thread's not dead - doITlab

You care about good designs and good branding and will
either spend lots of time doing it yourself (because you’re
already a great designer right?) or will collaborate or hire
other talented designers to do it for you. Successful indie
brands are comfortable paying $500+ per design to make
sure their line is legit.
Serious brand owners know
that they get what they
pay for. Free or cheap isn’t
always the best option so
research and choose wisely.
Indie brand owners generally
have their own websites
and that is at least
$100/year for domain and
hosting. They can also
expect to budget about
$3,000-$10,000 for a custom
website. These brands
are typically selling and
shipping their own tees
with e-commerce solutions
like Big Cartel, Storenvy,
IndieMerchStore, Magento,
Zen Cart, etc.
There are also some minor fees with accepting payments
with PayPal or credit cards, sales tax, shipping rates, etc.
Those fees are typically a small percentage of the money
you make on each transaction.
Selling offline gets a little pricey. You could haul your inventory
to shows and events but you will likely have to pay
for travel expenses, exhibitor fees for setting up a booth,
etc. If you’re traveling and selling offline, you’ll also need
more printed swag like flyers, buttons, stickers, and other
freebies.
Serious indie brands also need to consider advertising
costs. While a lot of advertising is done free via word of
mouth and hustling, you might want to look at shelling out
$3,000+ for a full page ad in your customer’s favorite magazine.
Printing flyers, business cards, and other advertising
collateral can be costly but it helps build even more
awareness for your brand.
THREAD’S NOT DEAD • Jeff Finley
“Swamp Viking” Design by Horsebites for Saulvation
Professional Brand Startup Costs:
$25,000+
This is where the big boys and girls play. Most of you
reading this probably aren’t at this level and might not
even want to be. These days, it’s incredibly rewarding
to build an indie clothing brand, but to take to the pro
level requires lots of business savvy, not to mention time,
money, and commitment. Three things a lot of designers
don’t have much of. We’re often busy as hell, broke, and
distracted by so many creative ideas it’s hard to commit
to anything for a long time.
But if your indie brand is really taking off and money is
flowing, there are many ways to spend it. You could start
looking at renting space in a downtown shopping district
to give yourself that street presence of a “real” brand.
You could look into spending more money on advertising
for longer periods of time, sponsoring celebrities or big
events, or hiring famous designers to develop products
for you.
Any professional brand likely has employees that need a
good salary and benefits. Taxes are a bigger issue and
you’ll need good lawyers and accountants. If you’re big,
you might even need to hire PR firms or Ad Agencies to
handle these aspects of your brand so you can focus on
the bigger picture. What about franchising your brand
and opening multiple stores across the country? What
about globally? What about sub-brands to target different
markets?
Don’t Be Overwhelmed
As you can see, this stuff can get costly! Most of us aren’t
there yet, so don’t worry. Every one of the brands you see
at the mall had to start somewhere. Mark Ecko has an inspiring
story about how he started out small by airbrushing
tees for his friends in high school and how he was
able to turn that into a big-time brand.
Printing & Production 53