Transcription
What's good, boys? Welcome back to another video. In this video, I'm going to be explaining how to start a clothing brand, Brain RW Edition.
Okay, so this is for those that have a TikTok monkey brain, you can't stop scrolling, you have ADHD, you have brain rot. However, it's kind of funny because I am not going to edit this video, so there's not going to be a crazy edit, no nothing crazy. So, you know, it kind of doesn't make sense.
I'm sure a lot of you guys that have brain rot can't sit down for 10, 15 minutes and watch a video full of information. So if you can't do that, click away. I don't care. This is going on my second channel, and I'm giving out free stuff. So if you still don't want to watch that, don't watch it. I'm not tripping, bro.
So pretty much, this is a basic overview on what to do in order to start a clothing brand and the basic steps. Obviously, I'm not going over every single little detail because I have a school community for that. Okay, so I'm not going to do that for free.
If you guys want to join my school community, it's 50 bucks a month. So if you guys want way more information than what I'm providing here today, you guys can feel free to join it. If not, that's also completely fine. It's 50 bucks, but if you still don't want to spend the 50 bucks and you want to spend that on Chick-fil-A or something like that, I don't care. Okay, it's none of my business. I don't really give a... I don't care.
So, you know, the point I'm trying to make is this is the free version. So it's like a free trial, the free mobile version of an app. You're going to get what you're going to get, you know what I'm trying to say?
So I'm not going to provide crazy value to the point where, like, "Oh my God, it's life-changing," but I feel like this is a very good way for you guys to see what to do when it comes to starting a clothing brand from scratch, from nothing.
Okay, so let's just get straight into it. Number one, who am I? Okay, why am I credible to say this to all of you guys and give you guys advice and talk to you as if you are my little brother? Okay, which, fun fact, I'm pretty sure most of you guys are older than me.
But, number one, I am the owner of flower.LA and c.co, both clothing brands that hit six figures within one year. I also forgot to put it here because recently I hit seven figures for one of my brands within two years. So, six figures within one year, seven figures within two years.
Okay, I'm also not an influencer. I started off with $1,000. So I guess the main reason why I personally think that I'm different than all of these other clothing brand owners that are on YouTube is because of the fact that I'm not an influencer. I don't come from money. I'm literally just like you.
Okay, like if you're watching this video, nine times out of ten, if you're watching this video, you guys are just a regular dude. You're not famous, you're not a celebrity, you don't have influencers, you don't have connections, you're not rich. Okay, and that is where I came from as well.
So I feel like I am living proof that you can also make it happen. You feel me? So if I can do it, you can do it. Like I'm nobody special. Like I said earlier, I'm not an influencer. I started off with $1,000. I never showed my face, never had a mentor, never paid for information, never had any connections. Did everything by myself and learned everything by myself.
And guess what? I hit seven figures with my business within two years. Okay, so I feel like that says something.
A couple things: I also started a second brand, which is ky.co. I hit six figures within three months. So I started that after I hit six figures with one of my brands, so I kind of knew what I was doing by that point.
But the reason why I started my second brand is because I wanted to show you guys that I can do it all over again, and guess what? I did. Okay, I made an ebook, I have 5,000 people in my Discord server, I've worked with over 300 plus clothing brand owners, blah blah blah. Nobody really cares, to be honest with you.
I've generated over six figures in revenue from all of my clients combined. Currently, I have a school community. I also have other programs and things like that, but I have a school community where a lot of you guys really enjoy it as well. I'm sure a lot of you guys watch the funny moments, but there's a lot of value in the community, actually.
So the most important part here, okay, aside from all of this, the most important part is the fact that I do everything by myself. Okay, this means that because I did everything by myself, I am competent in all of those areas: marketing, design, taking pictures, websites, influencer marketing, like everything. Literally everything that you can think of when it comes to running a clothing brand, I have done by myself, and I've never outsourced it.
Okay, so your favorite influencer clothing brand owner, your favorite clothing brand owner, he outsources everything, bro. You feel me? So he hasn't learned a skill. So why are you trying to learn from that guy? It doesn't make sense. You feel me?
So, if you guys are going to learn from somebody, find somebody that has literally competency in every single area of the skill for that, I guess, business. So for my case, like I said earlier, I do everything by myself.
And even till this day, I make all my designs by myself. I run all my ads by myself. Obviously, I do outsource a couple things, like packaging. I have my friend and some workers do it, but other than that, everything else I do by myself.
All right, so that is the introduction. Also, these are my two channels. I also have a third one, which is the third one, du the archive, which, you know, I'm going to post on this channel. So forgot to mention this, but it is what it is.
Why me? Why should you listen to me? I literally just explained why. These are a couple pictures of me in front of my packages every single time I sold out. So, you know, if you guys want to take pictures like this, join my school community. I'm just kidding.
But before I go over the actual logistics, I think one thing I want to go over—this is also in my school community, by the way—so obviously, it's not this brief.
I guess I can show you guys. Actually, I'm not going to show you guys. I don't want to edit the video. But pretty much, I have different sections in the modules.
But before I go over the logistics, even in my school community, I go over the mindset section first. So the reason why I want to go over mindset first is because, in my personal opinion, you cannot succeed in business if your mindset is not right.
And I'm not David Goggins, guys. I'm not bald, so I'm not trying to motivate you guys in any type of way. But you guys have to understand that it's a business. So if you treat it as a business, you will get business results. If you treat it as a hobby, you will get hobby results.
So the point I'm trying to make is take it seriously. If not, don't even start it at all because you're going to waste time, energy, and effort. So that's that.
You also need to learn a lot of skills. Okay, this is something a lot of people don't realize because of the fact that they've never started a clothing brand. So they think that all these young guys starting a clothing brand, like, it's so easy. But you need to learn so many skills, like Photoshop design, and you have to learn marketing.
But in marketing, there are so many different skills you have to learn: take pictures, videos, editing content, organic influencer ads, email marketing, SMS. Did I say that already? So within marketing, there are like 10 different skills that you have to learn.
And within these 10 different skills, there's literally a profession for each one. So for example, there are people that have a job, their job is to literally just run ads. Okay, and that's one skill that you have to learn out of everything else. That's crazy, right?
And especially if you want to do this by yourself, you know, it's kind of hard. So that's one thing you have to keep in mind: you have to learn a lot of skills.
Also, 99% of you will fail. But when I say fail, I mean quit. So you're not going to make it, which is fine. That's competition for me.
Also, clothing might not be for you. So really ask yourself, like, why do you want to start a clothing brand? Okay, like for me personally, the reason why I wanted to start a clothing brand was because obviously I like creative stuff, blah blah blah, whatever. Okay, I get it.
So in the long run, it did work out. However, at the time, a good reason why I started clothing was because of the fact that in high school, I did everything. I did drop shipping, copywriting, clothing brand, stocks, Etsy, Amazon reselling. I did everything.
And from every business that I've tried, the hardest was clothing. Okay, so after I failed all of it, after I graduated from high school, I was like, "This is my last draw, my final chance." And I was like, "What business should I do again?" And then I decided to choose the one that I actually quit on.
So from all the businesses that I've done, everything, I failed. Okay, so I didn't really quit. Okay, I failed. Like it just didn't work out. But clothing was the only one that I quit because it's so hard.
Hence the reason why I chose clothing. So I'm kind of a psychopath, but you know, obviously it worked out in the long run. You see, I'm creative. I'm also one of those guys that I'm not a master at one skill. I'm just decently good at a lot of skills.
So, you know, for clothing, you need to learn a lot of skills. So if you're just good at ads, you won't be able to run a clothing brand. So you need to be good at different skills. That's the reason why I feel like it works for me.
But yeah, most of you guys, some of you guys will not have a creative brain cell in your whole entire brain. So, you know, you guys should not use clothing to make money or to get sales or to, you know, grow a business. You should do something else that's meant for you.
Okay, so that's mindset basics. This is just the basics that you guys have to do before you actually start the brand.
So make your social media accounts, obviously make your name, logo, you know, make a website, Shopify account. Also, I'm sick, by the way. That's the reason why my voice sounds like this. I don't know why I keep getting sick.
And fun fact, every single time I see this girl, my throat hurts. Every single time I see her. And like, you know, we didn't do nothing, right? Every time I hang out with her, every time I see her, she just gets me sick. I don't know what's going on. Or maybe it's just flu season. I don't even know.
But make a website, Shopify account, name, logo, have an idea for your brand, and you need to have money. So what I mean by this is you need to have at least $2,000 to $3,000. I don't care what anybody says, bro. I'm sure you've seen videos like, "Oh, starting a clothing brand was $0." Shut up, bro. Like, you're stupid. No, stop.
So you need to start off with $2,000 to $3,000. If not, you're going to reap the consequences, which is the fact that you're going to spend a lot of time, energy, and effort for no reason. You're going to waste it. That's a good way to put it.
So have at least $2,000 to $3,000. If you're going to sit here and tell me that you can't save up $2,000 to $3,000 by working at McDonald's or a restaurant or whatever, you're lying to me. Okay? And I don't like liars.
I'm just kidding. I'm literally a pathological liar. But, uh, timeline: it should take around one week max if you're lazy. But I think ideally, 3 to 5 days is usually how long it takes. For me, it took one day.
So, oh, by the way, I'm your competition. So, you know, if you take longer than that, then that means I beat you. So, you know, take it how it is.
Next, we have product. So you need to learn how to use Photoshop. This is pretty easy but also pretty hard if you've never used Photoshop before. Personally, for me, I've used Photoshop in the past, so it was not that difficult to get into it.
But buy Photoshop. It's not that expensive; it's like 10 bucks a month. Just learn how to make good designs. YouTube tutorials, there's a lot of them out there. Or you can buy a design, which I did not put here, but I wouldn't recommend that, especially if you're not in a rush to start your brand.
So I would recommend you just learn Photoshop and just try to find ways to make a good design. And yeah, so just make a good design. It should take around two to three weeks for you to actually get a gist and, you know, a way for you to kind of know what to do on Photoshop.
But you won't make good designs for a while. Okay? So for me personally, I think my decent designs—like after I made like 100 designs, that's when I started to make decent designs. But everything before that was all trash.
So it's just little things that you just won't know. For example, this design right here, this is from one of my thermals. Some people, for example, they won't know how to make a fade. So this is obviously, you know, they selected or I selected it, and then I put like an overlay on it and I made it expand.
But some people, they just use a brush eraser tool and they just brush over it like this, and it looks so trash. So it's just like those little things that you just pick up on while you're, you know, learning Photoshop and just using Photoshop for a long time.
So for example, if you're an NBA player and you're playing basketball, it's like the foot movement, the different types of feelings, and like shooting a three. Like, it's different, you feel me? So the more you practice, the better you're going to get, and the little small details you're going to pick up on when you learn Photoshop.
So this is the product page, and I would recommend you drop a shirt in the beginning or a hoodie. Not anything crazy unless you have a very good idea, but that is up to you. So it depends on your niche. Obviously, I'm not going to say what niche you should do, but for example, if you're into streetwear, a graphic shirt is a pretty good way, an easy way to get into the market.
If you have a good idea, then do it. It's up to you. Next, we have manufacturer. Okay, my throat hurts. Pause. Actually, no, not pause. It could be hurting because I was making out with a girl, right? So it's down to pause, play.
Manufacturer: when it comes to manufacturer, I will say Chinese is probably the best bet that you guys can use. Local, maybe if you have a good deal and you know that they're going to be good quality. And I would order a sample first, and then from there, I would order two different samples from two different manufacturers.
Okay, so what I mean by this is one sample. So let's say you're dropping a shirt. One sample from one manufacturer, one sample from a different manufacturer. Okay?
This you should only do if you're overseas. So if you're using a Chinese or Pakistani manufacturer, you should do this. But the reason why you do this is because you don't know who has better quality. You don't know what good quality is. You don't know what a good price is.
Okay, obviously, if you would join, I don't know, like a school community or like a course or a program or a mentorship, you can get an idea because they'll literally tell you what is a good price and what's good quality. But most of you guys are so stingy, you guys don't want to pay 50 bucks for a course.
Okay, actually, I'll stop. I'll stop promo. I'm sorry. Sorry, sorry.
But, okay, so the reason why you want to do this is because you don't know the quality, the price. So you need two samples to compare. So for example, if you get no girls, right, and you get one girl, right? She's like a—objectively, she's like a five out of ten. But you think she's a ten out of ten because you've never gotten a single girl to talk to you.
Okay, so just because this girl talks to you, in your head, you think it's the love of your life. But in reality, she's not. She's a five. She's mid, right?
So if you have two different samples, so let's say a five out of ten girl, and let's say you find another girl, but she's like a seven out of ten and she's not a hoe. So you would see which girl is better, right? Same exact thing with garments.
Okay, if you have a shirt, it's trash quality, and you look at it, but you're like, "Ah," you only have one sample, so it's like, "Uh, not bad." But if you have two different samples, you guys can compare prices and quality and, you know, the manufacturer, how well they respond, blah blah blah.
And for the timeline, it should take three weeks if you're using overseas. Local, I don't know because I've never used it.
All right, I don't know why I put the pre-order down here, but let's just say you order the sample, right? It comes in, it's good, it's fire. Okay, you love it, and now you want to decide if you want to do pre-made or pre-order.
Okay, now personally for me, when I first started my clothing brand, I did pre-orders for the first eight months of my business. Okay, and I also hit six figures within one year, so it does work, right?
However, looking back now, I would recommend you do pre-made, but this depends on your situation. The reason why I had to do pre-orders is because I did not live in my home. So obviously, I'm in college, so I would have to drive back to my hometown for two hours just to go pack orders.
So obviously, I can't drive back every single day to pack orders, right? So I needed to do pre-orders. However, for some of you guys, you guys just might be home all day, or you guys literally have inventory right in your room.
So you guys can do pre-made, and you guys can do free shipping or fast shipping. Okay, so I'm going to be talking about the benefits or just some things that you will see if you are doing pre-made or pre-order.
So I guess I'll do pre-made first. If you have money saved up, so if you have—or if you're able to buy the bulk inventory, I would recommend pre-made. Okay, don't ask why. I just recommend it.
You know, you'll find out the hard way if you do pre-order. But, you know, if you have money saved up, you should do pre-made. You will get more sales because of the fact that it's pre-made. You don't have long shipping, so you'll have a good reputation.
Okay, so most of you guys, if you guys have at least $1,000, because you're only probably going to order 50 pieces for your first ever product, right?
So, damn, something got in my eye. Oh, your eye is too small. How is something getting in? Bro, shut up, bro. See, I know y'all be—bro, like why do y'all keep commenting like, "Oh, I thought this was Ray. This is the Asian Quan." Like, come on, bro.
This is all right. Anyway, as I was saying, so if you guys have money saved up, you're only going to order 50 usually. So, you know, you should do pre-made because you can send it to influencers, you can run ads.
If you do a pre-order, you should only do this if you don't have money, which I don't believe that, to be honest with you. But let's just say somehow you had money saved up, but some homeless guy stole it from you, which I don't believe that either.
But let's just say somehow you just don't have money, okay? Which I don't recommend. I don't believe because you could just work at McDonald's for three months and save up the money. But let's just say, I don't know, okay? Maybe you got robbed, whatever.
You have no money, you want to take less risk because pre-orders is less risk. And if you're also like iffy about starting a brand, like, "I don't know if I really want to do this," and you want to maximize the bank for your buck because if you do a pre-order, you get an idea of how many orders you're going to get.
Because if you do a pre-order and you get 20 sales, you're probably going to order 40, right? But if you get—if you do a pre-order and you only get 10 sales, you're probably only going to order 20, right?
So you can kind of get a gist of how many orders you're going to get and maximize the best bank for your buck and not lose money. The only downside is long shipping, which is a pretty bad downside, I'm not going to lie, which ruins your reputation.
But who cares about reputation? Fun fact: I hung out with a girl yesterday, and I was talking to her, and apparently a girl that I don't even know came up to that girl and she's like, "Oh, are you talking to Jason, by the way? Are you guys talking?"
And then the girl was like, "Uh, no, why? Why are you asking?" And the girl said, "Don't talk to Jason." Oh, I'm Jason, by the way. That's my American name. I'm not like D is not my actual name.
Okay, anyways, so they're like, "Oh, don't talk to Dly. He flirts with every single girl that he sees. Like, do not talk to him. He's such a flirt. Stop talking to him."
And the girl told me that story, and I'm just like, "Bro, what? How? Like, how do I have that reputation already?" You know, I'm trying.
So same exact thing: you'll have a bad reputation if you have long shipping times. And you know, trust me, like, it's not good, especially chargebacks, Shopify holding your money, bad reviews.
So up to you, though. But like I said earlier, I still hit six figures with doing pre-orders. So as long as you're transparent and you clearly state "pre-order" in the product, you'll be good.
Next, building a brand. This is the hardest thing you're going to do. Okay, actually, the hardest thing you're going to do is getting a girlfriend. Okay, I'm just kidding. I don't know why I'm so rude today.
My bad, bro. So building a brand is the hardest thing you can do, especially if you have zero followers. So for me personally, to give a quick story time, I used to—this is kind of stupid—but I used to follow and unfollow people on Instagram just so that I can hit 100 followers.
And I did that for a month straight. Okay, so every single day, I would go on Instagram for like two hours and follow a bunch of people that are interested in clothing or fashion.
And then I would just follow a bunch of them, and then the next day, I would unfollow them. And I would get maybe like five followers a day, 10 followers a day. And like, I don't know, bro, I think that shows my innocence and just how hard I was willing to work.
And I did that for a month straight, and then I only got 100, which is stupid. So, yeah, so that's what I did. I wouldn't recommend you guys do that. I would say just try to ask your friends or just family to follow you first, and you should get like 50 followers.
And then from there, just post on Instagram, TikTok, Reels, TikTok and Instagram Reels three times per day, and you should naturally grow.
Okay, so, or you can also run ads, but, you know, obviously, if you don't have a product, there's no point in running ads. So you also want to send it to influencers so they can provide social proof.
And if you have social proof, you know people will buy your brand because of the fact that other people are wearing your products. And also post viral-worthy content.
And a good way to post viral-worthy content—oh, I spelled "worthy" wrong. Oops, this is supposed to be switched. My bad, bro. I'm Asian. Okay, English is not my first language. Actually, it is. I know, I guess it is. No, it's not.
But, okay, as I was saying, so when I say "viral-worthy content," what I mean by this is you want to have a good product because if you have a good product, everything else would just be easier.
So if you have a good product, you're way more likely to get a viral video. If you run ads, you're going to get more clicks. So just have a good product.
So if you are posting every single day, doing everything—also, by the way, you can't post 12 videos and if you don't get a viral video, complain.
Okay, in my school community, I have so many students that—because we have a weekly Zoom call—they would come in and like tell me to review their brand, and they would complain to me like, "Oh my God, bro, I posted videos, but I'm not getting a viral video."
And then I checked the Reels, and they posted 10 videos. And I'm trying so hard not to crash out on them because, you know, obviously they're my students. But I'm just like, "Bro, you posted 10, bro. I used to post seven times per day minimum for like two, three months when I was starting my brand."
So just know that I posted—okay, the seven-figure clothing brand owner, I posted 1,000 videos in total before I got one video to hit 50k, which is not even viral, by the way.
So if you've posted over 1,000 videos and you still haven't gotten a viral video, then you can come to me and complain, and I'll personally help you. But I promise you that's not going to happen because you guys are not going to put that much work in, and it's not going to take that many videos for you to get a viral video because you're not that unlucky.
Okay, so timeline: you're going to be doing this every single day forever until you die.
Marketing: so there are three different types of marketing: organic, influencer, advertisements, which is running ads. Organic, you should be doing this as soon as you receive your sample.
Okay, you should be doing it every single day. No reason why you shouldn't be posting on TikTok or Instagram Reels organically because you literally have zero followers.
For example, for me, I don't need to post on TikTok or Instagram Reels if I don't want to because I have 27k, and I've hit seven figures already. So I have customers, I have a reputation. But for you, you're just starting out. You have zero followers, so why are you not doing that?
Okay, so I have some students or clients that ask me, "Should I be posting organically?" And I'm just like, "Of course! This is not common sense." So yes, you need to be posting organically every single day.
Influencer marketing, you can only do this once you receive your bulk order. So you just send it out to influencers. Pretty self-explanatory. I don't know what's about this. You just DM them. If they respond to you, you send them the product. If not, then nothing.
Okay, ads are a little bit more difficult, but I literally have a tutorial on my YouTube channel for free. So you don't even need to join my school community for this. Obviously, if you join the school community, I have a detailed version.
But I still provide a basic overview for free on my YouTube channel. So this isn't my main channel, by the way, so you can't—it's not going to be in the second channel.
But yeah, these are the three different types of marketing. You guys should utilize all three because you guys are first starting out.
Now, this is, I believe, the last slide. Is it? Oh, never mind, it's not. Fulfillment: pretty easy. So let's just say you sell out. Let's just say you sell out, right?
Which you're not going to sell out, by the way. For the first drop, usually, nine times out of ten, your first collection is going to flop. That's what happened to me. That's what happens to everybody else.
But let's say you got lucky, and you sell out for your first collection, or you—I don't know. I don't know. You just follow everything I tell you to do, and you get sales.
So you print out shipping labels, you buy a thermal printer, which I'm not going to hold it up because it's heavy, but it's right here. You guys can't see it.
Print out shipping labels, package everything in the poly mailers, and slap the shipping labels on the poly mailers, and you drop it off at the post office. That's it. That's pretty much the basic overview of what to do.
And after that, rinse and repeat. Just add more products, test new items, increase inventory, so order more inventory as time goes on, and increase ad spend. Do whatever is working.
So if influencer marketing is working, just send it to more influencers, and you should actually get more sales.
So yeah, that is pretty much it. I tried to make this video very short and simple because, you know, I don't really want to make this a snooze fest because you guys—this video is for TikTok monkey brain individuals.
So, yeah, but hopefully you guys enjoy the video. Like I said earlier, if you guys do want a full, full version of this where I go detailed into it and you guys can talk to me in a group setting, my school link will be in the description.
Like I said, it's 50 bucks a month. Join it, don't join it, don't really care. I made 100k with my brand last month. So, you know, unfortunately, I want your money, don't get me wrong, but I don't need it. You know what I'm trying to say?
So, up to you guys. I genuinely want you guys to grow. And, yeah, so if you guys want to spend some money on information, I would recommend you join mine. But if not, that's also fine.
So thank you guys so much for watching, and I'll see you guys later.