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.

Sourcing can be complex. It also can be simple. It just depends on what you’re going for. If you’re a company that wants to simplify your supply chain, then you usually go for an all-in approach, right?
Go with one company, they’ll source everything for you. They’ll produce the product for you. You pay them one price, you bring it in, and then you sell it.
If you’re a company that cares about where everything comes from, if your customer is concerned about sustainability, if your customer is concerned about child labor practices, if your customer is concerned about the environment, you can’t put your trust in one company and assume that they’re going to also have those things top of mind as well.
In today’s world and in today’s market, how the customer is so important to how people buy and what they produce, go to each company individually. Maybe you have to source a button from this factory and fabric from this country and this factory and maybe zippers from this country in this factory because you really are looking into the business practices, the reputation of the company, who they are, and what their story is.
Then, when you bring all of those pieces together, you can communicate with your customer, “Hey, we were thinking about you in this entire process. That’s why it took us three months to find three components to get you this hoodie because we know what’s important to you and we know that sustainability and the environment are also important to you.
If you care about who your customers are, maybe you can find a company that does all in production that also has the same business ideals that you do and the ideals that your customers have. But from my experience, sometimes it takes going to three different manufacturers, getting different components, and then bringing it all together to make the final product so that you can be really proud of the product that you’ve produced.

When you’re looking at materials, understand what the function is. If we’re looking at a sportswear shoe, are we looking to ensure that there is a four-way stretch? Then we have to look at what that means in terms of our manufacturing partners to deliver that.

Is a four-way stretch going to influence the dyeability of the fabric? Is the dyeability of the fabric going to influence the tensile strength? Is that going to influence any sort of friction on the wearer’s foot?

These things all start from a material selection standpoint.

If it’s a sports shoe, do we want it to be moisture-wicking? Do we want it to take water away from the wearer’s foot during activity?

If it’s a boot, do we want to make sure that it’s wipeable? If it’s faux leather, real leather, or any other mixed material, are we going to ensure that mechanical finishes can be applied to it?

For example, a common material used in faux leather footwear is PU, which is polyurethane. It’s important for polyurethane that it passes stretch, heat, and temperature testing. Also, what is the dyeability of that fabric?

When we’re looking at materials, understand the purpose of your footwear. Is it for formal or creative purposes? Is it going to be able to reach the design aesthetic that you’re looking for?

Ensure that your material selection can be dyed, finished, and manufactured to your liking. Also, make sure it has a great hand feel and colorfastness.

These are all things to consider when selecting your materials.

When you get to transform a logo into hangtags, packaging, and that bag that everyone will carry their lunch in, that’s when it gets really fun—the storefront, how a store looks, and how your product is displayed on the shelf. In New York City, that’s going to make you famous.

It becomes very exciting because you get to take a really basic brand and figure out how to move it around and transform it into various spaces.

Because of e-commerce, one of the design trends we witnessed in the 2000s was logos becoming horizontal. For example, when we first started moving online, many fashion logos tended to be vertical, meaning they went up and down. So the most renowned design that comes to mind is the Yves Saint Laurent logo, which was created by hand and was very vertical. That is the worst type of logo to use on a website because it pushes the rest of the content down.

Another thing we saw, which makes me sad, is that many luxury brands are becoming blander, with many of their logos using the same typefaces.

There is a lot of discussion on social media about the differences between logos from the 1990s and today. They’re also mainly black and white. Again, this is due to e-commerce, as you must have things that do not compete with the product on your page when selling online. When you have many products, images, and editorials on a page, a black and white logo that is really straightforward and not too fussy is important.

In the fashion business, “collection” basically means articles of clothing or different items in the clothing line that make up a new collection. What’s the difference between “collection” and “line”? A line is simply a specific organized group of garments that has a centralized concept. It’s a little bit similar to collection. For a designer, you many have different lines working under your label, meaning you have a contemporary line, a high-end line, and a low-end, mass-market line. These lines sell to different clients with different price points.

For a contemporary collection, designers may produce anything from 15 pieces to 30 pieces or 30 styles. For a larger designer corporation or designer label, they may produce as many as 70 to 100 styles per season. We dress differently in the four different seasons of the year. Some designers like to combine the seasons together to create a spring/summer and fall/winter collection every year. For larger mass-market stores, such as Gap, they will produce spring 1, spring 2, spring 3, summer 1, summer 2, summer 3, and so on.

Designers use their fashion education and take a look at what is necessary for their customers in each distinct season. A jacket for a cold wintry day, or a blazer for a nice spring afternoon with some breeze. Creating a complete seasonal look is key. Another important aspect of designing a fashion collection is you want to have a centralized theme. If you’re using all earthy tones, then use only warm, natural tones. If you want to do a neon pop color collection, then you might choose hot pinks, hot reds, and hot blues. Therefore, your fabrications and colors should be pretty much uniform and fit the overall theme.

“Every season as a team we collectively go through all of the runway shows from New York, London, Milan, and Paris, and pull through actual looks that we think will work for future stories at Teen Vogue,” Says Sarah Brody. “Once we’ve identified the trend for the season, we go through all of our market images, which are the photos that we’ve taken at all the appointments that we’ve gone to so far, and we pull out the lower end market and the more affordable pieces that we think that our readers want to see on the page that still relates to the bigger trends that we’ve seen this season.”

“After that, we compile a book that we present to Amy, our editor in chief and our creative director at Marie. We go over every single trend, what styles we think might like that trend, what photographer would work well with it, and we send them out to all the stylists and photographers that we work with regularly. They send back their feedback and some inspiration images that they would want to incorporate for a future shoot for the magazine.”

“As shoots are confirmed, we work with stylists to call in the best pieces that we think will work for the story that they’re doing. Whether that’s a sweater from Guess or a pair of jeans from AG, we’re always looking for the best pieces in the market because it’s our job as editors to not have everything here.”

“Once everything is here and laid out, it’s organized on racks and tables. We then, as a team, edit through to what we think are the best of the best pieces that we want to show the stylists and show Amy in the run through. For those of you that don’t know what a run through is, it’s like a dress rehearsal before a show,” Explains Brody.

“We go through everything. Amy picks out her favorite pieces as the stylists goes through the looks that they’ve created. We talk over the shoot before it actually happens.”

“My favorite part of my job is meeting with new designers and figuring out how I can incorporate them into the book. After all, the Teen Vogue tagline is ‘fashion starts here’. A special experience for me was our main cover story with Kylie Jenner where our sales brand and Maxwell asked the fashion team if we knew of any designers that sent a muslin dress down the runway, and no one really did.”

“I thought of a friend that was just starting out on his own, and I asked him if he would make a dress. Brandon, myself, and my friend Max designed the entire thing from scratch. I was super excited when it ended up being shot. Here’s the image of Kylie and her friends wearing it. That was just one of the many, many memories I have of working here at Teen Vogue.”

Sample creation is essential to making fashion products that sell. According to Angela Gao, no design process is complete without time spent creating and refining these mockups.

“When I’m designing, I like to have a mood board right where I work. If I find appealing images for a new collection, I pin them up along with fabrics I’d like to use.”

Next, Gao refines the creative inspirations she’s collected. “I sort the fabric I’ve gathered. Then, I develop sketches representing flat joins of what I’d like to produce.”

Sample making comes next. Many designers produce samples in factories or designated sample rooms, but smaller designers may prefer in-house production.

“I usually produce the initial mockups and send them directly to my factories,” continues Gao. “Then the factories send me the completed samples.”

Sample-making ensures that everything fits before it goes into production or gets sold to stores. Gao says the extra effort helps her create quality products for her target consumers through a “fit modeling” process.

“Working with fit models is important, but it differs from runway shows,” Gao explains. “Runways are glamorous, so everything is slim, skinny, and tall. When you’re selling to a customer or buyer, however, your work must fit real people. Fit models have the perfect sizing that matches typical clientele. The fitting process lets the designer fix aspects that they dislike and adjust poorly fitting elements. For example, if an armhole looked too big, the designer would pin it up and resize it at this stage.”

Gao also says that fit modeling is just the first step – It’s important to recheck the work afterward. “After you finish fitting a garment, you can send the sample back to the factory. When the factory returns an adjusted prototype sample, you’ll check it against a fit model again.”

Sample making also facilitates business opportunities known as sample sales. “A sample sale is a retail channel for designers to sell samples,” says Gao. “Companies can generate some extra profit by selling samples that would go unused. The only downside of this practice is that samples aren’t perfect. Sometimes, they might lack buttons, closures, zippers, or other features. They also can have fit issues. Nonetheless, sample sales offer great deals.”