Funding your stock is the biggest cost to any business and it’s also the biggest obstacle our start-up clients encounter when they calculate the expenditure in launching their new venture.
If you want a quality product made in a factory with the right skills, technology and service, you will need to order large enough quantities to make it worthwhile for the factory to want to entertain working with you. Developing the samples and setting up a production line needs to be commercially viable for any factory and therefore they will stipulate their minimum order quantity (MOQ). Luckily for our clients, we have negotiated smaller MOQ’s for our start-up brands through some of our partner suppliers who are willing to support our work, however, this is still going to be the biggest cost for any business.

Trying to launch a new brand and wanting to produce 50 per style just isn’t going to work. The costs involved to produce such a small volume won’t be commercial for you and none of the quality factories that work with the key brands will entertain such a small volume.

Funding your stock before you place your bulk order is a potential way around this and we can help you do this via crowdfunding. We provide a solution that allows you to obtain orders from customers when you launch without having to commit to the bulk orders. To do this, you will need to have all your ducks in line, going through the design and development stages, before having finished samples ready to go into bulk production by the time your campaign has finished.

Crowdfunding allows you to pre-sell your concept to customers, obtain the cash for bulk production, and critically create some press and brand advocates so that when you launch your site and your stock eventually arrives, you have a database of customers that may order more and help spread the word.

We offer a turnkey solution for crowdfunding, helping you create content for the Kickstarter and/or IndieGoGo platforms, photography, film and full strategy for the campaign. This ensures you have the best chance to succeed and turn your concept into reality, whilst reducing the cash flow burden and risk.

When we work on an innovative product that requires a level of R&D, we can also assist you in claiming a portion of this R&D back from HMRC. This is called R&D tax relief and enables you to reclaim a percentage of all genuine R&D back from HMRC who are actively supporting businesses that invest in new technology or innovation. We work with an R&D tax relief specialist that will need to understand your business, product and R&D completed, before then calculating the potential claim and feeding you through the process to make your claim.

These two aspects make the funding of startup businesses much less daunting and by investing in the brand, product design, R&D, sampling and crowdfunding campaign, we hope to have a platform that allows your brand to launch successfully, whilst critically reducing the amount of risk.

Get in touch if this is something you would like to discuss in more detail.

So, you’re thinking of starting a sportswear brand but not sure how to do this, what it entails or where to start.
In 2019, we decided to launch our own brand to highlight the process and walk the walk alongside talking the talk. Our brand is called FR3ND and we produce performance men’s shirts launching via the crowdfunding site “Kickstarter” to again showcase a possible platform to help finance start-ups.

This is the process -:

POSITIONING
Understand the gap in the market or the USP your product has. Once you fully understand this, you then have a target market/consumer in mind, and this will help drive the rest of the brand’s directions. Without this, you’re going to really struggle to understand whom to sell to and why they would buy your product.

FR3ND is a classic, smart city shirt that is packed with performance features but with eco credentials that are as sustainable as possible. Our target market is therefore an educated, planet caring professional, who requires a smart shirt to stay smart, and benefit the wearer by keeping them comfortable for days of wear. This is something unique to the market, as easy care and crease-free shirts are currently made from polyester blends or cotton with chemical treatments to stop them creasing, both toxic to the planet.

BRANDING
One of the hardest aspects of starting a brand is the brand name and logo. You need to create something that resonates with the consumer, links to the product offering, but critically hasn’t been used before or won’t confuse your brand with one that already exists.

FR3ND represents the friendliness of the brand towards not only the planet, because it’s as sustainable as possible, but also because the shirt is friendly to you. You can wear the shirt for several days without any odour or creases appearing. Allowing you to wash less and travel with fewer items.

The “3” in the brand name represents the 3 core values of the brand –: SUSTAINABLE – LUXURY – PERFORMANCE.

The logo is simple and modern, with the wordmark being “FR3ND” and the icon being the “3”.

PRODUCT
The fun bit starts now – the product. We had a very clear objective of making the world’s best, non-iron, shirt that is as sustainable and environmentally friendly as possible. The design of the shirt needed to be classic and timeless, but the key difference would be in the fibres we selected and therefore the performance of the shirt. FR3ND shirts are made from sustainably sourced superfine merino wool and all of the components are natural or recycled. The performance advantages of using superfine merino wool means that the shirts are packed with 18 performance features, far more than non-iron cotton or synthetic blended shirts.

SOURCING
Finding the right suppliers is critical to launching a great brand. Get this wrong and consumers will notice once the product doesn’t deliver to their expected standards. You can’t claim you are luxurious if your product quality isn’t exceptional, or that you’re sustainable if you use synthetics or chemicals to produce the product.

We knew we had to use the best superfine merino and therefore made sure the fibre was produced in New Zealand and Australia and was a certain grade to make it superfine. We then ship the merino wool to one of Europe’s oldest shirting mills, for it to be spun into an exclusive fabric for FR3ND. The finished fabric then heads to Portugal, to one of Europe’s oldest and highest quality shirt makers, who only specialise in shirts. By doing this, we are guaranteeing the quality will be exceptional, as we are only using the finest ingredients and suppliers that really specialise in the products we are looking to produce.

FUNDING
This is usually the biggest hurdle any start-up has to face. Not only do you have to fund the design and sampling stages, but you then need to make sure you have enough investment in place to pay for the stock, website and marketing.

We decided to launch FR3ND using crowdfunding, and chose KICKSTARTER as it’s the best platform for fashion and consumer goods. We created a simple film and produced a comprehensive campaign page to explain the benefits of our product and its USP. In return for the crowd’s support, we offered them a small discount and a limited edition run of the first batch of shirts. A simple but effective campaign that produced 200% of the target goal required to go into bulk production.

This allowed us to not only deliver stock to the crowd but gave us additional funds to buy stock to sell on our own website.

MARKETING
The next stage for FR3ND is to deliver the stock to the crowd and then start to market the FR3ND website and brand. This will include film, photoshoots, collaborations, PR and online marketing, all will help drive traffic and awareness to the brand.

Hopefully the above gives a good understanding of the processes involved and if you click the links you will see how we built the crowdfunding campaign, our website and also get to know more about the USP of the product.

If you are interested in starting your own activewear brand but need guidance and assistance along the way, get in touch and see how we can help.

Who do you work with?
We work with performance sportswear brands from large established blue-chip brands through to start-ups with a great idea.

Do you hold stock?
No. Everything we do is bespoke to our client’s needs. We never replicate and we don’t hold stock of generic sportswear that is simply embroidered or printed.

Where do you source?
We have built up a large network of factories since we established in 1997. These factories all have their unique skills and are based in China, Vietnam, Korea, Sri Lanka, Portugal and Lithuania.

What products do you design and produce?
Anything sports-related. If you want jeans or a basic cotton tee, then head to the fashion consultants. If you want your product to have an element of performance and function then we are right for you. We work across all sports categories and produce everything from base layers to outwear. Clients have included some of the worlds best within;

Ski – Outdoor – Marine – Golf – Fitness – Gym – Run – Cycle – Triathlon – Combat – Equestrian – Football – Swim – Athleisure – Polo – Surf – Workwear and Wearable Tech.

What are the lead times?
This depends on where you are as a business and what you need. If it’s a blank page we are starting from it usually takes a minimum of 11-12 months before you receive goods. If you have designs and specifications in place then this will reduce to potentially 4 months depending on the time of the year.

How much experience do you have?
Established in 1997, we have worked with over 250 brands across all types of sports and categories of clothing. We don’t believe there is another supplier with as much experience as we have.

How much does it cost?
This really depends on the brief and how complex it is. It also depends on which services you require.

If you have a budget of under £10K to launch the brand then things are going to be incredibly hard going and undoubtedly you will require crowdfunding or investment to pay for the stock. We can help create and guide your crowdfunding campaign, but can also manage the whole process or get involved as much as required. Contact us for a quick quote.

How much does the production cost?
This will depend on lots of factors but predominantly the fabrics used, the components, the volume and the quality required. We always say, you get what you pay for. If you are looking for quality products, produced in an ethical factory using quality fabrics and components, then you need to expect to pay the price for this. It’s impossible to produce a Rolex at the same cost as a swatch watch!

We work across many price points from large discount retailers to very high performance and luxury brands and have suitable factories that have expertise in both of these fields.

Some of our clients sell similar types of products but the quality, finish, feel, lifespan, function and performance will all be different depending on the desired target market. For instance, we can source a fast-wicking base-layer for $3 but we also produce base-layers using merino silk, produced with laser cut bonded seams for $30.

What services do you offer?
Everything from a blank page through to a strategy of how to sell the product.

When we work with startups we generally become integral to their team and can provide everything from brand, logo and brand ID, product design, specifications, samples, testing, fitting, grading, sealing samples, sourcing, production, shipping, photoshoots, pacshots, film, social media and website design.

Do we need to take all of the services you offer?
No, select the ones that you need. It’s a menu so pick the services you require help with and get in touch.

Where are you based?
We are based in Hertfordshire, UK.

Do you work with clients outside he UK?
Yes, we have worked with clients all over the world from the USA to UAE and even as far as Australia.