As a fashion company grows, they need to sell more than just one product. Typically, a fashion company starts with that one great idea – that perfect dress that’s perfectly on trend and everybody wants it. From there, you have to grow your business and think about how to scale. In fashion business, the typical way one does this is through building a range of products.

It might seem quite simple to think of just adding bags and shoes to our mix, but it really is much more than that. The most expensive part of any sort of business is creating new concepts. They take a lot of time and typically take several samples to get right. In other words, somebody has to make a full bag or dress before we know if it fits right and if it’s in line with our other products in terms of quality. This can take some time and it’s quite expensive.

You must be careful in terms of new products you’re going to include because of the added overhead. Another piece you have to consider is the expertise. If your expertise is in creating and designing ready-to-wear clothes, you probably didn’t have fashion education to learn how to make bags or shoes. Shoemaking is a very complex art form.

In terms of sourcing materials, you’re going to have to source from completely different places. For instance, you can’t just decide to make denim if you’ve been making pants, they’re very different. You have to have different machines in order make denim. You’re going to need the expertise of somebody who knows how to design it from a technical point of view as well as production that can scale and make enough to sell for it to be worthwhile.

Deciding whether to sell wholesale and/or direct to consumer is a common question in the fashion industry. Many factors come into play on making this decision, including the fashion brand’s business model, negotiation with buyers and manufacturers, and sales data.

If you’re a fashion company that sells to wholesalers and direct to consumers, you have to consider the buyers’ opinions. At market, when buyers give their feedback and write orders, you’ll often find you have to negotiate with them to take a chance on new styles that give a proper representation of the collection.

After orders are placed, you’ll then go to your manufacturer and present your orders for fulfillment. Some manufacturers will require a larger quantity of units. Drawing from your fashion education, you then have to analyze your collection and say, “Well, if I only have orders for 500, am I going to put in the other order for 500? Is it really that crucial to our assortment or our collection this season?”

Sometimes it’s worth placing the order. Other times it isn’t. If you have a wholesale and a direct to consumer (DTC) model, it’s a combination of opinions that determines what actually goes into the market, into stores or online for that season. If you’re a completely DTC company, you’re tapping into online fashion education, trend forecasting, and looking at sales data to see what performed well and what didn’t in past seasons.

On the flip side, you want to make sure you’re not over-saturating the market and there’s still demand to ensure you won’t have excess supply. It depends on the business model you’re in and the business model you would like to have. This will determine how you successfully plan for the assortment you’re going to release each season.

Popups are a spectacular avenue for brands to gain exposure through creative activations. For one, popups aren’t a long-term commitment; they allow brands to test the waters before opening up a brick and mortar or locking into a lease. Second, popup shops create a sense of excitement around the said brand, event, service, or product. The best aspect of popup shops, however, is their ability to drive conversations, giving brands and business owners an opportunity to directly communicate with people who are interested in what they have to offer or sell.

Gucci, North Face, and Lululemon are prime examples of high fashion business enterprises that have cultivated customer loyalty through their brand identity. At their storefronts you might see longer lines and customers getting excited about making a purchase. A positive experience and initial interaction with a brand can have a lasting impact on the customer. It can even convert them into lifetime customers.

Experiential Marketing Drives Traffic
As consumers, we like to experience the new, and relish the experience long after it has ended. That’s why during fashion weeks in places such as Paris or Milan, popups have been largely successful. When things are experiential and playful, customers tend to gravitate toward it. Miami Art Basel, LA and other larger cities or events that draw lots of foot traffic are prime destinations for popups in the realm of fashion.

Fashion popups are also a magnificent opportunity for brands to identify what locations will be best suited for their business if they were to open up a storefront. Digitally native brands can mine data from their online customer base and do a test run with a pop up to see how it will do in that particular environment. It is a cost-effective marketing strategy for direct to consumer brands who’ve hit the ceiling on their online traffic.

Online v.s. In Store Purchases

Anyone can make a purchase for a clothing item online with a few clicks of a button. but having a conversation really sells the consumer on who and what is going on and how they can connect with the brand. It makes the brand relatable and customers feel a stronger connection to the brands they are buying from. Online fashion education can only extend so far; that’s why it’s worth it to give potential customers the opportunity to touch, feel, and see fashion pieces up close and personal.

A new category of footwear is changing the footwear business and the approach to footwear design. There are traditional categories of men’s and women’s shoes. Now unisex gender footwear is popular. This requires product developers to have a new footwear education before designing a new shoe.

Unisex footwear design is challenging but it’s being done with increasing success. The key challenge is designing the lasts of the shoe. There are anatomical differences between men’s and ladies’ feet. Men’s and ladies’ shoe designs try to respect these differences. Product developers are now trying to build footwear that can be marketed to both men and women.

Unisex footwear tries to be comfortable for both men and women. Product designers are trying to accomplish this task by adding a little extra padding or enabling the wearer to make minor adjustments to the shoe for personal comfort. This may include laces or closures that can be adjusted to help the shoe feel more natural on the foot.

I started in men’s footwear thinking I would eventually move into women’s footwear. Women’s footwear seemed like a crossword puzzle. There were so many variables. You could have a high heel or a low heel. Square toes or pointy toes. Men’s shoes seemed like they only had one variable. They had low or flat heels. It is a basic shoe. Men’s footwear seemed to be simpler but I discovered it is challenging. The years have taught me that you have to put a lot of creativity into making a shoe that a man would buy.

I am a female footwear product designer. I don’t have the perspective of a male to understand what a guy would wear. I have to really think about it. I have to ask myself: what would he wear? Why would he wear it? Why would he buy it? These same questions apply when designing unisex footwear. Always keep the wearer in mind when designing a new shoe and work backward from there.

One of the things that we can all do if we own a footwear brand is innovate. If one of your products sold really well, it might be tempting to re-sell it the next year. But you can’t make the same shoe that you did last spring because your consumers want to see new products all the time.

In order to continue using your best-selling products, you have to take the aspects that your customers loved about your footwear and modify them slightly. Make small changes, such as adapting the top-line cut of the shoe. You could change the height or the shape of the shoes, or add a particular embellishment. You can change the colors of your footwear for the new season too.

The idea is to make subtle changes that don’t compromise the style of the shoe. This way, your customers will still be happy with the product, but you are also modifying your product line to stay on trend.

You could change the structure of your footwear. When I say structure, I mean the way the bottoming is done, such as the heels and the soles of the shoes. For example, if you used a very thin sole and a small heel for one of your women’s products last spring, you might want to change this to a platform shoe or one with a higher heel.

The change in heel height might only be two centimeters, but it’s still something new and different. It’s basically like a brand-new line of footwear, even though a large portion of the product is the same as it was last spring.

This way, you can take a successful product from last year, adapt it slightly, and re-sell without looking like you’re repeating yourself.

When we’re first initially launching a brand, we really need to think about where’s the opportunity. Where do we want this brand to sit within my price zones? Is it a good brand? Is it a better brand? Is it a best brand? That’s some of the terminology we use. If it’s an opening price, is it something in the middle or is it something that’s high end? Depending on where the brand will sit, that determines what the materials are. For example, if you’re opening price, you’re not going to have any leather in the line, and the materials will be all manmade. If it’s something that’s in the mid-tier, there might be one or two key items that you might have leather in. The leather will be where you think it’s really important for the customer, but the majority of it may be manmade. Once you get into some of the best brands or something that’s a little bit more designer inspired, that’s where you’ll use a lot of the better materials. Even within leather, you’ll have, different qualities of leather from India, Italy, etc. All of that fluctuates, but understanding the brand DNA and the pricing architecture will determine the maternal.

Each category should have a price point. You should know what you’re designing into. You should know your wholesale price point and you should know your retail price point. You need to need to learn the wholesale part because it will enhance your design capabilities. It makes you smarter. To know what shoes sold and what they sold for. This is what the margins were. This is what the markdowns were if they were put on sale. How many points are they making? You need to know all those things. It’s very important.

There are 330-340 million consumers in the US who buy footwear. Businesses need to take a lot of careful consideration when designing and developing their footwear so they produce products that consumers want to buy.

In America, we import about two and a half billion pairs of shoes every single year. Looking at this per capita, this equates to around 7.2 or 7.3 pairs of shoes for every single man, woman, and child in this country every single year.

American consumers import and purchase more footwear per capita than any country in the world. We don’t have the resources in our own country to meet the needs of the American population so we import a lot of materials from other countries.

Of the two and a half billion pairs of shoes, we may produce around 30 million pairs a year here in the US. Production takes a lot of capital-intensive investments, as well as high skilled labor to ensure that the footwear is of the highest quality.

Often, companies have to figure out more innovative ways to source their products and distribute this product through the supply chain. And this supply chain involves the movement of materials through several other countries before they arrive in America.

For example, they may be shipped to Vietnam from China, then exported out of Vietnam across the Pacific to the port of Long Beach or the port of LA. The products are then distributed to a distribution center in Southern California or somewhere in the Midwest, such as Louisville or Memphis. Finally, it is distributed out to a retailer or consumer, which can be in any state of the country.

So, as a business, it’s important to focus on sustainable practice when sourcing the materials for your footwear. This is important for both a consumer awareness perspective and an environmentally friendly perspective.

When it comes to retail, it’s really important to understand its history.
The birth of the modern fashion idea started with Charles Frederick Worth in the late 1800s. The idea of retail started to develop, especially at the turn of the century, by folks like Selfridges and Macy’s.
Here’s why: All the way up until that point, you always went to a tailor or a dressmaker to have something made specific to you. Macy’s and Selfridges had to figure out how to get people into a store to buy mass-produced clothes.
Why on earth would you want to go buy something mass-produced, when even if you were not that wealthy, you could have your mother create something that fits you perfectly?
So, at the very beginning, Macy’s and Selfridges had to figure out how to get people into the store. It had to be about more than the product. It had to be about the service and the experience. Hence, customer experience.
If you’ve ever watched any of the films about Macy’s or Selfridges or read any of the books, you’d know they were the ones that created things like the perfume counters on the bottom floor. Why? Because when you spray smells, people react to them. Consequently, they’re gonna stay longer. It’s also going to get people to come in.
Nowadays, that might look like a DJ or an influencer coming in to talk/meet fans. Back then, it was Charles Lindbergh who showed up at the Selfridges in London after his transatlantic flight.
In short, retail isn’t just about a transaction. It’s so much more than that. Hence, there are a lot of moving pieces in retail.

Historically, trade shows were an enormous vehicle for moving your brand. Smaller brands who were looking to get their brand out there in a larger way or bigger brands who were looking to increase visibility would get a booth at a trade show. They would put their booths together as if it were a store, and buyers would walk the floor. They’d come and check out the brands to see what they had. It was really a huge vehicle, and a lot of people used it all the time. They were typically done in New York and Las Vegas. There were some on the West Coast for apparel as well. You would have a store in South Carolina, like a family-owned shop that’s been in your family and you’re looking for new product, fly to Vegas, walk around, and place all your buys. That’s not going to go away because people will still need a place to shop the market and will still need to see what new things are out there. But, it’s going to change.

Within everything, we have to evolve, so trade shows are evolving. ComplexCon’s something that’s evolving. Everyone wants to experience something, and if you can bring it to the consumer, and you can have that conversation. It’s all about driving conversation because the same brands that are doing the pop-ups, the same brands that you may find at a trade show, you’ll also find at ComplexCon or Sneakercon or any of those things. It’s all to drive conversation. These things won’t cancel out the other, but they will continue to evolve.

Sourcing is one of the biggest components when you talk about manufacturing and production for your fashion business. Sourcing will basically dictate your costs. The key to keeping costs down is to do research and source worldwide for the best rates. For Elle B. Zhou’s founder, Elle B. Mambetov, this means having her brand’s dinnerware made in Poland, while her fashion collection is produced in London, and digital printing is done in both the United Kingdom and U.S.

Fabrics are sourced from other locations, based on cost comparisons. For new garment tags, Mambetov priced them out in several different countries before deciding. Sometimes, pricing is going to be better to have items made in the U.S. rather than China. Why? Once you factor in Chinese New Year, that’s going to cause a time delay. Then there is the extra cost for shipping overseas. Once you add the shipping cost, you may actually get it faster in the U.S. for basically the same price.

Time and shipping costs are things you want to factor in when you’re sourcing a product. Learn from online fashion education, conduct research on manufacturers, and look everywhere before making your final decision rather than default to sourcing in China. You also need to think about the quality.

Mambetov knows when she’s sourcing garment lining she will find impeccable quality in London without having to oversee the process in person. To take away the guesswork, she sources from reputable companies she has bought from in the past that have produced high quality product.

When sourcing new fabrics, always make sure to ask manufacturers for swatches. They should send you these swatches at no cost. You are offering them business, so they will send these for free in hopes of winning your business with quality fabrics and materials.