How to start a clothing brand

"People who like clothes" is not a customer. Neither is "anyone online." Picture a real person in a real moment: a weekend golfer who wants a hoodie that works from the range to dinner, a city runner who wants shorts that carry a phone without bouncing, a club that wants kit people wear off the court.

Write a short product thesis:

• Who is this for?
• What do they already do, and what is missing or annoying in what they buy today?
• What will you make that makes that moment better?
• What will you refuse to make, even if it is easy to source?

The last one matters. Factories love breadth because it grows the order. You need focus, because focus is what customers remember. Finish with one sentence: "[Product] for [customer] who [use case], so they can [outcome], unlike [the obvious alternative]." If that sentence is mushy, the brand is still mushy.

Your retail price is not a hopeful number you invent after the quote arrives. It is a constraint that decides your fabric, your construction, your minimums and your channel. A $28 tee and an $88 tee are different products from different factories.

Sketch a simple price architecture before you talk to anyone:

As a working rule, if you sell direct to customers and need a healthy margin after ads and returns, your landed cost (the real cost per unit once freight, duty, packaging and defects are in) usually needs to sit well below half of retail, often closer to a third. If wholesale is part of the plan, design for wholesale first. It is easier to add a premium for your own site than to invent margin that isn't there.

The channel shapes more than price. Wholesale buyers want barcodes, case packs and delivery windows. Your own site needs a mailer and photography. An event needs hangtags and a hard date. Decide where the first order sells before you decide how it gets made.

Don't launch seven "almost heroes." A useful starting ratio is 1:4:2:

• 1 hero piece. The statement: a heavyweight hoodie, a special jacket, a garment-dyed set. It earns the photo and the story, and it can be a little scarce or expensive.
• 4 core pieces. Tees, caps, socks: products people understand in seconds that carry volume.
• 2 easy items. Stickers, pins, small accessories that lower the entry price and work as gifts.

On a tight budget, use 1:3:1. You might only develop the hero end to end for the first run, and that's fine. Sketch the rest so you know what the hero sits beside.

Pick a short color system before you design any art. Two or three colors plus neutrals beat a rainbow, and repeating them across pieces makes the collection read as one brand. Every extra size, color and graphic multiplies cash and decisions. Fewer SKUs with clean size runs sell through faster.

This is the biggest decision you will make, and most first-time founders over-build it.

Start with blanks when your value is the brand, the art and the community more than a proprietary fit. Blanks come in tiers: entry blanks from big wholesalers for events and club merch, mid-tier blanks with better hand feel and cut, and premium heavyweight blanks when the garment itself is the point. Sample the exact blank you plan to sell, in the color you plan to print.

Move to cut and sew when customers are buying "the hoodie with that shoulder line": a fit, a pocket layout, a fabric or a wash that no blank delivers. That means a tech pack, more sampling rounds and higher minimums. See what is a tech pack.

Then match decoration to fabric. Screen printing loves bold spot colors on cotton at medium to large quantities. DTG handles gradients and small runs but behaves differently on dark and washed fabric. Embroidery reads premium on caps and fleece; watch stitch count and puckering. Heat transfer works for names and numbers on performance fabric. Garment dye gives rich, lived-in color with shrinkage and batch variation you must approve as a range.

Photos lie. Before you commit to a blank or a fabric, order three candidates in the same size and color family and run a small lab session:

• Hand feel: thickness, softness, whether it feels dense or hollow. Check the stated weight against what you feel.
• Fit: measure chest, length, sleeve and shoulder across candidates in the same size.
• Construction: side seams, collar rib, hems. Pull gently at stress points.
• Opacity: hold light colors up to a window.
• Decoration: ask your decorator how the fabric behaves with your method.
• Wash: wash and dry it the way your customer will, then measure again for shrinkage and twisting, and check pilling and color bleed.

Score each from 1 to 5 and keep a winner and a runner-up. The cheapest blank is rarely the one that survives a season of wear. If you are developing fabric yourself, read up on the material first: our French terry and Supima cotton pages cover what to specify.

Search by construction, not by the word your customer would type. "French terry hoodie manufacturer" beats "hoodie." Favor suppliers whose catalog is coherent, and look for factories already making your category for brands you respect. Our guide on how to find a manufacturer shows how to trace that through import records.

For a first drop, check domestic options seriously. A local decorator on a good blank, or a small cut-and-sew studio, costs more per unit but gives you speed, low minimums and the chance to fix fit in the room. A common path is to develop fit domestically, then take a clean package overseas once the product has earned a bigger order.

Build a longlist of five, qualify it to three and send all three the same brief. Ask about minimum order quantities per color and per size, not just in total. Those are different problems.

Samples are decision tools, not souvenirs. Expect more than one round:

1. 01Stock or reference sample: the factory's base quality, while you are still choosing a partner.
2. 02Development sample: your design and materials on their line.
3. 03Revised samples: only the changes you asked for, tracked in a change log.
4. 04Size set or wear test: for fit across sizes and how it behaves after washing.
5. 05Pre-production sample (PPS): what bulk must match.
6. 06Sealed approval sample: photographed, measured, stored. Don't wear it to the photoshoot.

Write feedback as measurements, not moods: "raise the collar 1cm," "move the embroidery 1.5cm toward center front," not "make it feel more premium." Then put everything on the purchase order: the approved sample reference, the size and color breakdown, tolerances, packaging, the shipping term, payment milestones and what happens if goods fail inspection. Our sampling guide covers this step by step.

Model margin from landed cost, not from the factory's quote. A unit price in a chat window leaves out samples, setup, packaging, freight, duty, inspection, receiving and the units that arrive damaged.

Run the model at three quantities: a small test, your likely order and the next price break. Then map cash timing. Samples, deposit, balance, freight and launch spend all go out before most revenue comes in, and a profitable product can still sink a small brand if there is a two-month hole in between. See how to calculate landed cost for a worked example.

A few things are easier to set up before the first order than to fix after it:

• Labels. In the US, textile products generally need fiber content, country of origin and the identity of the maker or seller on the label, plus care instructions. Rules differ by country. Put the label content in your tech pack early; reprinting labels is a painful delay.
• Packaging. Protective first, then clear, then beautiful. A care card people actually read is worth more than a second logo sticker.
• Barcodes and cartons. Needed for wholesale and many warehouses. Agree carton quantities and marks on the PO.
• The business basics. Register the company, check your brand name is clear to use and file a trademark where you sell, and ask an accountant about sales tax and resale certificates for buying blanks wholesale.

None of this is legal or tax advice; for anything that matters, ask a professional in your country.

The first order is a learning purchase dressed up as inventory. Plan how you will learn from it:

• Seed product with people who live the use case before chasing reach.
• Track returns by reason, and track defects separately from "changed my mind."
• Ask what almost stopped the purchase, what feels off after a week, and whether they would gift it.
• Write decision rules before emotions run hot: reorder if sell-through hits a number in a set time with returns under a limit; redesign if the same defect shows up again; pause if the margin doesn't clear after two honest tests.

Preorders can validate demand before you lock cash in inventory, if you are honest about lead times. After the first run, write down what actually happened: real lead times, real landed cost, defect rate, best sizes and colors. That file is what makes the second order faster and more profitable than the first.