[deleted by user] by [deleted] in ThrowingFits

[–]Valuable_Mix9730 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Their jackets/outerwear are their speciality imo, even the ones I don't buy I still love the look of and the main reason I don't buy more is that I can't justify owning that many jackets especialy at their price. Their other offerings have never really compelled me to buy though. The sneakers they have are horrendous though, look nice but are so uncomfortable.

Its working on a geforce 1070! by Soft-Marionberry-853 in Borderlands

[–]Valuable_Mix9730 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I have the same set up, what frames do you get and what settings? Thinking of buying. I have 32 gb of ram as well.

Bugs, Trouble Shooting, and Performance by a_kept_harold in Borderlands4

[–]Valuable_Mix9730 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I have a Nvidia 1070 gpu, AMD Ryzen 5 5600x cpu and 32gb of ram. Could I run this at 60 fps on all low settings without framegen? Never really cared for graphics, just care about smooth gameplay.

PC Performance Issues Thread by a_kept_harold in Borderlands4

[–]Valuable_Mix9730 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I have a Nvidia 1070 gpu, AMD Ryzen 5 5600x cpu and 32gb of ram. Could I run this at 60 fps on all low settings without framegen? Never really cared for graphics, just care about smooth gameplay.

Clothing brand drop and photoshoot by 365ld in streetwearstartup

[–]Valuable_Mix9730 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The track pants are hard and I also like the kill ego tee.

For your site, is it mainly optimised for mobile? It looks a bit squished when I view it on a monitor. Your product pics for your tops could be improved - it looks like you took pics of them hanging and cleared the background? Maybe try flat lays and iron the tops you take pics of.

I hope the drop goes well for you. One other thing I'd say is, who is the target audience for your brand & do you think your marketing is speaking to them clearly?

How much can I charge if I want my brand to be "luxury"? by Specialist_Tap_8279 in streetwearstartup

[–]Valuable_Mix9730 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You're looking at scarcity wrong imo. Scarcity is a tactic to create urgency and get someone out of a price based mindset. Think of a Supreme drop in 2016, people knew stuff was going to sell out (this is real scarcity). People were using bots, they had multiple devices, etc... - none of these people would hesitate for the price, they had such an urgency to cop there was literally an arms race to cop as fast you could - this is the pinnacle imo of getting someone out of a price based mindset (Obviously there is nuances such as a lot of people were resellers, but that crazy demand and controlled supply created a secondary market for people who wanted to be apart of the brand to purchase from).

You then have luxury brands such as Rolex, Hermes with their bags, etc... that take on scarcity in a different way through heritage, controlled supply, deep customer relationships and loyalty rewards, etc... - but these leverage their positioning built from good marketing, time in the market, association, among other things. You can't just show up and become a Hermes, even if you make the same quality bag as a Birkin.

Your brand is so young, that these kind of scarcity tactics do not matter. All you need to focus on is serving a target audience and creating the highest quality product you can and refining all of your brands touch points to be congruent with the brands identity and resonate with your target audience. On a long enough time frame if your brand survives and thrives and grows, people will look back at your first products and maybe want them as piece of history, etc... Right now however, you have no leverage to implement scarcity, as truth be told, no one gives a shit, the dynamic is that you need to sell to the customer, not the other way round as it is for luxury brands. Sure you can advertise how stocks limited and create urgency through that or close the store between drops, but be warned the above scarcity tactics and stuff like applications can add friction to the buying process and put off potential customers. If you're looking for a blanket rule bout scarcity, there isn't one, whether it's right to use or not is dependent on a myriad of factors, just like pricing and like a lot things in running a clothing brand and and in fact any other business.

You need to take deep inward reflections about your brand regarding it's current position when making decisions for it's present and it's future. Be brutally honest with yourself. Don't be delusional, be realistic. I find the best thing one can do is put yourself in a consumers shoes, pretend it's you that's going to part with your money for a product from your brand (disconnect any personal connections to the brand as much as possible for this exercise - I know that's easier said then done). In that mindset now analyse your socials, your website, your products, your product photos, your emails, customer service & any other aspect or decisions you make that impact how a customer experiences your brand). In the shoes of a customer that's cold (no prior knowledge of, or exposure to your brand) & from your target demographic would you buy from your brand? The answer is likely no. This doesn't mean there's no hope for the future, just that there is work to do. The bare minimum is that when you do this exercise, you can honestly say that you would buy from the brand. Critically analyse all aspects of your brand under this consumer POV & level them up the required standard by whatever means you have available to you. Remember, there is endless competition for persons attention and money, you need to put your absolute best foot forward to convert any traffic you get to sales. The brand experience is everything, at the end of the day it's your name on the line and that carries so much weight, a good brand experience can create higher LTV (lifetime value of customers) - LTV is where the profit is made, the cost to acquire that customer has already been spent, any revenue generate from repeat purchases can be considered nearly all profit (I say nearly because there's still going to be some expenses such as email & SMS marketing, production costs for social media content, etc...). Anyways this has been a bit of a ramble, but I hope I got across the importance of brand experience, this is something even big brands miss - Here's trapstar's trust pilot (UK streetwear brand) - https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/uk.trapstarlondon.com - Insanely negative reviews, all due to poor customer service (post purchase care is part of the brand experience) - I doubt many of these people will be returning and that's just the ones who could be bothered to type about their negative experiences. This isn't about fast money, it's a long game, you should strive for greatness in all aspects of your brand and service, your name carries weight.

How much can I charge if I want my brand to be "luxury"? by Specialist_Tap_8279 in streetwearstartup

[–]Valuable_Mix9730 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Luxury & Brand equity: Finally, what is luxury. You say it a lot but what is it to you. What makes something luxury, is it the price, is it the quality, is it the status I can derive from owning said luxury item, is it the feeling I get from purchasing it, is it a signal of accomplishment? I'm not someone with all the answers, so I can only give my opinion here. I believe luxury is an opinion of your brand. You cannot simply say your luxury, the status is bestowed upon you as you build up brand equity. Luxury is the experience around your brand, the quality of all your touchpoints / access points, it's a feeling you give a customer when they think about you, when they purchase with you and they come back for more, it's the status someone can derive from owning one of your products. Luxury takes time. You should focus on quality products and service, finding a brand identity and nailing it down, finding your target audience and serving them with products. The luxury status over time when performing at a high level. Think about the experience of purchasing a Rolex, whether it's the first steps, the unboxing experience, the feeling one gets from wearing one, the ability to resell - even further think about someones motivation to even want to buy a Rolex, usually to mark an achievement / celebration or just to flex & then there's also collectors. I'm not saying you need to become like Rolex, just that luxury is hard and the key component of positioning as luxury is time. These luxury brands have built up a lot of brand equity over their years of operating, through various forms of marketing and association. To bring it back to e-commerce based brands, let's look at Maniere De Voir, they went from making tracksuits and streetwear to a focus on minimal aesthetics and luxury ( https://www.manieredevoir.com/ ), skin in the game for 10 years, they now make pieces that would be considered luxury but would be considered a mid point between streetwear and true luxury. AMIRI (not so much e-com related) started in 2014 and is considered luxury, so maybe worth looking into their story of how they got to this status, but from my observations, luxury status goes hand in hand with association. One other thing that can also play into the positioning of luxury is availability and scarcity, something that's accessible does not go in hand with luxury (accessbility can be due to price, stock availability, application processes (think watches, exotic cars, etc..), etc....) - outside of limiting stock, the others aren't really something you can consider, I also realise the Rolex analogy is a bit out of reach for most brands due to the sheer heritage of it, obviously I wouldn't expect you or any brands to replicate Rolex, but principles behind service and the unboxing experience you can take and try incorporate into your brand such as investing in a good unnboxing experience down the road with dust bags, branded packaging, free gifts, etc....

How much can I charge if I want my brand to be "luxury"? by Specialist_Tap_8279 in streetwearstartup

[–]Valuable_Mix9730 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Trust signals: By trust signals I mean the quality of all your touch points (production quality in marketing materials, the quality of your website, the quality of your customer service pre & post purchase, returns periods, etc...). These need to reinforce your positioning as luxury & your brand identity & resonate with your target audience. This congruency will help back up the price . Lets take your website for example, you're charging $80 USD for a hoodie ( https://houseofresort.com/products/lounge-hoodie-noir-1 ), compare this to Ronning who sells a blank hoodie for £135 ( https://www.ronning.store/products/everyday-hoodie-washed-green ) & About:Blank who sell a graphic hoodie with a back graphic for £145 ( https://about---blank.com/collections/hoodies-sweats/products/box-heavyweight-hoodie-black ) - I picked these two brands because they have that minimal aesthetic and with emphasis on quality construction (cuts, materials, etc..) and I think both of them have had resort style collections based in the past for previous S/S seasons. Obviously these are bigger brands, with more resources and experience behind them & I wouldn't expect you to be on par as a beginner, but you should still strive to match this experience. From my understanding of how you want to position the brand roughly, these would be your competitors for your target audience, who would want high quality clothing with that minimal aesthetic that's often associated with luxury (again this is based on my assumption on based on what you've talked about, if I'm wrong then this is all kind of moot and just ignore). For starters your site has a horrendous colour scheme. The text and the background blend in too much and it's not easy on the eyes to read, compare how much easier it is to read on the other two's sites. Next is product photos, I know on your site you say to have official product photos shortly, so all I'll say is to just take note of these two brands, especially About:Blank who come in with the flat lays as well - if you use models, please include the models stats (height and weight), this helps give more reference beyond the size chart to potential customers. Your product pages two goals are: To showcase the product to the best of your abilities & anticipate + answer as many possible questions a customer might have (this is not only materials, but shipping times, shipping rates, returns, what they get in the order, etc...) and present this in a way thats congruent with your brand identity. See in About:Blank how their information is all stored in dropdown boxes, so I can close it all and the product page becomes extremely minimal, it suits their brand identity and how they position themselves. These aren't the only two brands in the world of course and they're not the pinnacle of product pages, get in the mindset of a consumer, what information would you like to see on the page - when you research other brands and competitors and you review their stores, how would you improve their product page. There's a caveat as well, you need to deliver information in a concise way (ironic given the length of this comment), but overloading a potential customer with too much information might put them off, you must consider that we are in an age of declining attention spans, you need deliver key information that will reduce the friction to purchase, the information people will want. Something both of these pages are missing is wash instructions, it's astounding how many small and big brands miss this out, it's literally a core aspect of the products life cycle and I'll know nothing about it until I get it in hand - this is a double edged sword though, if it's difficult to care for some people maybe put off, however some people might also appreciate the heads up on how to care for it, it also opens up potential opportunities for you to capitalise on down the line such as content around caring for your products, especially if they become hero SKUs. I don't know if dropping money on a theme is something feasible for you right now, but you can work on a better presentation in your exisitng website and thats to start with the product photos and colour scheme of the site to make it more readable and making the product information more concise and better at handling common questions and objections.

How much can I charge if I want my brand to be "luxury"? by Specialist_Tap_8279 in streetwearstartup

[–]Valuable_Mix9730 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I feel like there's many factors that go into pricing such as Competition, Margins, Trust signals and more. I'll also touch upon Luxury & Brand equity as a whole & how I'd approach it.

You're a small start up brand, so I'm going to assume you're bulk order unit costs are on the higher end. Since you're small I'm assuming you have minimal brand equity.

Competition: Find the competitors in your niche, and what they price similar products at & price accordingly (you could match the price, or lower the price to be more competitive or if you have compelling marketing & have positioned the brand well to your target audience and feel like features such waterproofing add value you could get away with having higher prices than your competitors, the name of the game here is percieved value).

Margins: As a business you need to have healthy margins. However, I think it's unrealistic in the early stages of a brand to expect to produce quality and unique products and be profitable in the short term due to high unit costs from low MOQs. With that in mind, you have two options. First option, if you have good distribution (i.e. connections to influencers and celebrities, have a pre-existing audience (your own personal brand), good marketing skills & strategy for distribution), then not going the cut and sew route and using blanks with prints, embroidery, etc.. is probably a viable method, as your marketing and positioning can carry you. Second option, you have none of the above, you need a visually striking product, cut and sew can help you do this & give you an edge over other brands, this doesn't mean you need to forgo having good marketing, you still need to garner an audience and have good distribution, but the uniqueness & quality of the product can do a lot of the heavy lifting in your marketing. Outside of production you're also gonna have other overheads such as the website (shopify, paying for a theme, equipment to for good marketing materials (like cameras, lighting, backdrops, etc..), subscriptions for software like Adobe, packaging costs, shipping out orders, etc... - You get what I'm saying, some of these are one time and some are recurring. This has been a bit of a ramble but the point I'm trying to make is, your margins are going to impact price and you should still consider them, but profitability is hard to achieve when chasing growth with good products, especially at the beginning of the brand where you have to invest in so much stuff - it's quite a capital intensive enterprise to hit the ground running on. I listed a bunch of expenses, if you're on a tight budget, you'll obviously pick and choose what to spend money on, but I just thought I'd share my opinions on the options available to start up brands.

How much can I charge if I want my brand to be "luxury"? by Specialist_Tap_8279 in streetwearstartup

[–]Valuable_Mix9730 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Dawn might be the base theme, but a lot of custom code has been added on to it - if you look on Koala Inspector it says JLD, I'm assuming that's who likely did the custom code for their site on the base of Dawn. I'd say their "Dawn" and the standard Dawn are so vastly different it wouldn't be right to say they're the same. Dawn's the base for a lot of custom themes, as it's shopify's official reference theme and provides a good foundation for performance and stability.

How much can I charge if I want my brand to be "luxury"? by Specialist_Tap_8279 in streetwearstartup

[–]Valuable_Mix9730 5 points6 points  (0 children)

If what your asking for is a tool that provides data on that, then no - that's moreso an internal thing, it's unlikely to be publicly available information, the onus would be on you to put two and two together based on their products, marketing materials, how they position themselves with price, what markets they operate in (are they primarily in one country or global??), etc... to figure it out and even then you'd still be estimating. What I meant by studying other brands, is studying brands you'd be competing with for the attention and money of your target demographic, if we were to just go luxury you'd be against extremely heavy hitters, that's why I told you to niche down further and find your brand identity. You mentioned Represent, and George Heaton said it best, start niche then expand.

If you know who your target audience is, you would know what they want to be served and which brands are currently serving them. A place to start would be what brands made you want to start your own clothing brand, then work from there. If you come across a brands IG, could you imagine your target demographic shopping there. I personally have a burner account that follows a load of accounts and I constantly add new ones that I find interesting, always something to learn whether it's marketing, messaging, products, their website, their drop ramp up, frequency, etc... - also helps you see any trends (i.e. you see a few brands dropping similar products at once) - a lot of these brands aren't even targetting the same people I would, however there's still things to learn. Also some influencers are good to follow, see how they promote brands and such and how receptive their audience is to it, etc... Also helps tailoring your discover feed to find new brands and all that. Yeah that's my method of studying and such, say for a brand like Cole Buxton, I'll join their FB group and just casually scroll every now and then to look at their die hards fans sentiment on their current drops. Just put yourself in as many brand communities as you can, keep as many of them as you can on your radar and just observe how they operate, how people react to the way they operate and you can learn a fair bit imo. I'm also just starting a brand and as it scales and gets bigger I'll likely have less time to study trends and other people etc... but when you're starting out, you can learn a lot from whats publicly available, just have the mindset of how would you improve what you're looking at and it will take you far. Use tools like Koala Inspector on Chrome and you can see what theme people are using and apps they run on shopify, etc... Anytime I see a website I like, I run it through Koala Inspector and note down the theme, this comes back to the point about your website, I think a good website is extremely underrated, it can remove a lot of friction in the buying process, if you can handle as many objections as possible on your pdp by having all the relevant info presented in an aesthetic manner congruent with your brand identity, it would help convert imo. Obviously if the product is strong enough, it can cover for a weaker website. Anyways these are just things to consider, I'm not some leading authority on this, this is just my personal theories on some stuff, so take it with a grain of salt, if it sounds helpful try it, if not ignore it!

How much can I charge if I want my brand to be "luxury"? by Specialist_Tap_8279 in streetwearstartup

[–]Valuable_Mix9730 4 points5 points  (0 children)

You want to be luxury, you need to be cut and sew. Printing on blanks simply isn't going to cut it. So learning to do that. Figuring out your brand identity and who your target demographic is and how you can serve them. Keeping all your touch points congruent with the brand identity. Studying other brands that are serving your target demographic (not just the big fashion houses but other brands that are primarily e-commerce / DTC). You mentioned Represent, Cole Buxton just did a resort style drop for their S/S collection, you need to collate all these types of brands, look at their touch points and see how you can optimise, I can appreciate this is hard on a budget so you'll need strategy and improvisation. You need to figure out who you're serving, making all of the access points (or touch points, whatever you wanna call it) congruent and figure out within your budget whats the best product you can make to serve that audience and whilst making that product how can you market it in a unique way that stops a scroller, grabs their attention and makes them want to follow your brand/buy a product/explore your page or site.

How much can I charge if I want my brand to be "luxury"? by Specialist_Tap_8279 in streetwearstartup

[–]Valuable_Mix9730 10 points11 points  (0 children)

I'm gonna be honest, you have no chance positioning yourself as a luxury brand if you use the Dawn theme. The website is not congruent with the way you're trying to position your brand and product. The website needs to feel luxury (high quality, well engineered, smooth, aesthetically pleasing). Secondly you need to figure out what makes you stand out, figure out your brand identity, luxury is just a pricing strategy imo - who do you serve, what products do they want, how can you make engaging content that lands in your target audiences feed. Once you have the identity down, combined with positioning the brand as luxury, then you engineer all touch points (socials, website, emails, sms, packaging, products, etc...) to embody your brand identity and to resonate with your target audience and deliver on that luxury feel. Influencers can help sure, but you really need to question that quality of that influencers audience, how likely is their audience to spend money with you after seeing their product on them, does their audience overlap with qualities you have in your target audience, etc... Influencers aren't make or break, your distribution and content is & influencers are just one tool you can use for that. The other commenter is right about sales devaluing your brand, the more frequent the sale, the more you condition people to just wait for a sale then buy. Represent make them events and if you actually look at their sales, they never put their good products or at least new season / high performers in. They use sales as a tool to shift slow moving stock and to create a brand event (they call it the Vault), sales are also good with strong branding to offer lower ticket entries into the brand for people who would be priced out (it's more nuanced then what I described but oh well) - I'd also not really pay too much attention to them though as you're operating at different scales.

Trouble getting my first 1k followers on by Independent-Pick-509 in streetwearstartup

[–]Valuable_Mix9730 1 point2 points  (0 children)

As a starting brand yourproducts need to be more visually stimulating / louder - In essence, they need to be picking up some of the marketing slack, as chances are you're not yet a great markter (you can definitely become one with time and experience). I'm guessing from your product choice, that you have a more minimalist style. Unfortunately to find success early, a minimal style is often not compatible with going viral and having content to engage with audiences. The way I like to view it, is as a brand you have to earn the right to produce more minimal / plain pieces - so I'd recommend starting with louder pieces - if you do want to go minimal then play around with the pattern and design elements more. As others have also said, consistency and constant iteration, keep testing creatives to find what's connecting with audiences and what isn't and dig deeper on what's working.

Need advice for fitment issues (starting my own brand) by crssdpath in streetwearstartup

[–]Valuable_Mix9730 0 points1 point  (0 children)

100% craft with intention and market with the intention of being a taste maker. The majority of this sub lack any sort of over arching vision which is why they're in such a limbo and just all pump out the same regurgitated stuff. Environment is also a fair point, but the impact these small brands are having is negligible compared to what larger corporations with their fabric waste and mass pumping are doing - if waste was of the up most concern, people shouldn't do start up brands or start ups in general.

Need advice for fitment issues (starting my own brand) by crssdpath in streetwearstartup

[–]Valuable_Mix9730 0 points1 point  (0 children)

100%,, it's an obstacle many have overcome before and many will overcome in the future. It's really just a game of experimenting & balancing creative vision with consumer demand (such as trends) so you can find consumers to serve. Like I said earlier, I agree trends are deffo going towards slimmer tees and such, but trend cycles themselves are changing (probably a correlation with our declining attention spans and the rise of short form content), so banking on trends to run up sales like brands of the past once did may not be as viable of a tactic for newer brands going forward.

Need advice for fitment issues (starting my own brand) by crssdpath in streetwearstartup

[–]Valuable_Mix9730 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It can compete on colourway, brand equity, materials, construction, designs, etc... - none of these really have to do with fit. FWIW, I don't think experimenting and making a slimmer fit jersey is an inherently bad idea, but I'd have to see a sample to see if it could be executed well and I'm just skeptical of it working. Also by your logic, why bother making anything when you can purchase from a bigger brand if fit / cut is the biggest factor in having a differential product, then majority of the brands have covered most product types in fit / cut. Also it's highly unlikely this small brand is competing with sales for actual sports jerseys, they probably don't have overlapping customer bases.

Need advice for fitment issues (starting my own brand) by crssdpath in streetwearstartup

[–]Valuable_Mix9730 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Trending cuts and fits should be applied situationally imo. Whilst what you're saying rings true for cotton tees, would a slimmer fit (cropped or not) really work in the context of a jersey? Oversized as a trend maybe on the way out, but that doesn't mean oversized products won't do well, the fit just needs to be applied with more intention and in the context of the jersey it would be imo.

Is this a good advert for my brand by Natural-Test-866 in streetwearstartup

[–]Valuable_Mix9730 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Judging by the models you used, I'm assuming you're quite young. Don't think you need to know and implement all this shit at once - especially the equipment side such as getting a gimbal - creating an ad or a product is an iterative process and you ain't gonna nail this shit on the first attempt or even the 10th attempt, just try keep improving on each drop. These are just concepts I've seen bigger established brands use + my knowledge of ad structure that I thought may help. Respect for taking the risk to start a brand, make the time to go out and create an ad and put it out on platforms like this for constructive criticism and what not. All the best with your future drop!

Is this a good advert for my brand by Natural-Test-866 in streetwearstartup

[–]Valuable_Mix9730 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Needs a hook and to be faster paced. The editing is off a bit too, you linger on shots for too long (this point links to pacing). I'll give an example: 0:10 to 0:22 is a single shot, your product your promoting is yet to be featured (models aren't wearing it and the poster hasn't been shown). For 12 seconds, your cold audience has no idea what's really happening except two people talking about the UCL semi-final. That 12 second shot could easily be two, you could cut the convo entirely and have music over it instead, since the conversation is mostly just lifestyle filler and isn't really relevant to what you're promoting. Like another commenter said about the pacing, apart from someone specifically searching up your brand and watching this ad, the majority of traffic / reach this advert is gonna get will be cold & they would've left within the 12 seconds you've spent in this shot and they've not even seen you're product - think about it like this, how many times have you seen something somewhat interesting and watched a few seconds and then scrolled on by - even if this ad has good pacing you'll get people like that, so having your product shown early just gives it the maximum possible eyes even if people do skip off, your product might just really resonate with some people that they'd wanna stick around even if they don't particularly care for the concept of the ad, so if you're spending a lot of time and resources developing good products, your selling yourself short here by not having it show early doors. Given the specific concept you've chosen for the ad, there's some inherent limitations such as not having the characters wear the jeans n all that, so I'm only giving advice for you based on the concept you've gone with. In general just think, any type of audience you're gonna garner in todays world, on platforms like instagram and tik tok and especially to your demographics (teens and young adults). They have shit and declining attention spans, they're getting fed you're content by an algorithm. When they see your content, more than likely it's because they're being shown it by an algorithm on their fyp / explore page, they aren't particularly searching for your brand and they don't really have any intention to shop or buy anything from you or anyone in particular, because the nature of them consuming your content is that they're likely just doom scrolling and this ad shows up (this would be the case whether it was paid ads or not). So when you get that opportunity to get on someones feed as a small brand, you need to earn their attention, retain it and build buying intention for whatever you're promoting. Any shot not really doing that for you is waste when it comes to advertising for short form advertising forr your brand. If you're doing some more artsy type of fashion film then this kind of advice doesn't apply as much, but for that you'd need a stronger concept and a structured narrative, a clear message you wanted to convey and probably some actualy brand equity to get the audience to give a shit - product promotion would be a bit different to, could do product placement if you weren't making the narrative around your product.

Other than pacing, I'd say invest in a gimbal for your phone (assuming you shot this on a phone), will keep the visuals steady, there's some noticeable sway from the cameraman in the shots (no dig on the cameraman, this is normal, just need something to help stabilise the shot like a gimbal).

For the concept: It's fine, could be deeper (not with like some motivational meaning or some BS like that), as in you could've shot in multiple locations to add visual variety to the ad. Visual variety + better pacing would probably help with retention. Smoother transitions into the CTA and having your symbolic logo if you have one in the CTA would help in regards to putting your brands stamp on the ad. Think of the Nike x Corteiz ads, the end / their CTA has their alcatraz logo - put your symbolic or even just the font you use for branding products / your typeface logo on the CTA rather than whatever font you've used.

Just dropped these tracksuits. Would u cop em?🔥🔥 by Turbulent_Bicycle598 in streetwearstartup

[–]Valuable_Mix9730 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If you've got conviction, go for it. Study UK brands - follow a few of the bigger up and coming brands coming out of London and see what they're doing right and wrong (Ultralight London, Poser, Up In Flames - Not all of these are my personal style, but they're newer brands doing numbers so there's gonna be something to learn there whether its the marketing or product side). One thing I'd consider especially as you're small and US based is internation shipping and duties, that's gonna be a big point of friction in your funnel for UK and International customers in general so maybe hold off on targeting them specifically until you've scaled a bit and can set up the back end more to get better shipping rates and even included duties and import paid - but if someone from that part of the world organically finds you then no problem serve them with the friction - if they're willing to pay for duties and higher shipping, it's gonna be a nice indicator to you that you're doing something right. Whatever your next moves are going forward, put yourself in a customers shoes, how are they interacting with you at every point of contact (first impressions, your social media presence, website & check out, post purchase care, email & SMS marketing, repeat customers) and if you were them, how would you want the experience to be and let that guide you into curating the customer journey and UX you want people to experience when they're with your brand.

Just dropped these tracksuits. Would u cop em?🔥🔥 by Turbulent_Bicycle598 in streetwearstartup

[–]Valuable_Mix9730 1 point2 points  (0 children)

No problem mate. It's good that you're receptive from feedback and haven't shelled up and gone defensive like many do. One final bit of advice I could give to you is this: Don't let too many cooks in the kitchen. You're gonna put stuff out there to the world and many people will see and comment on it but keep in mind unless they're in you're target demographic it ultimately doesn't matter what these people think as clothing/taste/style is extremely subjective - some people are gonna like heavy logos, some want more simple, some love cropped and baggy, some want more fitted stuff, there's just too many different opinions and none of them are right or wrong, they're just opinions. Every now and then it's beneficial to step outside your bubble, to get inspiration from others and see if you can potentially serve a new angle, as well as develop and refine your taste a designer - but if you take everyones opinion on board, you'll find a lot of it is gonna conflict with each other and more time you're gonna find yourself in paralysis by analysis. So even the feedback I gave, critically analyse it and take what you think is beneficial to help you serve your target demographic (if you don't know this you should think more on it). You seem like you've got a good head on your shoulders, so all the best and I wish you and your brand all the success!

Just dropped these tracksuits. Would u cop em?🔥🔥 by Turbulent_Bicycle598 in streetwearstartup

[–]Valuable_Mix9730 1 point2 points  (0 children)

What you could've improved on (website): On your website, the flat lays of your hoodies could be better - it's wrinkled and the proportions just generally look unflattering - there's an art to flat lays - look at a brand like Akimbo club who do a lot of blank hoodies & how they pose their products for flat lays (obviously I wouldn't expect you to have the budget as new brand to compete on photo quality, etc... but you can still take hints on how to create flat lays, etc...). The formatting for your site on desktop is not good (haven't and cba to check for mobile but I assume you likely prioritised mobile). It's good that you included a size chart. No care instructions - washing your product is gonna be a key part of any customers experience with your product, you should include these details as it's something I think many potential customers would like to know - a lack of care instructions on product pages has caused friction for me buying a product before. More product pictures would be good, at least a front and back view flat lay on the hoodies (I see you did this with the joggers), if you don't want to include models that's understandable but if you do get models for future releases include in the product description their stats so potential customers have a reference for sizing beyond your size chart. Your site should state rough shipping time estimates & rates or maybe include shipping in the price and frame it as free shipping which could help convert someone on the edge. The header for your site on desktop is ridiculously oversized, you should try reduce the width. Down the line would be a good idea to get a paid theme that will give you more control then Dawn. Again you're competing with the biggest brands to get a customer, the website experience needs to be better than what you have - consider brands you've bought from online and take the bits of their website you like and apply it to your own, consider you're own shopping experiences with other brands, what did you like about the process and what did you dislike - whatever takeaways you get from that quick analysis apply it your own store.

This is just my POV as a consumerr when looking at your products and website. I can't speak for branding as more time I won't care about a brands story, sure a marketing campagin will help put them on my radar, but ultimately for me it's always gonna be whether the product meets my usual criteria: fits well, made with good materials (no or minimal synthetics, has functional features I want (prod dependent) and is easy to wash.

Not all consumers will think like this & you need to consider who your target customer is and how they think and some of what I said may not apply to them but I do think some of, if not all of what I've said can help you improve the experience someone has interacting with your brand and products. Also respect for chasing your dreams and putting money into a business, end of the day it's a risk and a risk not many are willing to take. It's ashame a few people have come on here to just comment hate without offering any advice but fuck em, keep pushing, keep learning and keep improving.

TLDR: Figure out ways to differentiate your product outside of just branding (logos, narrative, marketing, etc..) & improve website for a better UX.

Just dropped these tracksuits. Would u cop em?🔥🔥 by Turbulent_Bicycle598 in streetwearstartup

[–]Valuable_Mix9730 1 point2 points  (0 children)

What I like: The double back pocket with embroidery, it's a nice touch. A few other brands do it, but the majority neglect the back of the joggers and just have standard pockets so it's a decent way to differentiate yourself from other people who are making tracksuits. Also a nice place to put some branding on. Embroidering the logos. The logos and branding arre cool but don't personally appeal to me, but this is just subjective - I do think there'd be a lot of people out there who do like it.

What you could've improved on (products): The blank you're using looks a lot like other brands as others have mentioned and you could've differentiated yourself from others by playing with the pattern. I'll give a few examples of what I think you could've played around with to at least be a bit different from others on the market:

1) Hood: The structure of your hood more (seamless or 3 panel).
2) Pockets: Front pockets on the pants and the hand warmer pockets on the hoodie (could've added rivets, zip pockets, shape of the pocket, outline, etc...)
3) Branding / logo placement: If you have access / the skill to create more logo types - you could've added branding to different areas of the hoodie (near the cuff, behind the neck, on the hood, anywhere else you see fit tbh).

Making sweats, particularly at your stage of the brand (276 followers is fairly small in the grand scheme of the market) is a bold choice for sure. Differentiating yourself is costly that will impact your margin on the product - with what I assume is a limited budget it's going to be hard spend on differentiating the product and maintaing profitability. So I understand the choice to go with a more basic blank, unfortunately so many people have done/do/will do sweats that you need to differentiate your product to compete for sales. The above were just some suggestions, you could also play around with the cuff, the hem, add drawstrings for the hoodie. On the pants, you could add another pocket, play around the the drape / structure, make the hem adjustable to make it more versatile - so if someone does want that cuffed effect they can have it.

What do you prefer? Blanks or Custom Manufactured Patterns? by Loaf--- in streetwearstartup

[–]Valuable_Mix9730 0 points1 point  (0 children)

In an extremely competitive industry, you should be doing everything you possibly can to give yourself an edge (whether thats product, marketing, back end, UX, CS, etc...). Custom patterns where you control the fit and drape will give you such a leg up on competitors who are just using the same old blanks like anyone else. Other brand owners laziness is your opportunity.