22 seconds of Factory life

Here’s a behind the scenes look at  t shirt manufacturing – a 22 second glimpse of our CMT (Cut, Make, Trim) factory.

The garment in this video, is  in the previous post about LavaLab designer wear. This factory has, and is still producing for companies like Truworths, so the quality is top-notch and that’s why we use them.

Straight from the LavaLab, these 230 gram ladies tops are creatively fresh and make a bold statement with its shocking pink trims. Loudgear (our client) designed these tops to ensure  that the Queens of  Tugwell Hall at UCT are hip and happening – but this was a task intensive process that had us biting our nails right up to the last minute because of its extremely tight deadline.

Here’s a summarized version of what happened:

1. We developed patterns from scratch according to the client’s specification and size curve
2. sourced 230 gram ribbed fabric (black) at a price that was good enough to maintain the client’s budget
3. dyed the pink fabric according to clients specification
4. supplied fit samples
5. processed artwork for screen printing
6. processed artwork for digitizing
7. cut and soabarred the garment panels to ensure that all panels and sizes were easily identifiable
8. pre-planned printing and embroidery to ensure consistency in  colours for printed and embroidered finishes i.e. the print colours had to match the embroidered colours.
9. also ensuring that the sizing of the print and embroidered logos were suitable for all the garment sizes (small to 3 Xlarge)
10. sent the appropriate panels for printing (2 colours sleeve, 2 colours back)
11. sent the panels for embroidery
12. assembled the garments
13. quality checked and removed rejects
14. ironed and flat-packed
15. re-did  all rejects.

All of this in 16 days.

The result is a beautifully mass produced garment that could be mistaken for something that was bought from a designer store like YDE or Lacoste.

PS. Apologies for the low quality images

Defining your target market

There is a heap of info out there about target markets but most simply put – you need to define who your customers will be. The trick is to target groups of people and make your t shirts appealing to them. Here are a few examples of target markets:

• people between the ages of 16 -30 who like surfing, coming from households of a middle income group (Billabong)
• people between 16- 35 from South Africa who have a good sense humour (laugh it off).
• Students between the ages of 17 – 25 who listens to hip-hop music.

People in similar age groups; similar beliefs; similar cultures and so forth, are most likely to be interested in similar things. You need to identify these groups by doing a demographic analysis or other kind of research. A great site to get information about age, race and gender population of South Africa is from Statistics South Africa . Having this information will help you establish where to sell your t shirts; which gender to cater for and so forth.It is all about knowing where to throw your net to get the biggest catch.

Have a goal/vision that guides your business.

Anybody starting a business should have a goal/vision, and the same applies to selling t shirts. How do you see your business in 5 – 10 years from now? What are the objectives of your business?

Reasons for starting a t shirt business.

Some basic reasons for starting your t shirt business could be:

• to make loads of money
• to create awareness(e.g. political t shirts)
• to have many people wearing your designs (e.g. designer t shirts)
• or to have the best online t shirt store

It may also be for a range of other reasons but you need to identify these, and tie it into your vision – then work towards achieving it.

Write a guiding statement to achieve your vision.

A great idea is to write a statement that guides your business’ culture towards obtaining your vision – even if you are the only person in the business at this point. Here’s a great example of such a statement as taken from  Ecko t shirts:

Rhinos roam the world on the backs of *ecko unltd.’s forward-thinking consumers, and its diverse brands are omnipresent in visual representations of next-generation culture: from music videos and television programs to catwalks, action sports, and video games.

It is clear that Ecko envision’s their products to be legendary and diverse – and anybody reading this statement will know this.

How many t shirts should I print?- A  question that I’m asked on a regular basis.

So I did some searching and came across this post at howtostartaclothingcompany.com and I feel it’s right on the mark, here is what it says:

By Jon Kruse (mediocore clothing)

This question comes up a lot and I think it really needs an article about it.

I remember printing my first shirt, live every week like it’s shark week, and I was asking the same question. I asked people what sizes I should order and I also unwisely asked what size people wanted to buy. I say unwisely because I asked it on emptees and not everyone that answered was my market or would be my customer.

It isn’t as simple as someone telling you how many shirts to buy. It depends on your market the design and a lot of factors that are really hard to calculate when you are buying your first print.

TEST THE WATERS!

I recommend buying the minimums. Most times this is 36-50 shirts sometimes even lower. The worst thing you can do is order shirt sizes that don’t sell and you have tons of stock left. Whatever you do don’t print more shirts because you get a discount. When you have the customers and know the sizes they order this is fine but it is disastrous if it’s your first time printing.

Do the research

I think your best bet is to talk to similar clothing companies. A lot of them might not respond but a lot of it is how you talk to them. Talk about how you like their clothing line, how you are printing your first shirt and don’t know what to get, how you are doing something similar and want their expertise, and I think most importantly give them a reason to help you. I send out shirts to a lot of people that have helped me and it’s always great to get gifts. Make them want to help you!

1-2-2-1

This is a breakdown of small to extra large that a lot of people use. They get twice as many mediums and larges as smalls and xl’s. I find that what I sell is usually more on the smaller side.zz,. so I get more smalls and mediums, and less larges and xl’s then this breakdown. Really every market is different so you have to test and use your data to reorder.

Another thing is I always like to order 1 or 2 2XL’s or x-small. These don’t sell very well but your customer will appreciate you for carrying their size.

I would just like to add that the figure of  36 – 50 units is a good number to start with.  At Lava Ink we suggest minimum orders of 30 units because it offers a reasonable distribution of the set-up charges over the amount of garments. So the garment cost per unit remains low and more profitable to our client.

Sometimes making people happy in the world of business can result in wonderful personal gains . And no, I’m not referring  to an “arms-deal-type” happiness, which may be terminal (in business and in life) like in the case of  Mr. Shaik (aka Shaba). No, I’m talking about good, prompt, hassle-free delivery of service and product.

I was afforded some happiness last week when I received two VIP tickets to yesterday’s Rugby Festival which was held at the new Cape Town Stadium in Green Point.It was an experience of “goosebumpular” emotions which resulted in a great victory for the Stormers over the Boland invitational team (43-17). And in the curtain-raiser the South African Legends 10s team beat the International Legends 27-5. So…. all-round victories for the locals.

The greatest victory however goes to a happy people; the famous Capetonian sea-breeze; a beautiful mountain and the organisers (some wearing Lava Ink promo t shirts) . Even with a crowd of 40 000 people, it was  smooth sailing from beginning to end.

The organisers of the event SAIL Stadefrance, made sure that help was available at all times and that the assistants were easily visible, wearing Lava Ink’s VB 145 gram t shirts in bright yellow. This is an excellent cost effective promotional product which is 100% South African (and cheaper than the Chinese imports nogal). It’s not very “feshenable” but rather functional as it serves its basic purpose.

People can moan and groan about the state of the world……….and all that is, is talk. Then there are those who do. Those who do are the ones who change world. Organisations like The ManKind Project (MKP). I love their vision, which is partly described by this inset taken from the MKP website :

Men have been warriors since the beginning of time and every man has his warrior side. But social forces pressure many to repress this part of themselves. They unconsciously substitute a distorted shadow for the healthy warrior energy so essential to sustaining individual and communal balance.

The New Warrior is a man who has confronted this destructive “shadow” form and has achieved hard-won ownership of the highly focused, aggressive energy that empowers and shapes the inner masculine self. Sustained by this new energy, the New Warrior is at once tough and loving, wild and gentle, fierce and tolerant. He lives passionately and compassionately, because he has learned to live his mission with integrity, and without apology.

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We were asked to print some 200 gram t shirts for MKP and initially I wanted to do a Direct To Garment (DTG) print. I was then handed this strike-off  and informed that the guys got this result with a screen print - we decided to run with it because it looks amazing!

Strike-off (pre-production approval)

What’s great is that the actual t shirts even looks better than the strike off (see below). Well done guys, I must say that your skills are unmatched and you have restored my faith in CMYK screen printing.

Actual printed t shirts

The South African Clothing Industry at the moment is like a dog with its tail between its legs because of the barrage setbacks in recent years. Companies have called it quits due to the lousy  economic environment and thousands of jobs have been lost.  Larger companies like Frame Textiles and Team Puma have closed down and what remains are many small to medium sized businesses who chug along trying to survive. So the task of supplying World Cup products have been left up to the last of the big guns, The Seardel Group. This group of companies known as The Seardel Group, have accepted the task but they themselves do not have the capacities, technologies or experience to produce products like headwear or the Zakumi soft toy (the world cup mascot).

Now a  dispute has emerged between SACTWU (Southern Africa Clothing and Textile Workers’ Union) and SAFA’s (South African Football Association)  master licensee  SLAM (Safa legal and management). According to Redress Consultancy, SACTWU claims that the agreed figure of 80 percent (locally produced) to 20 percent (imported)  have been ignored and that actually 40 percent of world cup clothing products are imported.

How obvious is that to anyone who knows this industry? There is no chance in hell that these companies (Seardel) could produce all the stock required and they definitely not going to outsource to local companies because they need to make a profit. Providing work to the desperate small fry is last on the list because of the logistics and the headache of  keeping everyone in line with quality, deadlines and consistency of products. Who else could produce R840 million’s worth of Zakumi product under one roof and ensure quality and consistency but the Chinese.

What I am saying is that once again a lack of knowledge and preparation has resulted in a toi-toi and it puts us in a bad light once again. SACTWU please stop to think before you kick up a fuss – understand that we need to supply and reach deadlines and that you haven’t exactly played a part in promoting productivity- calling for tools down when the economy is at its most vulnerable state.