I had a couple questions for everyone.
Ever think about circumventing the samples and trying to use a 3D powder print model to get production numbers first?
What’s happens between production and retail. Do the retailers pick up distribution or do you have to hire a third party in between?
I don’t think you would ever want to skip the sample process and go straight into production. There are many reasons for this, most of them will become evident the more you work with different factories.
A sample room is sort of like the factory brain, in some cases they can offer decent advice, cost saving measures, they can show you how good or bad the lines will look when lasted. Some materials can x-ray more or less than you expected, sometimes things look great on paper and terrible when made and vice versa. Powder coating a last you can miss a lot of this. At the same time when you’re sampling you can grab some materials from the marketplace and begin trying new colors, materials, textures etc…
As a go between from paper to production the sample room serves as a liason to quality control type issues. My rule of thumb is that the sample room will be ~10% better than production line. Knowing where you’ll stand beforehand is essential to weeding out good and bad designs quickly. I’d rather make a thousand dollar mistake than book 50k pairs and find out they look terrible and have it cost 900k + business relationships.
Doing a mock up on a last isn’t something that can be shown either. Powder coat the last put it in a suitcase with 20 others for your line and ship them across the country and back, I’ll bet (and I’m not much of a betting guy) they get pretty scuffed up. Now do that 10 more times and you’ve got about a seasons worth of travel. It just wouldn’t be cost effective. Besides if you are working with a factory, why not let them get it as right as possible? Cutting dies have to be made, materials checked and ordered, all this stuff takes time anyways I don’t think you would gain much.
Between production and retail a lot happens. If you mean the ordering and shipping dynamic, nothing too complicated. Basically they place orders with you, you let the factory know then the factory sends you an ETD, you haggle over this to get it for your customer ASAP. The shoes get made, shipped to your warehouse so you can do a spot check if you’ve got the time, then shipped out. If the order is big enough and you’re confident in both factory and buyer, you can arrange with them to ship direct from the delivery port. If you’re going to do that, you should have your developer send you a few pairs pulled from the production line just in case anything is wrong.
As for doing shoes in the Eurozone I was talking to someone a couple weeks ago and he mentioned doing small runs of casual injected molded sneakers in Spain and Portugal. We did not discuss much beyond that but he had success with it.
EITHER WAY, I hope it works well for you!
First off, not to sure what you mean by “a 3D powder print model”…you mean some sort of RP method? I’ve never seen this in use before in footwear, except perhaps for an initial outsole model before tooling…
anyhow…
As has been said, yes the sample process in invaluable and in in effect a process. Very rarely (like, never in my experience) is a first pullover/sample 100% correct. Patterns need adjusting, materials swapped for costing/aesthetics, fit trials for comfort/performance, etc. The key thing to keep in mind is that the translation from spec/sketch to sample is inherently a human process open to interpretation. A good pattern maker will not only create the pattern from the sketch but take into account things like lasting margin, material stretch, x-raying, material use and efficiency, etc.
There is pretty much no way to skip all of this, and I would certainly also not expect any buyer would want to place orders without a physical sample in hand to feel the materials, fit the shoe, inspect finish and quality, etc.
As has also been mentioned the steps between order/production and retail are also important. Final costing negotiations, material purchase, QC, production trials, production, shipping, logistics, delivery/order fulfillment, etc. Finding retailers (distribution) is your job. The logistics, and getting the shoes from the fty/your warehouse to the retailer is also your job.
hope this helps clear things up.
R
Agree with the above - also some buyers are sample size and will want to try the shoe for size - you can’t do that with a model. It’s how fashion differs to product design. Go to a footwear, fashion or lingerie trade show and you will see lots of models and lots of buyers requesting to see the design being worn.
Between production and retail - a small company would either make appointments and show the samples themselves or they’d hire an agent. A large company has a sales force, each with a dedicated territory which they sell to.
Powder printed models look like pottery ornaments, not shoes…
…anyway back on topic…
Has anyone got any advice for approaching retailers with a new product and whether ‘pr’ agencies and their showrooms are essential for publicity?
good on you… I too am in the same position, I have been apprenticing with a shoe maker for the past 4 years, just finished my degree in Industrial design with a focus on footwear design.
At present I am researching how and where one could get a small line started…
manufacturing costs?
quantity?
materials?
quality?
Does it seem like production prices may go down considering the economic state of the world?
It seems like your trying to hit up the Common Projects aesthetic… perhaps looking into where they get there stuff made might shine some light on it.
all the best and keep me in the loop
Employ a sales agent who already has a good relationship with the stores you want to target. Of course first of all you need your samples and a vision and you have to convince the sales agent. If they don’t like your product, they won’t commit to sell it.
Good fashion pr is essential - it can be the difference between a flop and a success. But you dont need to be a fashion pr to write a press release. Freebies to fashion editors can go a long way. Consider a press launch and a ‘look book’.
Thanks for the input guys…
I’ve learned a massive amount so far (and still have a long way to go)
I’m getting some samples made at the moment… but not without issues.
(I’m not sure whether to carry on just with these guys… or start some more samples at a different place too)
Any ideas where could I find a decent sales agent? I’ve come across a few, but they don’t normally represent the market I’m aiming for.
(I guess linked in could be good for this).
I see that a few PR agents do sales too… and have the right sort of contacts… any opinions on them?
…and yeah… I’m really waiting on the samples, until I have a good quality product… I don’t have anything.
Satyan…
Prices will vary as to the quantity/country/quality of what your looking at…
I think a bigger problem for you may be convincing factories to work with you and making sure they don’t massively inflate their prices for a small quantity. Meeting the factory minimums is sometimes difficult too.
Its not impossible though.
And production prices seem to be rising… people are moving production to indonesia and india because of exchange rates and rising costs.
Get your samples made - if youre not happy, pay for the samples and move on.
If you are in the uk you could try to get funding to show at bread and butter, once you’ve got your samples get in touch with the british footwear association (link on my site links page) - but not before then, they get a million enquiries a day, show them you’re serious, by getting the samples first. They might also be able to recommend sales agents - the guy thats in charge of britfoot, he used to be a headhunter, he knows everyone in the trade
Thanks for the great advice Shoenista…
… I owe you a drink! (can I post it?)
A shoe company has been a small dream of mine for a while too.
A small BMX based shoe company. But my environmental principles make it hard for me to have anything made outside the USA.
Makes me wish Vans still made shoes in California.
Does anyone know about manufacturing in the US?
There are still some shoe factories in Maine… expect a $200+ retail price.
I guess thats not too bad if I wanted to do high end stuff. But definitely too high for the bmx market.