Why I’m shutting down my clothing brand
I’m shutting down my clothing brand. 3 years after starting it.
These are the mistakes I made and the lessons I learned.
#1 — I didn’t find product market fit
I believe the main culprit is that I rushed product development.
Consumer goods aren’t like software where you can test and iterate after taking the product to market. The period before you press go on manufacturing is arguably the most crucial part of starting an ecommerce brand. It’s time to research and test, and you only have one chance to get it right.
I learned that you can’t just show people your samples and ask if they like it. The real question is, will they pay for it? You can find this out simply by taking pre-orders. You don’t even have to have locked down a manufacturer at this point.
In fact, I would never launch a consumer brand again unless these two things are true:
- I’ve been able to build a community around my ideal customer profile (ICP), who experience the pain that my product promises to solve.
- My ICP has demonstrated that they’re willing to pay for my product.
I think I rushed product development because I was so excited to see the whole thing come to life, and “get to the fun part”. Little did I know, those 6 months would be my favourite part of the whole process.
Lessons
- Launch with samples.
- Ads are expensive. Have a market stall. Talk to people.
- Take pre-orders. How many strangers are buying the product?
- ‘Good quality’ isn’t a differentiator.
- Build a brand first.
- Start with one colourway (I had 3)
#2 — I spent time and money on the wrong things.
As a first time founder who had not nearly as much exposure to the startup world as I do now, I didn’t have a clear path of what needed to be done, so I just spent time and money on things that I found fun (which I don’t regret, but glad that it’s now out of my system).
Example: a professional photoshoot. For my very first photoshoot on the left, I spent over $5K hiring professional models, MUAs, photographers, etc. On the photoshoot on the right, I spent $400 on a vitage car and paid a photographer mates-rates to spend a couple hours taking photos. It’s a pretty big difference for a very similar outcome.
Another mistake was opting for air freight versus sea freight so I can get the stock quicker and “get started”. If I could go back in time, I would use the “waiting” time to build a community, and a brand. And no — building a brand doesn’t mean posting inspirational photos on an your Instagram feed. It means being clear on what problem you’re solving for users and creating content and conversation that addresses a solution.
Lessons
- Your first photoshoot doesn’t need to be professional.
- Don’t pay for air freight.
- Influencers don’t care about a PR package from a brand nobody knows about. They need to have skin in the game (% of sales).
- Spend equal time on things that you find less fun. Or find a partner who’s good at those things.
All in all…
While my family would have been much happier if I spent my savings on a house deposit, I’m glad I took the plunge and paid the ‘learning tax’, which led to so many other opportunities, friendships, and experiences.
If you’re interested in some 100% organic Turkish cotton loungewear, you can help clear mine and my parent’s garage by purchasing the remaining stock, for $1 a piece — just pay for shipping.
I have also partnered with Thread Together who will help donate the rest of noël’s stock to those in need.
Until next time!
- Kimia
*EDIT:
The irony…
I was not expecting this to resonate with so many founders and operators. The post went viral on LinkedIn, and was read by nearly 400,000 people… I sold out of every product on my site (that I’d been trying to sell for the last 3 years), had the highest amount of organic traffic to my site than ever before, and recieved an offer for the sale of the business to an ecommerce tech startup.
Funny how life works.
