The Cold Reality of Launching: How to Start a Clothing Brand
You don’t need celebrity seed money to launch apparel, but you do need a blueprint: a 12–16 week production calendar, target gross margins of 60–70%, and a plan to keep returns under 20%. This guide breaks down how to start a clothing brand with concrete numbers, realistic options (print-on-demand vs cut-and-sew), and the unit economics that separate hobby shops from durable businesses.
If your goal is to turn an idea into a sellable line, expect to make a series of trade-offs: speed vs control, margin vs risk, and design ambition vs minimum order quantities. Below is the practical sequence founders actually use, with decision rules and example math you can copy.
Define Your Niche, Customer, And Unit Economics
Start by constraining your audience and job-to-be-done. “Oversized tees for powerlifters under 5’8” who hate tight sleeves” is more actionable than “streetwear.” Look for communities with clear pain points, a reachable channel (subreddits, Discords, gyms), and willing spend. A simple screen: 10k+ reachable followers in a niche channel, 3–5 direct competitors you can beat on fit or function, and a price band customers already accept.
Lock your unit economics before you design the logo. For a graphic tee, a realistic landed cost can be: fabric $2.50, cut/sew $3.00, print $1.50, labels $0.50, packaging $0.80, freight/duties $0.70 = $9.00. At a $28 retail, your gross margin is ∼68% before marketing and fees; at $22 wholesale, it’s ∼59%. For hoodies, landed costs often land between $18–$28; pricing commonly ranges from $55–$90 to maintain 60%+ margin.
Translate margin into survival. If fixed monthly overhead is $3,000 (software $200, rent/storage $300, founder stipend $1,500, ads/creative $1,000), and your gross profit per tee is $19, you need ∼158 units/month to break even. With a 2% site conversion and an average order value (AOV) of $48 (two tees), you’ll need roughly 3,950 sessions/month achievable through a mix of organic, influencer seedings, and modest paid tests.
Write a one-sentence position and a price test. “Breathable gym tees cut for short lifters, $28, ships in 48 hours.” Test willingness-to-pay with a “fake door” (a coming-soon product page and email capture). If 3–5% of targeted visitors leave emails at your intended price, your thesis has signal. Evidence is mixed on how predictive fake doors are, but they’re cheap and better than guessing.
Product Development And Production Choices
Pick a production model based on capital, control, and speed. Print-on-demand (POD) has zero inventory and unit costs of roughly $12–$16 for a basic tee; you’ll likely retail at $25–$32 with 40–55% gross margin. Private label (decorating blanks) often requires 50–200 units per design/color but improves quality control and margins. Full cut-and-sew offers the most differentiation, typical MOQs of 100–500 units per SKU, 30–90 day lead times, and the best margins long-term.
Get your tech pack right. A solid tech pack includes fabric composition and GSM (e.g., 180–220 GSM for tees; 300–380 GSM for fleece), a full measurement chart with tolerances (±0.5–1.0 cm), construction details (stitch type, seam allowances), trims, artwork placements, and care label specs. Plan for 2–3 sample rounds: proto (fit), pre-production (finish), and size set. Budget $200–$500 per style in sampling fees, more for complex outerwear.
Design for fit and durability. Establish grade rules (how measurements change per size). For unisex tees, a common grade is +2 cm chest per size and +1.5 cm length; adjust for your niche. Account for shrinkage: cotton can shrink 2–5% in length; pre-washed or pre-shrunk fabrics reduce surprises. Do wash tests for pilling and colorfastness (perspiration and crocking), particularly on dark and neon colors that are prone to bleed.
Build quality control into the calendar. Use an AQL of 2.5 for general apparel, inspecting at least 80–125 units per 1,000 produced. Define critical defects (holes, open seams), major (misprints >1 cm off), and minor (loose threads). Ensure legal labels: fiber content by percentage, country of origin, care instructions, and an RN or company identifier in the U.S. Incorrect labeling can trigger costly relabeling or customs delays.
Pricing, Cash Flow, And Inventory Risk
Map your cash conversion cycle before you place a PO. Many factories require 30% deposit at PO and 70% before shipment. Sea freight is cheapest ($0.20–$0.60 per tee, 20–40 days transit) but slow; air is faster (5–10 days) but costly ($1.50–$4.00 per tee). Include duties (U.S. apparel often 8–20% depending on material), brokerage, and inland freight to get true landed cost. Ignore these and your margin math will be fantasy.
Forecast inventory with humility. A common starting size curve for men’s tees is S:M:L:XL at 1:2:2:1; adjust after your first month of sales data. For a first run of 300 units across three colors, you might buy 100 per color with that curve and a 10% buffer in best-sellers. Plan for 60–80% sell-through in 90 days; set a reorder trigger at 40–50% stock remaining if lead time is under 45 days, earlier if 60+ days.
Consider pre-orders for cash efficiency, but manage risk. Pros: finance production with customer funds, validate demand, reduce dead stock. Cons: delivery delays kill trust, chargebacks rise, and organic conversion drops if ship dates are vague. If you pre-order, state a window (e.g., “Ships in 5–7 weeks”), cap volumes to what you can guarantee, and offer immediate ship items alongside to keep conversion healthy.
Plan for returns like a line item, not a surprise. DTC apparel return rates often run 15–30%, higher for fitted bottoms. Improve fit and reduce bracketing with detailed size charts, customer photos, and exchange-first flows. Each return can cost $8–$15 in two-way shipping and handling; bake 5–10% of revenue as a provision. A tight exchange process (auto-issued labels, instant store credit) can recover 30–50% of at-risk revenue.
The Founder’s Education: Mastering the Supply Chain
I always stress that learning how to start a clothing brand is really an accelerated course in supply chain and logistics. Your education is paid for with your cash flow.
Decoding the Tech Pack: You must become fluent in the language of the tech pack. Knowing the difference between 30-single jersey and 200 GSM fleece isn’t design flair; it’s a financial necessity. Getting the fabric composition or shrinkage tolerance (±0.5 cm) wrong on the tech pack will cost you 100% of your deposit and 100% of your time. This is engineering literacy applied to textiles.
Cash Flow Mapping: The biggest failure point isn’t lack of sales; it’s timing mismatch. You need to know that your 30% deposit paid today won’t see a commission until three months after the customer receives the product. That forces you to create a visual map of your cash conversion cycle. Your education is about mastering the difference between gross margin (product success) and net cash flow (business survival). You’re learning finance under duress.
Go-To-Market: Brand, Channels, And Growth Loops
Positioning beats taste alone. Anchor your story to a functional edge customers feel on day one: less ride-up during lifts, breathable 200 GSM fabric with 5% elastane for mobility, or sleeve taper modeled on actual arm circumference data. Show the proof before/after fit photos, sweat maps, or stitch comparisons because “premium quality” without evidence is noise.
Choose channels that match your stage. A DTC site gives control; expect payment and platform fees of ∼3–4% of revenue. Marketplaces can jumpstart volume: Etsy favors POD and unique graphics; Amazon offers reach but requires compliance and battles on price FBA improves Prime conversion but adds storage and fees. Wholesale can smooth cash flow but halves your unit margin; typical terms are 50–60% off MSRP, Net 30, and seasonal buy windows set months in advance.
Use small bets with measurable payback. For paid social, test $500–$2,000 with three creative angles (fit, function, social proof). Aim for a blended marketing efficiency ratio (MER) of 2.5–3.5 to be healthy at 60–70% margin. Creator seeding works: send 100 units to micro-influencers (5–50k followers); expect 10–25 organic posts and 1–3 whitelisting partners. Email + SMS should drive 20–30% of revenue with welcome, browse, cart, and post-purchase flows in place.
Build learning loops into your cadence. Track return reasons (fit, fabric, color variance) and update patterns or product pages. Monitor 60-day repeat purchase rate (20–40% is typical for apparel with strong basics). Balance evergreen SKUs (sizeable reorders, stable ads) with limited drops (urgency, social heat). A monthly “small batch” release of 50–150 units can create momentum without overexposing inventory.
Operations: From First Order To Scale
Set a realistic timeline. A lean first collection can move from concept to launch in 8–12 weeks with blanks or POD, and 12–20 weeks for cut-and-sew. A typical cut-and-sew schedule: 2 weeks for design/tech pack, 2–3 weeks for proto, 1–2 weeks revisions, 3–5 weeks for production, 3–5 weeks shipping. Pad for holidays and factory queues; missing Lunar New Year planning can add 4–6 weeks unexpectedly.
Choose fulfillment based on order volume. Under 300 orders/month, in-house packing can be cheapest and faster to iterate packaging/insert tests. Above 500 orders/month or with international shipping, a 3PL often lowers error rates and shipping costs via rate cards. Compare all-in pick/pack fees ($2–$4), storage, kitting charges, and returns processing before committing; short contracts and trial projects reduce lock-in risk.
Document processes early. Standardize SKU naming, barcodes, and lot tracking so you can identify defective batches. Implement a basic inventory system (even a disciplined spreadsheet at first) with weekly cycle counts. The cost of a single mis-labeled box can erase the margin on dozens of tees; prevention is cheaper than fire drills.
Mind compliance as you scale. Beyond fiber and care labels, children’s apparel in the U.S. triggers CPSIA requirements (lead tests, tracking labels). Performance claims (UV protection, antimicrobial) may require lab validation to avoid regulatory issues and chargebacks. Sustainability claims should be specific (“made with 50% recycled cotton, certified by X”) rather than vague; regulators increasingly penalize greenwashing.
Conclusion
Treat the launch like an experiment with defined guardrails: validate a narrow customer, lock 60–70% gross margins with true landed costs, pick the production model that matches your cash and risk, and build a repeatable loop of fit feedback, small releases, and channel tests. If a product can’t clear break-even under conservative assumptions, cut it quickly; double down on the few SKUs that move, fit, and reorder cleanly.