My Clothing Brand Failed and Here's What I Learned

I had great success with my clothing brand business - but it didn't last long. In this video we look at where it all went wrong and how you can run a successful brand to ensure you don't make the same mistakes as me.
Instagram: / sage_watson
#clothingbrand #business #ecommerce
⏲ Timestamps
00:00 - Intro
00:22 - The Start of My Brand
02:51 - Where It Went Wrong
04:51 - How You Can Succeed
08:06 - Conclusion

Пікірлер: 73

  • @MooMoo69556
    @MooMoo695564 ай бұрын

    Damn this was humbling. It’s so easy to get caught up in the success stories from those dudes saying “make $40k in a week at 19!” It’s not that easy

  • @laser_knight9668
    @laser_knight96683 ай бұрын

    Valuable information as someone trying to start, like someone said, a humbling experience, look forward to more!

  • @Lltkxx
    @Lltkxx4 ай бұрын

    Thank you so much for this information me and my bro are working on a brand right now and this could possibly get us on the right track 🙏🏾

  • @sage_watson

    @sage_watson

    4 ай бұрын

    No worries man, glad I could help. Good luck with your brand! 🙌

  • @sjoerdsiemes
    @sjoerdsiemes2 ай бұрын

    Currently put the brand on the back burner because it is just a huge investment when life is already so busy and expensive. At first your hyped. My friends told me it was cool, some of them buy stuff. But far from all of them. You really start to see how cool it really is once money gets involved. Then i did a collab with a band of a friend of mine and sold out everything twice. But after that sales stopped and you wonder if the shirt was great or people liked to support his band. Maybe a bit of both. Doubt starts to creep in and you see all these companies around you doing massive collections when you are struggling to put out anything. Thanks for this honest video!

  • @cristeen
    @cristeenАй бұрын

    Great video! Thanks for the insight and sharing your experience. ❤

  • @XtremefireNewtimes
    @XtremefireNewtimes2 ай бұрын

    Thank you for these videos. Keep them up

  • @probablyjustcai
    @probablyjustcai2 ай бұрын

    every 14 year old needs to hear this

  • @likethemermaidariel
    @likethemermaidariel2 ай бұрын

    Please do make another video on building your brand. You did a wonderful job sharing your story.

  • @sage_watson

    @sage_watson

    2 ай бұрын

    Thanks! Will do

  • @hypehorizen
    @hypehorizen3 ай бұрын

    I dislike the word failed. You had a bunch of wins. Whether you remain in the clothing game or not you learned a ton. Keep trying to be an entrepreneur. Watching the whole video

  • @sage_watson

    @sage_watson

    3 ай бұрын

    For sure, definitely learned so much from it!

  • @user-fb8lk4uw4i
    @user-fb8lk4uw4i4 ай бұрын

    Best video! Thank you so much

  • @ruairijoseph9483
    @ruairijoseph94832 ай бұрын

    Very good content well delivered… keep going man

  • @sage_watson

    @sage_watson

    2 ай бұрын

    Thank you bro 🙏

  • @Ohnooocringeeee
    @Ohnooocringeeee3 ай бұрын

    what a wonderful vid keep posting and keep growing

  • @sage_watson

    @sage_watson

    3 ай бұрын

    Thank you! 🙏

  • @daddydayclub
    @daddydayclub2 ай бұрын

    Hey man, great to know we are not alone. My strategy at he moment is to order the minimum qty of 24, and pay higher prices but overall invest less in case our brand doesn't work. I refuse to purchase from Alibaba at the moment because R & D is expensive. Especially with all the trial and errors you are going to have until its right. Shipping isn't cheap eater and its a high MOQ as you mentioned. As a new small business, that will be in another chapter, but until then, we only run the minimum required by screen printers, and break even. We understand it is a long term plan. Thanks for the grest insight.

  • @dannyleetran
    @dannyleetran2 ай бұрын

    First mistake was not doing the preorder method

  • @sage_watson

    @sage_watson

    2 ай бұрын

    100%

  • @Breazyy1

    @Breazyy1

    25 күн бұрын

    So should I do a pre order method then? I was thinking of getting a loan but people also don’t like waiting 3 weeks for their clothes

  • @misterdevil8872

    @misterdevil8872

    21 күн бұрын

    @@Breazyy1it’s a doubled sided blade, yes you save money and yes people will not like the shipping times.

  • @robbarmstrong8702
    @robbarmstrong87022 ай бұрын

    Really appreciate you sharing your story. Sorry about how things concluded. Take those lessons learned and keep pushing forward. #RobbArmstrong

  • @sage_watson

    @sage_watson

    2 ай бұрын

    Thanks man!

  • @attilaharcsa134
    @attilaharcsa1343 ай бұрын

    You can get Portugal manus they’re good quality as well. Probably they have better english knowlegde. With China ones you just need a really good tech pack. Otherwise big China ones have some good customer support they have basic english but you can speak to them. You can check how much they make etc you can choose the right ones straight away. Try 2 or 3 it’s better to spend more one samples to find the right one than later lose a lot of money.

  • @griedd

    @griedd

    2 ай бұрын

    i agree. i work with portugal and chinese manus and its much easier to work with portuguese manufactures. i think ultimately you need to run a pre order business in the beginning of a clothing brand and get help from people. learning from people that run a successful brand is the best way to succeed in my opinion.

  • @sage_watson

    @sage_watson

    2 ай бұрын

    Yep I'd definitely look more into Portuguese manufacturers if I were to do it again, they seem really good.

  • @heisenberg6485

    @heisenberg6485

    2 ай бұрын

    Which portugese manfucature do you use?

  • @mrGoallan
    @mrGoallan3 ай бұрын

    Great content by the way, but why would you double down on your stock? if anything, you should of kept the same amount of stock, or got more...

  • @sage_watson

    @sage_watson

    3 ай бұрын

    Thanks! Yeah I definitely agree. The main reason I doubled down on stock was because it actually brought the cost per item down by quite a lot. I also thought by investing in ads, doing more marketing etc. I’d be able to double the numbers from the first drop. In hindsight that was very naive thinking though haha

  • @dirtlipdom3234

    @dirtlipdom3234

    2 ай бұрын

    double down meaning he got twice the amount as before

  • @joeantony7324
    @joeantony73243 ай бұрын

    Hey man i am an indian and i was trying to start a clothing brand , i have access to gud quality materials and print but struggle in design and marketing. Also as you say this field is highly competitive . You said that you fail to find a gud supplyer, if you are starting your clothing brand again then i can help you with the supply, i don't know i can compete with the Chinese manufacturer on prize but i can compete on trustworthy supplier for sure😊

  • @johncarlobodino8294

    @johncarlobodino8294

    2 ай бұрын

    Hey buddy I wanted to start a clothing. What kind quality materials do you have

  • @sage_watson

    @sage_watson

    2 ай бұрын

    Thanks bro, will definitely keep that in mind!

  • @flowerpower8996

    @flowerpower8996

    2 ай бұрын

    Did he spell good with Gud 😂

  • @bacontags3877
    @bacontags38772 ай бұрын

    I understand this but even if your “Second drop failed”, you could have easily just kept advertising until you made more and more sales and eventually sold out your stock, thus being able to re invest

  • @sage_watson

    @sage_watson

    2 ай бұрын

    Ads were completely unprofitable for me, they're really hard to master. Especially with a clothing brand, you need great marketing funnels and I just was pretty inexperienced at the time. Perhaps I could've gone harder on social media but I did spend months trying to keep growing it. Just sort of dried up on me.

  • @bacontags3877

    @bacontags3877

    2 ай бұрын

    @@sage_watson ahh ok. I get it

  • @ralph7777
    @ralph77772 ай бұрын

    Those clothes actually look cool surprised you failed. Looks like something I’d buy

  • @offthegrid4lyfe
    @offthegrid4lyfe3 ай бұрын

    So it was basically the manufacturer that killed you, cause you had it 💫 thx for sharing

  • @Powerrangers909
    @Powerrangers9092 ай бұрын

    Nice video man, and I’m not trying to be negative when I say this but sounds to me like u had a “false sense of success”, what i mean by that is that you didn’t have random people online buying ur clothes. U had ur friends, family and people who knew u buying it. And in my opinion that is an absolute no no. Because the aren’t buying it because they like it. There buying because they like and want to support you. And I don’t agree with building your personal brand. I think ur brand has to be seperate from yourself otherwise it’s just merch. So if I was going to start a brand I wouldn’t tell any of my friends about it. That way when you get sales you know it’s people buying the clothes because they like the brand and the clothes, not you. That’s my opinion anyway I’ve always thought like that.

  • @sage_watson

    @sage_watson

    2 ай бұрын

    Thanks man, but it wasn't actually just friends/family buying. A lot of it was but there was definitely quite a few others too. I get your point, you definitely do want to be able to sell outside your social circle. Probably the most important thing to grow. But I don't agree with saying that your brand should be completely seperate from you. When you're first starting out, leveraging the people around you in my opinion is really important as it can give your brand that initial exposure (people wearing it in public, sharing on social media etc.) which can then snowball into people outside of your social circle buying your products. Perhaps if you have a really strong product/brand and great marketing you can start it completely on your own. But I'd say don't neglect the power of free marketing :)

  • @YourOneNOnly_

    @YourOneNOnly_

    Ай бұрын

    Lol this is terrible advice 😭 you want to start locally because word to mouth marketing and people wearing your clothes attracts others to buy. You aren't realistically going to see any profit or sales without a proper audience to sell to. ESPECIALLY if you're just starting out.

  • @Jerryismyname
    @JerryismynameАй бұрын

    I‘m from China and I have a good friend who is in this business and he has a great company that makes different types of clothes. And the quality is pretty good. Whenever i have the needs for some T-shirts I'd tell my friend to make them for me. And all of them are great. I'm not bragging about him and his company and I'm just interested in this video and wanna drop a bit of my thoughts in here. If you still want to do this business, and you want to get some samples or something, that'll be nice if we can talk.

  • @sage_watson

    @sage_watson

    Ай бұрын

    Thank you, I’ll definitely keep that in mind for the future

  • @anandmohan1754
    @anandmohan17542 ай бұрын

    I’m glad that Robert Pattinson have a channel.

  • @bentleykeem
    @bentleykeem2 ай бұрын

    Hey, how can I contact you?

  • @sage_watson

    @sage_watson

    2 ай бұрын

    IG is: @sage_watson

  • @marting5130
    @marting51302 ай бұрын

    these "brands" are nothing. they are not value. they are just putting a couple words on a hoodie or shirt. its a scam

  • @christophermykal2604

    @christophermykal2604

    Ай бұрын

    Bro discovered consumerism and capitalism, nice job 👍

  • @marting5130

    @marting5130

    Ай бұрын

    @@christophermykal2604 thanks for agreeing

  • @Dae.84

    @Dae.84

    Ай бұрын

    👍🏻

  • @user-qi2mq1de7s
    @user-qi2mq1de7s2 ай бұрын

    My Clothing Brand Failed and Here's What I Learned: “im not a designer”😂😂

  • @echonomix_
    @echonomix_2 ай бұрын

    People know poor design and anesthetics when they see it. Lol

  • @emilehoffmann

    @emilehoffmann

    2 ай бұрын

    Be kind, he was only 17. Just him attempting this gives him all my respect.

  • @himchief6015
    @himchief60158 күн бұрын

    cut, sew, learn about fashion, those are your real problems. T-shirts and hoodies is not a clothing brand.

  • @user-qi2mq1de7s
    @user-qi2mq1de7s2 ай бұрын

    My Clothing Brand Failed and Here's What I Learned: you gotta be designer 😂😂😂🤣

  • @thealphacomllc
    @thealphacomllc3 ай бұрын

    I order my blanks from shakawear , i've been burned too many times by overseas suppliers. And i leave the back tags on so people know its a quality product.

  • @sage_watson

    @sage_watson

    2 ай бұрын

    Yeah that's honestly the smartest way to play it I think, definitely in the beginning at least. Too much risk overseas when you don't have a high MOQ

  • @USAdrop_official
    @USAdrop_official2 ай бұрын

    Dear,why not try dropshipping? you will not have inventory pressure , you just need to do marketing?

  • @Ramon-bd1ii

    @Ramon-bd1ii

    10 күн бұрын

    I think he is not only in it for the money. I think he wanted to be a successful clothing brand owner as a dream job.

  • @andrewxzvxcud2
    @andrewxzvxcud23 ай бұрын

    i mean ur designs were also bad no offense but

  • @RAZASHARP

    @RAZASHARP

    3 ай бұрын

    LOLLLLL

  • @sage_watson

    @sage_watson

    3 ай бұрын

    Yeah they weren't anything special but I still sold about 100pcs on my first drop with them haha. Branding and marketing is so much more important anyway, look at other brands such as Supreme and Vlone for example. They're successful brands but their designs are basically just their logo in different colours/fonts.

  • @RAZASHARP

    @RAZASHARP

    3 ай бұрын

    @@sage_watson fax… designs, almost mean nothing

  • @griedd

    @griedd

    2 ай бұрын

    @@RAZASHARPthey mean something for sure. it’s not only marketing. your brand needs to look good for the marketing to work better. they both work together. that’s such a silly thing to say

  • @renatoperocchio4508

    @renatoperocchio4508

    2 ай бұрын

    ​​@@grieddI work in marketing and have seen alot of data. One thing I've learned is that looking good does matter, but marketing is slightly more important due to the amount of competition on media platforms now People will probably see your ads before they ever see your clothing so if your ads are great (as in, better than other businesses), your stuff will probably sell more regardless of logo That's obviously just my experience but I thought I'd share

  • @TheMhasham
    @TheMhasham3 ай бұрын

    Believe me, for clothing, shudve gone to Pakistan manufacturers. Chinese arent reliable at all.

  • @griedd

    @griedd

    2 ай бұрын

    pakistans quality isn’t the best. chinese manufactures are amazing if you work with high quality reputable ones. that just means you haven’t done your research. pakistan is known for worse quality which isn’t the best for a street wear brand

  • @omoreclo

    @omoreclo

    2 ай бұрын

    ​@@grieddas a Pakistani manufacturer working with more than 30 brands all over the world, the small and cheap price manufacturers never gave you high quality, search for top manufacturers then you will get top quality

  • @Keyur904
    @Keyur90411 күн бұрын

    Great video! Loved your honesty. Want eye-catching thumbnails & edits? I do freelance work that boosts your videos. let me know if you need my service if not. keep creating awesome videos.