boss wrote:As far as selling 100 jerseys to make $1k, if you're only designing and not fronting any cash that could be appealing to some. If you're doing all the legwork, fronting the cash on production, building a brand and creating online distribution point... not so appealing.
Definitely, I understand that. I wouldn't expect anybody to pay for a long run of $35 jerseys hoping to sell them all for $45/piece. You'd need a far greater return to warrant such a risk.
But Flame Cycling will do $35 custom jerseys, with a MOQ of one unit. That is, you get the design worked out, and they'll print them on demand. No investment required other than the time and talent to do the design.
I'd do a few kits of one-offs, but my lack of design talent kills that idea dead.
I've had a bit of a fiddle with their online design layout tool, and it's pretty crude, but I get the impression that you just use it to indicate the location of the graphics you upload, then a human designer at their end lays it out properly on the garment and confirms the design before printing.
I think it's astonishing that they can do this for the price, but I'm often amazed by how much work you can get done for little money by under-paid yet highly skilled workers in China.
I certainly wouldn't be interested at that sort of margin. Low volume direct to public - you can't survive on ~30% markup.
For sure.
But if it's just a matter of the artist submitting a design, then collecting a commission on each sale - which is, I understand, how businesses like Redbubble operate - then it might be more viable.
It could even be a third-party coordinating business (who also skim a small margin) - collecting and cataloguing the artists designs, and placing orders on Flame (or whoever) to print as required. If the process exists for Chinese manufacturers to produce one-off kits [1] and stay in business selling them for $35, then I see no reason why there couldn't be an extra level in the supply chain - effectively, a kind of design consultancy.
I'd be interested in seeing what kind of designs you come up with if you do go ahead and launch a new non-premium-priced-but-nice-looking cycling gear brand.
tim
[1] Looking at their samples gallery, I can only assume they print on blank fabric, then cut and sew the garment. Again, it amazes me for the price, but I guess a sweatshop worker [2] doesn't cost any more to run a hem on a custom jersey than on jersey #2346 of a long run of fake (or real) BMC kits.
[2] ...and let's face it, if we're buying <$50 jerseys (and probably if we're buying >$50 jerseys), they're being manufactured by very poorly paid workers. Just like all the other cheap Chinese stuff we surround ourselves with.