About to launch our Fitness Apparel

[Aissam Magitral]

…and just an extra information we aim to launch our store online at Shopify and almost 70% of the theme is ready and we got our .com domain for the next 3 years reserved and kind of easy deal since we have a developers team to make it professional.
and i remind other questions here some of them:

6- We might go for 2checkout.com (any one have any experience of theirs services ?)

7- Usually any online gateway payment they have some % fees for the transactions… Usually do we should count it as a cost on us or a fees to be covered by the client ?

8- We want protect our brand name definitely i checked that Trademark is for the national industry protection and it cost more than a Copyright and its take 3 to 6 months of process and the copyright could take 24h. Our business idea to be sell online for the moment maybe we could think about peeing store once we expand our business with Kids, Accessories and Shoes sections. What you think of this website tool as a copyright:
https://www.copyrightsworld.com/pricing/ as they can process to protect the logo and provide the Certification after 24H at 99E/year. What do you think its best option to go for a Trademark or a Copyright is fair enough to protect us as we are willing to go world wide definitely the second year after the launch.

i could add more questions.
Appreciate your replies in advance that could help other business owners in the future.

regards,
Aissam

[Klas]

Hi Aissam, you have some great questions. Here is our take on them:

2. It all starts with how much research you have done in your market before launching. Do you have a rough idea about if actual customers want to buy your products? It is a gamble in the beginning and no one can actually know numbers before the launch. it is way easier to calculate and estimate when you have actual numbers and data to back the purchasing up. Here it’s vital to have a good collaboration with you manufacturer and prepare them for a quick reorder if you see things flying out of the shop.
if you see some items moving a bit slower there are things you can try:
– bundle products and offer a bundle deal
– market the hell of that item, and put it in all your pictures and marketing. people buy what they see. get influencers to promote that item to give it an extra push
– market the item as special, limited edition. some people want what exclusive products that not many other people have.
– putting it on sale should be your absolute last stop….

3. Since you will have online direct to consumer business model to start off, I assume you will buy all your products and the first collection in one go, to be delivered to your warehouse at the same time. after that it all depends on your strategy and business model: will you add new products evenly through the year? will you have new drops every month or every other month? This is directly related to your budget and cash flow. if you have planned for this then introducing new styles pretty regularly is a good thing. Some brands introduce a new style once a week and some once a month. Buying lower quantities before you can see the data could be a good thing. Later when you have more accurate numbers you can have a more accurate buying order flow throughout your purchasing year.

As a D2C business, you want to train your customers to regularly come back to your site. When they come regularly to your site there should be new and exciting things for them to see and be able to buy. Even if you have e.g. produced a t-shirt in 4 different colors, you might want to wait with introducing one color till after a while, to have newness on the site. Again, there is no recipe, all businesses and brands are different and it’s all depending on your strategy, planned cash flow and business model.

Have you already started promoting your site and started working on your SEO and social media accounts? Have you started acquiring email addresses? Do you already have a communication with your future customers?

4. This depends on the terms and conditions you have stated with your manufacturer. You can flip a bulk production in a couple of weeks and for some manufacturers it takes months. Again, it’s dependant on the discussions and agreements you have with your manufacturer. What takes the longest is the material. It needs to be lab dipped in your intended colors and then shipped to the manufacturer to be made into clothing. Discuss this with the factory and make a PLAN. If you are a small startup they will not pause their production orders with a big brand to put your styles into production just to have a short delivery. It all needs to be planned into their schedule. You need to have made up a plan internally, decide when you want to have all the drops (bulk productions made and launched on your site) and then plan this with your manufacturer.

What have you decided with your manufacturer now? What are the deliveries they have given you? Are you already done with your tech packs, bill of material, measurement lists and sourcing?

5. You aim should be to NEVER!!!!! have below 50% of margin. As a D2C online business, it would be good to have upwards 60% to be able to give free shipping, nice packaging, outstanding service and customer care. You can control all this with the target FOB costs that you have planned. You can tweak all costs and numbers to ALWAYS give you a good margin. With shitty margins you will not be in business for long and your investors will be frustrated…
For a mid-size company, a break-even margin is around 40%, calculating all the employees, overhead costs, product development etc.
There are some exceptions though. if you have special items that you absolutely want to have made in a really nice more expensive material etc. Or you will produce a low quantity of a certain style and need to pay a surcharge to the factory…

Shopify is a great supported solution to launch your online shop. Perfect if you have your development team to customize to your exact needs.

You have already started, but if other members would like to take a look at Shopify, here is a link that gives you a 14-day trial.

6. We are not familiar with 2checkout.com. Other services that we can recommend are PayPal.com, stripe.com, and mondido.com.

7. Incorporate the transaction cost in the overhead and let your retail price cover it. The end customer doesn’t need to know about it and would be annoyed if it were added as an extra cost, such as shipping.

8. First off, we are not layers, and our answer here should not be regarded as legal advice. That being said, we think you should aim for trademark protection of your name and logo. Our experience is that you should not focus on copyright protection. If a competitor copy you and just make a minor tweak, then your copyright is not valid. Having your D2C business model, focusing on your product development, you will be the first out anyway.

A trademark application takes time so you should get started as early as possible. Every country has their own trademark office where you can apply. There are some organizations were you can apply for a larger regions, such as EUIPO were you apply for all EU countries at once. It looks like you are going full speed ahead. Therefore you should apply for trademark protection in all your intended markets.

You want the trademark protection for two major reasons. The first is so that your brand is protected and no one tries to steal your thunder. The second is to make sure YOU don’t interfere with someone else’s brand. You don’t want to be sued in the US for example, because your brand turned out to be too similar to an existing one.

[Aissam Magitral]

i Appreciate your replies Klas obviously helpful to start with and saved in my notes to read it again and share with my partner and hopefully it could clarify help others over here.
I might share some questions later during our process, clouds could appears.

Best regards
Aissam

[Aissam Magitral]

Hi again,
last days I’ve read many of the good articles on the content section and watched some of the videos and it’s always a plus to the knowledge balance. Thank you so much for such great information and ideas.

1- For the Trademark do you have any idea of any online fast and easy service as Legalzoom to go for the Trademark world wide ? (as per my modest knowledge research i didn’t find), only local Trademark companies and asking for huge fees. And unfortunately Legalzoom is just for the USA.

2- The TOA between us and the manufacturer is a good idea specially after i’ve read what’s happen to you once you was waiting the order where the manufacturer was not even producing it after a certain months while they verbally could convince you it’s with the production department. As we are waiting for the sample order and found a good flexible manufacturer for all our sample needed with no min order and sure an extra fees for the mold (to be refunded for the next big order). The question is the signed/stamped TOA from the manufacturer and your company wherever is it in the world as per your experience is it enough to make pressure on them and get your order on the time requested ? (And absolutely a respect for the manufacturer and get them as a friend is always needed)

3-
Any idea for such Fabric component that could make such t-shirt ? or its a specified printing method ? As the communication with manufacturer isn’t much clear and as per theirs words it’s a huge production season in the clothing industry i didn’t get a clear reply about it. Any idea ?

[Aissam Magitral]

Since i can’t edit the post and seem the img html code is not working here here the direct link for the image for the number 3

http://prntscr.com/jo9whx

[Klas]

Hi,

Unfortunately, we don’t know of any great trademark service. If someone else knows, please post it here. It would be really valuable to know about such a service.

Great btw that you have found a manufacturer with no moq. Hope the samples look good too. If you look in the download section you will find 2 TOA samples. We have used the less formal one, which we find straightforward. Our experience is that it is enough. We have not had to use it in a legal dispute, but just having it in place gives you something to refer to. If you have agreed with your manufacturer, and they are willing to sign the TOA, it is already there a good sign that they are taking it seriously. If they on the other hand don’t want a TOA, it is a warning sign, and you should ask yourself why? The main purpose of the TOA is to make it crystal clear what you have agreed upon. When it is in writing and signed, it is not much room left for “that is not what we ment…”.

We’ll get back shortly regarding point 3 and the t-shirt.

[Aissam Magitral]

Thanks always valuable replies thanks again Klas. ill try to figure out with Legalzoom if more informations provided from them i will share it.

[Klas]

Hi again Aissam,

looking at the photo of the t-shirt, it seems like they have printed in the exact same color as the t-shirt. When the t-shirt changes color because of the sweat, the chest print appears clearer. Don’t think it is a special fabric or technique.

[Aissam Magitral]

Hi Klas,
that’s make sense i will give it a try thanks again <3

[Aissam Magitral]

Hi to everyone hopefully you are having a successfull days in the business here some questions again and appreciate your effort and clarfications:

1- on the trip of finding the right manufacturer with the best quotation they always ask for the design to check the final price a part the fabric combination & the MOQ. The question if i have to share with manufacturer my designs to get the quotation anyone of them could steal the designs i paid for. How to control this point ?

2- Any idea on What’s the lowest average cost approximately the huge brands (Nike,UU….) get their tshirt,short from the manufacturer… etc ?

3- As per my research and my modest actual knowledge, i find the best combination fabric for our region of sales (hot mostly all the year) it’s:
A: (cotton 95% spandex 5%)> cotton the most breathable fabric and fit to body shape. Mostly for hangout or workout tshirts,shorts and joggers

B: (cotton 60%, polyester 40% )> Mostly for workout tshirts… slightly breathable with a polyester it’s wrinkle less and durability is longer than only cotton

C: (Polyester 86%, Spandex 14%) > Mostly for leggings light & comfy , dry fast, durability is longer and colors shows better and do not shade fast.

D: Mesh combine with theses fabric also for a good breathable clothing.

>3A: I found polyamide also a great one but maybe in a hot weather isn’t a good choice ?

>3B Any idea how we can develop our products in coming orders, any new technology of theses fabrics or other fabrics more breathable and durable ?

>3C: The manufacturers mostly always they approve that theirs fabric are breathable, eco friendly and the best in the market but since we don’t know theses terms, they could simply provide anything for us that is not what they are really approving in the first time. So the question is there is any specified terms for the fabrics we are up to use that could show to the manufacturer we exactly know what we want as we really care about the quality offered to our clients in the future ?

[Ana Kristiansson]

Hi Aissam 😀

Here are some answers to your great questions, hope this gives you a bit more clarity:

1. For the manufacturers to give you a somewhat accurate price quote they do have to see your designs and know the fabric width and price. Yes, it is true that they could actually steal your design. You can however place a sentence in your tech packs: Confidential property of…. or have the manufacturer sign an Non disclosure agreement before they see your designs. However the manufacturers are very used to working this way, and not much is new under the sun as to say in their world. They get requests like this probably several times a day:)

2. It all depends on the MOQ and the material you are using. For a t-shirt probably somewhere in between 2-10 dollars/piece depending on the material, design etc. For a short somewhere like 5-15 dollar/ piece also depending on material and design.

3. For your weather conditions I would assume you want primarily: cooling effect and quick dry effect. Cotton mix is usually used in more casual styles and not so much for very active sweaty activities and polyester/spandex in performance apparel because of the quick dry capabilities and lightness of the material. Yes, poly/spandex in leggings is very common and a good option. Bear in mind the stretch of the different materials combined in one garment, you want them to stretch equal amount to give comfort and freedom of movement. Have you checked out Drirelease? http://drirelease.com

Polyamide is a more durable alternative to polyester. can be somewhat more expensive but a much better option in strength. Would use that for bottoms.

To develop your own material takes a long time and you need a lot of testing. There are amazing materials on the market that would make your life easier and that have been tested. For a startup I would not recommend to start developing your own materials specially if you don’t have enough material knowledge. The fabric combos you have mentioned are fine for what you are trying to achieve and you will for sure find great existing materials.

If you will work with big and known fabric suppliers there is no need to worry about this kind of thing. They have a reputation to keep and would not jeopardise this for a startup. If you are working with unknown suppliers then yes this could happen. To easier know, ask the suppliers for which brand they work with.

You need to know what you are looking for and also define what sustainability aspects you want in your manufacturing and your materials. Define for yourself what you mean by sustainable. Will you be 100% sustainable and this will be your number one priority or will you just start with using sustainable materials and manufacturing? It is better to nominate materials yourself that you have sourced to the manufacturing then let the manufacturer source locally for you. This way you have no idea of the traceability and you can literally get anything and nothing. If you can’t explain to your supplier what you want because you lack the terminology, bring competitors samples with the similar intended material. This way they will visually see what you mean and they can get a closer sourcing to your wish. Have a look at the How to start a sustainable brand webinar under Sustainability to help you get a grip of your sustainability implementation

[Aissam Magitral]

Thanks Ana appreciate your coorporation to the subject. I take note of some point and i watched the webinar and i have to focus on the sustainability point more to clear the vision.