Rookie Rise Blog

You have a name, and some designs for your brand right? Let’s start planning your product! For a lot of people, money is not handed to them. Odds are you will definitely need a budget when starting your clothing line. Most people put their money in the wrong places when they decide to put their product out. You are new to the market, so start out modest. Think big, but plan small when it comes to launching on a smaller budget or even if you have a big budget. Here’s some things that you’ll need to consider before taking your product to the market.

1. How many T-shirts do you think you’ll need of each design?  
2. Are you going to attach hang tags off of your products?
3. Are you going to send free stickers with each order?
4. Are you going to attach embroidered tags on the sleeve or bottom of the shirts?
5. Do you want to pay for advertising and marketing?
6. Are you going to print the products yourself or have the professionals do it?
7. How much will your shipping supplies cost?
8. Should you ship within a certain region or globally?
9. Website or no website? (Um… Please don’t make this a maybe. Website is the answer!)
10. Are you going to have a launch party?

I can’t tell you one way or another how much product that you’ll need or what other accessories you’ll want when you officially launch your line. That’s up to you and your wallet. What I would recommend to do, find out who is taking interest in the designs and products that you plan to sell. You will have a ton of your friends tell you that they like your products and that they’d wear it, but that’s what friends are supposed to do right? You’ll find out that only a few of them will actually buy it, unless you have absolutely nailed the “wheel” of t-shirt designs. I would not plan on producing the amount of shirts based off of the people who say they want one, because when the time comes they may flake out and you'll be sitting on unsold inventory. Do not give t-shirts away for free! Your real friends should be happy to support you, instead of taking money out of your wallet knowing that you are busting your butt trying to build a brand!

I’m launching Rookie Rise, Starting from the bottom. I’m not paying anyone to market this brand. I’m not even focused on a return. I’m going to press the movement and concept behind Rookie Rise and my life. I’m an 80’s kid. I love all of the retro gaming stuff, the older movies of my time etc. As you can tell by the blog image! I’m going to see how far I can go without paying thousands in advertising and marketing. Of course I’ll tell my friends and family what I’m up too and let word of mouth do most of the talking for me. I want people to wear it for what it stands for. Most people wear t-shirts because of the designs only, which is important too. But to know the story plus have a good design will put much more respect on your customer’s backs.

With my brand I’m going to do something differently with every shirt that goes out. It’s not a huge secret, but I’m going to keep that to myself for now. You will need to find ways to be unique. If your product sucks, then you will have a hard time getting people to return interest in what you are doing. How many times have you put on a t-shirt and hated the way that it fit? Odds are, you probably didn’t buy the shirt, and have told people that you don’t like their brand because you don’t like the way their products fit on you. Make sure that you print on high quality tees if you can. Launch with quality and people will return.

It’s lunch time so I’m going to leave this blog as it is and I’ll post the next brand development article soon. Don’t give up on your passion, and don’t take this as things that you have to do! These are just suggestions. I’m heading out to lunch, but feel free to email me if you need help or suggestions with your line.

tadd@rookierise.com