Thank you! You should reach out, we're always looking for advice on making our supply chain more efficient and would love to hear about your experience.
244 karma · joined November 1, 2012
2. We will expand the colors, and, in fact, will be using our members to help guide us. So shoot us an email and let us know what you want! That said, we'll definitely be more conservative than AA. A lot of the time more choice is not a good thing -- AA has some colors that no guy should wear.
(we have a really nasty contest launching next week that I think you'll like.)
We love a lot of what American Apparel has done. We've certainly taken a lot of plays from their book.
That said, we think there are a lot of ways we can improve on the model:
1. Price - we think $25 for a tee shirt and $50 for a hoodie is too expensive; at scale we want to be lower on our basics. We won't be supporting retail stores, so this is very feasible. AA can't come down anymore in price, they've had a rough couple years as it is.
2. Quality - we're confident we can make consistently higher quality garments; more consistent in quality and fit, and better fabrics.
3. Style - on items outside their basics, we're not big fans of AA's fit or style. That is personal preference, of course.
4. Focus - we're only focused on men and will keep a very small line. Instead of millions of colors and styles, we're going to focus on delivering things every guy should and can wear. We want to be a safe bet so dudes can trust us.
LA and NY are really the only two places you can live if you want to be down the street from where your production happens. This is important if you are a micromanfacturer and want that kind of control for quality.
I moved from Boston -- LA is cheaper for me, but that is a pretty small part of our overall costs. We're all tech guys and are used to living on ramen. :)
We're going to strive to hit price points that the average American (US!) find reasonable. As we build the company we'll have an increasing ability to do this.
Our first run, however, just isn't feasible at the quality we are holding ourselves to (plus Kickstarter and Amazon both take a cut).
I think we'll hit $25 for a polo quickly. We hope you'll follow the progress and buy when you're comfortable!
What is the name of your friend's tie company? We want to spotlight other well-made products as we build our company.
What we think is disruptive is the ability to be a trusted go-to site/brand, while not having to support the overhead of retail stores -- inventory, labor, etc are no joke. If we offer a superior product at a lower price, and you buy from us and enjoy it, we think you'll be back over and over -- that means we can keep margins a bit lower, and earn a good revenue stream from each supporter over a long period of time. It is a different model. We think we can continue to communicate new things you'll enjoy, and that is something traditional retail just can't do well. They largely have to wait for you to return, or spend absurd amounts on television and magazine advertising in hopes you'll come back.
I do think it is a disruptive model; but some things remain the same -- quality matters, and your brand represents who you are. Further, we think in this day-in-age, who you are is increasingly important. A lot of old school apparel brands are a fabrication of some fantasy land... we can't and won't do that. Social media is our mouth piece and only authenticity carries.
1. We think in the categories we compete -- polos, tee shirts, etc, we are comparable (and strive to be better!) in quality and style to Lacoste, RL, James Perse, etc. These companies use great inputs, and the biggest difference in the actual design will be our lack of logo. We think that, in itself, makes a statement, and we hope there are a lot of people like us who appreciate the statement that it makes. We aspire to have higher quality and more consistent style than Uniqlo and American Apparel.
Yes -- people are paying premiums to other brands, and some of it, for some people is aspirational. We hope people will pay for quality, and if anything, vote with their dollar for a company that reflects their value. We don't want to charge a premium for that though. Our values will be present in the brand by necessity, because we're going to be detailing all along the way of how we're building our company.
2. To us the biggest problems with fit are intra-brand consistency and intra-style consistency. Many manufacturers have poor quality control and a single shirt in the same size will come off with vastly different measurements. ex: http://reviews.urbanoutfitters.com/5309/15787476/bdg-v-neck-... we'll never, ever have this happen. Quality & consistency is of utmost importance to us.
We want you to find the size that works best for you (they all have an inch or two leeway) and once you know it, you can order without worry. Even before then, you can, because we offer free returns, paid postage both ways, but we want the experience to be pleasant from day one. We're pioneering a bunch of ways to make the experience as easy as possible including FitPaks, true-to-measure sizes, questionnaires we've devised, accurate photos of real people, and many, many other things -- but we're always open to ideas!
We hope you'll follow along and continue to give us candid feedback. We are confident that our success will depend on the support and feedback from people like you!
Please reach out at william [at] fromholden.com and stay in touch. We want your ideas on what you'd like us to design!
I definitely miss the whole crew / startup ecosystem in Boston, but not the snow! It's been in the 80's here the last week.