working one-on-one with customers to help conceptualize clothing lines and bring them to life. “Oftentimes, we create a line from scratch, and generally we get to have a little bit more say,” he says. “If [the customer has] something already, we may tweak it to make it print ready, drop out a color or change things to lower their cost. Most importantly, we optimize their designs for print. That is probably one of our greatest values to them.”

Education Comes with the Territory
When catering to fashion and retail, clients range from experienced vendors who have good artwork and know what they want, newcomers who don’t have a clue. The tricky part for decorators is deciding whether to invest the requisite time when the client is just getting started.

“The biggest thing I want to know is, ‘What is their brand and idea?’” Leber acknowledges. “How much of a plan do they have? Do they know how to market? A lot of times I ask, ‘What is your following like?’ because we can vet a lot of people based off their following.”

Bilentnikoff says he also looks at each individual order and asks questions. “When it’s a contract client, they might specifically call out a specific brand and style they want to use,” he says. “At that point, we might say, ‘That style does not digitally print well because it’s 50% cotton/50% polyester. Are you aware of that?’

“I would say we are educating at least 50% of the time,” he adds. “Certain colors don’t pretreat well. Sometimes even when it’s a vetted brand of shirt, you might notice the country of manufacture and know that although it’s the same shirt, when it comes from that country, it’s doesn’t work very well.”

It Starts with the Shirt
The biggest differentiators in the fashion/retail niche are the shirts’ cut and quality. Plan on researching and using only top-of-the-line styles for catering to this niche.

“For our customers, we supply all the garments,” Leber says. “We have the connections to those people and places that newcomers don’t have yet. We can provide that expertise and those resources to them.”

One of the biggest reasons for researching custom cut-and-sew services is to offer clients things they are asking for but can’t find in a stock style. “Custom colors would be great for specific brands that want to do something unique,” he says. “In that case, it would not be a true off-the-shelf garment.”

As a global supplier fulfilling large quantities, Moen has access to resources that are out of reach for smaller decorators. “I find one of my competitive advantages is being able to find unique blanks for a brand,” he says. “A goal I have for my clients is to be a little bit different. I don’t want to offer a slightly different design on the same shirt. I like to look at a variety of brands and mix it up.”

He admits one downside of using a well-known shirt brand is that buyers know what those shirts cost at wholesale. “If you are offering a one-color print on a $5 shirt and asking $14 for it, they want to know why it costs so much. I see that happen all the time,” Moen says.

Bilentnikoff says anyone interested in getting started in this niche should come up with a sub-niche and find their place. “You also need to focus on one process at a time,” he says. “Don’t try to be all things to all people. Once you get really good at one decorating method, then you can branch out. In the meantime, contract out any services you do not do.”

Moen says success in this niche boils down to being open and honest. “Work as a team,” he advises. “Also, in this business you have to be flexible. If you start off with that mindset, you’re going to get a lot further.”

Deborah Sexton is the former editor of Impressions. Since 2001, she has run her own marketing company, Saracen Communications, doing press releases, newsletters, ghostwriting, web copy and social-media management for companies in the decorated-apparel industry. For more information or to comment on this article, email Deborah at dsexton@sbcglobal.net.