Have you been dreaming about having your own apparel brand?
Do you feel you have good ideas about the kind of clothing you want to have made?
Do you think you have what it takes to sell your apparel, whether your sales model is direct to consumer, wholesale, etc.?
Is the only puzzle piece missing the funds to pay for it all?
Consider baby stepping your way into your company by selling art on clothes (which includes your logo!) instead.
Lots of companies start by putting their logo or a piece of art onto another company's t-shirt. Some large companies continue to do this while also incorporating other products into their brand.
It is common and it is legal. But of course, there are rules you must follow.
From Threading Your Way Through the Labeling Requirements Under the Textile and Wool Acts, which I have referenced before in my blog post on labels:
Replacing another company’s label with your own 40
An importer, distributor, or retailer may want to replace the original label on a textile product with a label showing its company or RN. This is legal as long as the new label lists the name or RN of the person or company making the change.
Note: If you remove a label that has required information, the label you substitute also must have the required information. Otherwise, you’re violating the Textile Act.
SPECIAL CAUTION TO RETAILERS:
Under the Textile Act, it is illegal for retailers to remove labels with required information from the garments they offer for sale without replacing them. If a retailer removes any label with required information, it must substitute another label with its own name or RN and the other required information that appeared on the original label. In addition, if you substitute a label, you are required to keep records for three years that show the information on the removed label and the company from which the product was received.
The easiest choice for a pre-made garment is to pick a wholesale brand that has tearaway labels so you chuck their logo label, keep their care and content label intact, and then have your logo label sewn on top of the care/content label.
What’s nice is there is such a wide variety of pre-made garments available in every price point and every quality. Tons of color options and the ability to get the fit and sizing options that you want. What’s even nicer, you can start with a small amount, say 20 units or so, and get the hang of selling them before you take on trying to sell 200 units of a single style when you actually have your own garments produced.
Let’s make this even nicer yet: we do this for our clients every day. We understand what type of garment or garments they want, the fit, the sizes, the colors, the price points. We review their art, can set up their labels, order them on their behalf and sew them in. We also help when they have a logo or piece of art that they want for decorating their shirts. We help with determining size, placement and type of decoration, and make sure the art is the proper type of file, size and resolution so the art looks its very best. We offer vinyl heat transfers in house - which are beautiful, full color at no additional charge and don’t chip away like screen printing does - and we also have an embroidery partner.
The sky is the limit when it comes to pulling together a small collection featuring art on clothes. All you have to do is send me an email at info@detroitsewn.com, or you can fill out the form on this page. (Either way, they both come to me.) Let me know what you want. Give me lots of details. And I’ll help you get exactly that.
Let’s make a brand!