How To Start Mens Underwear Brand
Start-up Underwear Brands
There is a lot of room for small startup brands to establish their own line. It is often in these niche markets, rather than in general fashion where the greatest potential for success lies within the clothing industry.
There is far less competition and the amount of money required to bring to market a mens Boxer brief is considerably less than for a shirt or a jacket for example. As long as you can find a factory to produce small orders.
Because the garments are relatively compact they are cheap to make , store and transport. The potential for problems are also lower than for general fashion.
Most large underwear factories will only produce underwear, in contrast to most normal garment factories that will produce a wide range of types of garments.
It is not advisable to have a normal clothing factory make mens underwear as special machinery is required, notably flatstitch and coverstitch machinery.
Getting Started
Underwear Pattern mans boxer brief
If you are interested in starting your own line in mens underwear, or if you are already established, we would suggest looking round at existing styles and in magazines. Get together a few ideas and if necessary purchase some garments that you like.
These can be used as a basis to make your own styles. Although it may be regarded as “cheating” it does help to prevent trial and error.
Make some rough sketches of what you want, along with any necessary information, then give us a ring and we will try to help produce your garment.
We can help you at every stage of the way, from the initial concept, design,sourcing fabrics and trims, pattern making, sampling, through to production. If you just want some advice or mentoring, then we can help you there too.
EMAIL [email protected]
Sleepwear.
Sleepwear for men is an expanding sector in menswear. There are two basic catagories of mens sleepwear : Woven and stretch. Woven styles can normally be made in just about any factory with basic machinery.
Stretch styles however, need to be made using specialist machinery. Mens cotton pyjamas for instance, can usually be made using standard machinery. Mens underpants on the other hand, generally do require special machinery.
It is possible to make rough mock-ups using standard machinery, but these wont have a professional finish and wont have so much stretch. They could be acceptable as a first sample though.
Minimum Order Quantities
Most mens underwear factories have very high minimum order quantities ( MOQ ). This makes it extremely difficult for small startup brands who just need minimum quantities to start with.
Often these new businesses have to get their patterns made by a non-specialised pattern cutter and sample machinist.
Then the production is done by ordinary factories without the specialist machinery necessary to make the garments correctly.
This all adds up to make the final product extremely poor. And the last thing that you want to be made this poorly is underwear. The patterns, the fabrics,the threads, the trims, and the construction all need to be perfect.
You cant make mens underwear using normal seam construction, or using poorly cut patterns, because they would be extremely uncomfortable.
Sportswear and underwear are closely related products and many sportswear items are now worn as underwear. Much of the specialist machinery used to make sportswear is also used for mens underwear, as both clothing types have similar functions and requirements.
While my background has been mainly in tailoring and outerwear pattern cutting and sampling, I find that underwear, along with sportswear and swimwear, is an interesting area to explore .
Offshore Production V UK Production.
While we do not normally advise Clients to use offshore production, this is one area that could be an exception if there are fairly large quantities involved.
We would still always advise using U.K. production to begin with though. The approach that we would recommend for startups, is to use low volume domestic production initially.
This approach may cost more, but provides a less risky way of finding out how the process works. You can then progress to offshore production when you are ready.
Mens Underwear Index
Mens underwear purchasing has long been thought to be a barometer for wider economic performance throughout the economy as a whole.
When the bottom falls out of the underwear market, then you can bet the economy is going to follow not far behind.
The Men`s Underwear Index (MUI) was used by Alan Greenspan in the 1970`s to forecast future economic developments.
Underwear Specialists
To completely contradict Greenspans economic theory – In recent years there has been a massive increased demand for mens underwear and loungewear.
Despite this extra demand, there are very few specialists in mens underwear pattern making in the UK.
We have been pattern cutting, sampling and producing mens underwear for years, and have worked for many new mens underwear labels.
Startup Workshop
We offer a concise 1-1 Startup workshop for anyone who is thinking of starting a mens underwear brand, or is just starting out. The workshop provides an immense amount of information and tips. It can be conducted face to face, or via Skype. Please ring for details.
EMAIL [email protected]