Start Up Kids Line

Starting our clothing line with a niche product

March 24th, 2007

I’m trying to keep from spreading ourselves too thin. Just as our personalized blankets start rolling I’m off and running with other things. But I need to reel myself in. The blankets are rolling, keep them rolling. We have a good thing going and we’ve finally almost worked through all of the kinks.

I shipped display kits to three different states yesterday! YES!!! This is a big thing for us. This is an exciting thing for us. And I feel good about the kit that we’ve put together, we’ve covered all of the bases, from the redemption brochures to a FAQ sheet.

We have our blankets in one of the hottest San Diego boutiques and I stopped in last week to give them updated brochures. Our blankets had been in the store for a week and she sold one right before I walked in. Which was exciting, and which had raised questions for the boutique. Good questions, because we can now come up for a solution for something we hadn’t thought of on our own.

A friend of mine is considering entering the pet industry and was asking me if I thought it’d be better for her to go through the development of a niche product or just start with graphics on ready-made products. Niche, niche, niche.

I recently heard from friends and family how disappointed they were in me for switching from baby clothing (my first idea behind starting the business) to blankets. They never asked me why I did it, only told me just recently THEY didn’t think it was a good decision on my part.

If they had asked me, they would have known there was a grand plan behind it. That by doing something so niche and so unique, I had a better chance of standing out and getting shelf-space in boutiques. Once I have a relationship with the boutiques, it’s going to be easier to get our clothing line in; rather than competing right off the bat with everyone else.

This isn’t to say, at all, that if you’re doing clothing, you’re not doing something niche. Niche can come down to the style of clothing you’re offering. But I do strongly believe that you have to STAND OUT, you have to offer something unique that the “big boys” aren’t already offering.

Getting the manufacturing process for our personalized blankets figured out was an incredibly lengthy and painful process. There is no such thing as “mass manufacturing” because each name has to have a unique placement on the blanket, based on size of letters and length of name. Not only that, but the blanket has to be assembled after the hand-applique is done, because it is backed and bordered with the same cotton print as the appliqued name. We can not buy a pre-made blanket and hand-applique because I would not be happy with the stitching showing through on the back.

The niche will pay off, and is paying off, because these products are really really unique. This is paying off in a lot of free press for us (without me pitching it yet) and the press is making it easy to get into boutiques. Not to mention building my confidence. And the plan is working, we’re now selling our graphic tees to boutiques who first purchased the blankets. We’ve built trust with them, and the unique, fabulous style is representative of our brand.

Consider what your niche is and focus on building that before spreading yourself too thin. Of course, you might have to experiment a little to figure out what your niche will be, but finding a niche will give you a fighting chance.

Entry Filed under: Product Development,The Startup Phase