Building an Influencer Clothing Brand

‍Emily Lane 00:09 

Welcome to Clothing Coulture, a fashion industry podcast at the intersection of technology and innovation. I'm Emily lane. 

Bret Schnitker 00:17 

I'm Bret Schnitker. We speak with experts and disruptors who are moving the industry forward 

Emily Lane 00:21 

and discuss solutions to real industry challenges. 

Bret Schnitker 00:24 

Clothing Coulture is brought to you by Stars Design Group, a global design and production house with more than 30 years of experience. 

Emily Lane 00:35 

Welcome back to another episode of Clothing Coulture today we are talking influencer marketing. Well, actually, it's more of an evolution from influencer marketing to influencers actually building a brand. Right? Are you excited for this conversation? 

Bret Schnitker 00:52 

Yeah, it's kind of a wild thing. You know, I, you know, I've been around a few years. And, you know, I remember when I was younger, that the influencers at that time were, you know, music stars, rock and roll stars, TV stars, and they definitely had an impact, and people would follow these fashion items, you know, with the evolution of communication and Instagram, Pinterest, the list is long, right? Tick tock, you know, the latest, greatest, you know, it's, it's wild, how our influencers have changed, it seems like, you know, the current generations are really looking for a little bit more authenticity, probably a little bit more curation. And these these, there's a, there's a good group of influencers that really, in our business, at least, I feel have a really good handle on on their perspective and their DNA. And they, you know, they grow a really loyal group of followers. And it's really exciting to see how that is growing so rapidly in our industry, I think they're predicting, like the influencer market in general, all components are expected to be somewhere over $10 billion this year, today, when you look at influencers, you know, they have these unique perspectives and these unique little niches and so you find that it's, you know, there's, there's a lot more diversity, you know, in influencer marketing, and I think you, you know, the key is to understand those little niches and diversity and understand the power behind each one of those. And I think if you as a, you know, a lot of influence or income is driven by pairing that DNA or that niche to a particular brand that resonates together, 

Emily Lane 02:37 

making sure there's a really good fit there. Yeah, you know, when when that fit does exist, that's where you're getting that great ROI, you know, that five or 6% for every dollar or, you know, five or $6 Yeah, yeah. Which is absolutely extraordinary. 

Bret Schnitker 02:52 

It's almost as good as cryptocurrency on the upswing 

Emily Lane 02:54 

So understanding that great return on investment and the fact that this is a multi multi billion dollar industry, it is no surprise that influencers are thinking, you know, what, I kind of want a bigger piece of that pie. You know, no longer do I just want to get paid to do a pose, but maybe it's time for me to become my own brand. Yeah. 

Bret Schnitker 03:15 

And we're seeing that on the Mega influencers. Right. And it's interesting, you know, a lot of people not close to the influencer market. You know, they think that this is not a super intentional business. These people have gotten lucky they don't really work very hard. You know, and that's not true. When you really dive into this influencer, influencer market, from the Kardashian, mega influencer kind of market all the way down. There is a lot of of intent. There's a lot of of curation, and a ton of talent in building. These followings. And the larger ones certainly have started to move heavily into their own brands and done quite well with that. But we're finding that there's definitely space and room we talked about in previous episodes about the rise of the boutique brands, you know, we're finding that that's also driven by these influencers, they have this point of view, they have this unique niche, and that can expand itself into a brand. 

Emily Lane 04:15 

Yeah, I think that that is a real key a key starting place, you know, do they have a really well thought out vision or point of view that could help be that kind of foundational ground? Yeah, for building their brand? I think that that is absolutely a really smart starting place, as well as, you know, really taking a look at the numbers side of things, you know, do they have a track record of, you know, proven proven sales, you know, what, are those metrics really lie? Do they have a highly engaged audience, how vetted are they at really taking a look and saying, Could this be a sustainable business? If I got the infrastrucure in place, and really looking at influencers who are contemplating, you know, am I ready to go from representing a brand to actually building a brand? You know, in addition to understanding those metrics and your unique viewpoint, you know, I think a core question would be, are you really ready to make this a business because building an apparel line, it is a business just as their influencer business. 

Bret Schnitker 05:32 

And I think, you know, that's probably some of the hesitation, if you will, or the the longer term thought process that these influencers go through, you know, they really understand how to curate themselves as a brand, their vision, their cure, you know, their aesthetic as a brand. And then, you know, you lock into some arch uncharted territory, it's it's one thing to choose, let's say we're talking about fashion influencers, if you will. And so, you know, it's one thing to be able to curate wonderful product that's already been built, right pulling in brands and talking about trends in the industry, which they're so good at, within each one of their genres, it's a completely other thing to be able to build and launch a brand, there's a ton of risks for them associated with that, because a partner in that is a good partner is critical, because they've established, if you will, this brand identity, brand equity, stewardship of their brand at a particular level. And if you don't have that right partner, or product is launched that substandard, you know, or there's a lot of complaints, or it misses the mark in some way that can really affect the overall influencers, reputation online. And so, you know, I think that, that today, that's probably one of the larger gaps, they have to leave, you know, they have to leap to really understand that they have to do a lot of soul searching and due diligence to make sure that if they're going to do that, you know, outside of all the other steps you have to do to a brand, but make sure that there's a specifically good partner, that's not going to make them look bad. Right? 

Emily Lane 07:17 

Right. Well, let's face it, you know, anytime you are getting ready to start a business, one of the things that we always talk about is really making sure that you've got that business plan in place, and really understanding how you want to go about running your business, you know, there's some really unique opportunities that exist out there for influencers right now, you know, there's the the typical, you know, I'm a business startup option, where it's, you make sure you got your finances together, you build the operations all on your own, you get that infrastructure in place to, you know, design and manufacture, source, you know, warehouse and handle all the marketing, and you get all those pieces in place, which is takes a lot of building expertise and 

Bret Schnitker 07:59 

a lot of investment. Absolutely. But there are 

Emily Lane 08:03 

also options out there that, you know, kind of provide that back end infrastructure and expertise for influencers. So they can kind of be the creator, provide their vision, and then lean on partners for that expertise. And I think that that can be a really smart model, when it comes to reducing some of those risks that you were just mentioning. You know, we've certainly had some conversations recently, with some influencers that had the idea of taking that next leap into building a brand for themselves and have gone down the past to find later on that the product wasn't wasn't very well made, or, you know, the product was an issue. Exactly. Or finding out that the product was made in an area that could actually be damaging to the rest of their reputation, because it's, you know, being made at a taboo part of the world. Yeah. So, let's talk a little bit about some of those risks. And we're tracking, you know, product quality and some of those things, what are some other risks that you would say, if you're considering this, be mindful of, 

Bret Schnitker 09:10 

yeah, I think, you know, the mindfulness of it is, you know, what we had talked about before the, the, if you're going to do it on your own, there's a lot of things that have to be put in place, there's large investments that you've got to be looking at, with respect to launching a brand it's not something that you can really take lightly. And the world's a big place. So I think, for them it's it's making sure that they've got a good understanding that you know, a typical brand influencers have had you know, we've we've seen on the news, these positive things that have occurred with some key influencers were hey, we've launched a collection we sold out in four weeks or three weeks or almost instantaneously, but the realization is that may not happen for every influencer and not on every product. So, you know, putting a mindset in place that if you're going to launch your own brand, just like we tell others that are in the beginning stages, the startups for boutique brands is, it's going to, it could take some time, you might have it be an overnight success. But if you sort of plan, these developing years that are three years and you know, you've got that that initial investment in place, you've got this ability to overcome some of the obstacles about growing that brand, overcoming the noise, you know, I think influencers have a little bit of a leg up, because if their audience is extremely loyal, you're not really marketing to the masses trying to get through the noise, you have your focused audience. The second part is really dealing with a partner that understands fabrication, quality, manufacturing, you know, the majority of the creators or the influencers that we've met with, they understand us that they understand quality, when it comes down to yarn counts constructions, what makes yarn good or bad, you know, their history typically isn't in textile design.. So making sure that you've got a good partner that's not going to, you know, fleece them, no play on words, you know, in the long in the long run, that's going to impact that brand equity. I think having good quality control follow through is great partners in terms of specifications, we talked about this, regardless of whether it's an influencer launch, or a startup launch or an existing business today, the majority of the business is happening online. And so there has to be a, a very intentional look at size, specification and transparency. returns can eat your lunch. 

Emily Lane 11:50 

And so any person is very typical in the industry. Yeah. 

Bret Schnitker 11:53 

And so, you know, when you're launching your own brand, it's really important to make sure that one your, your garment specifications that are going to cater to your audience well, and to that you relay that information properly, that requires some expertise in terms of technical design. And so, you know, I think that those are, you know, a small group of things that you've got to consider as you go through, you know, third party fulfillment, website development design, 

Emily Lane 12:25 

Each of these areas have very specific things that you don't know, unless, you know, right. So you know, things like fulfillment, for example, you know, understanding, do they ship internationally, how do they handle returns, you know, what are those costs when those when that happens, you know, when somebody managed to return, all of these things are items that need to be thought about in the very early stages of the development. And if it's something that as an influencer, you're like, oooh I don't know how much detail I want to get in. And I, I believe I've got a great idea, and I've got a great audience, then then that might be a scenario where finding that right partner that knows how to navigate that. So maybe pretend Bret that, you know, you're an influencer? Now. You are, you're a podcaster. 

Bret Schnitker 13:16 

So, you know, my four followers? 

Emily Lane 13:19 

What are some things that you would do to vet out whether or not this could be a good partner to help you launch this brand? 

Bret Schnitker 13:26 

Yeah, I think that's a good question, but a tough one to answer. Because if I'm putting myself in the, in the space of an influencer, I'm removing all this technical history that I have. So, asking the right questions can be more difficult, because you don't know what questions to ask, you know, basically. But if you're looking at it from a startup point of view, or your your experience isn't in the whole spectrum of a fashion brand, or an apparel, manufacturing kind of side, you know, good questions to ask are, you know, have you done other influencers brands successfully? The influencer market's very, very tight, you know, in general. So, you know, you can go to another influencer and see how their experience was, you know, ratings are a part of our world today, one to five star ratings. So if they launched a brand for another influencer, and that brand had five star ratings and had little to no quality returns, the other influencers gonna say, Yeah, I had a good experience, you know, this is a good thing. So, you know, vetting, vetting the experience with other influencers in that community could be important. 

Emily Lane 14:38 

Yeah, I would say research is absolutely going to be Yeah, essential in this, you know, 

Bret Schnitker 14:44 

Defining exactly the niche and level of product that you're looking to do. One of the big challenges when you're dealing with a startup influencer or regular startup is, you know, your first launch the quantities are generally pretty small, you know, for an average consumer or somebody outside the business, you're looking at, when you look at things like 500 units per style color, you're like, Wow, that's a lot of units. In the manufacturing world, that's sometimes a half to a quarter of the minimums that most factories will run. So there's a lot of challenges running sub minimum quantities or smaller quantities, certainly from a expense level, you're being charged more. But as you grow up, certainly, right, you'll be better off that happens, you're better con in a better position, profitability could go up. But understanding, you know, that there are a lot of challenges and asking questions down the road of, what does my profitability look like? What is my product going to look like, where I need to be from an MSRP level, a retail level, and back it through the chain, because there's so many levels of expense in an online business that I'm not really sure everyone understands when to distill down to sort of a net profit level? 

Emily Lane 16:04 

You know, again, I think it really does come down to a little bit of research, also, so you can have really realistic expectations about, what you just spoke of, yeah, what is a minimum quantity, right? And what does that look like? And what will my price points be? What, what is the reality of sustainability? You know, can I have a sustainable garment for $100? Right, if I'm producing 100 of them, you know, these kinds of things. You know, it's everyone's goal, right? To do better by the Earth and make an accessible, luxurious, wonderful product for a reasonable price, but really doing the research to vet out? Is that possible? 

Bret Schnitker 16:46 

Right. You know, sometimes it is sometimes on small quantities, it's extremely difficult and extremely expensive. But you can certainly, you know, sustainability is a big conversation. You know, it's about stasis with people, planet profit, right, all those different avenues. So part of that is really the social compliance level. And I think it's still a challenge, there was small quantities, but you can look to factories, that are producers that have a stable of factories that have all certified factories for social compliance. So that's part of that whole thing. Are we are we sustainably taking care of our employees, you know, and then selectively looking through the wide variety of sustainable fabrics if that's the choice that you're making? You know, I think that synthetic sustainable synthetics, recycled polyesters, you know, bio alternatives, things like that, can you carry very, very large minimums on yardages and can be quite expensive. But you can look at preferred natural fibers, preferred cotton's wools, linens, things like that, that are farmed a certain way. While there is an increase in cost. There's probably more availability and lesser minimums, right? So you know, having a partner to walk through all of those conversations, depending on what your DNA looks like. And what your key goals look like, is, is important. Yeah, it's based on understanding 

Emily Lane 18:11 

What are the choices you can make? Yeah, right. You know, because there's all kinds of them. For sure. Yeah. Well, before we kind of part ways, you know, I'm having a thought that perhaps it might be a nice detail for us to share a document for those who are considering developing a brand in this space, you know, what are some of those questions you can ask of potential partners to help vet out whether or not your values are aligned, and you can be a good fit? So I'll put that out there that we will make sure to have that available. But do you have any other words of wisdom for influencers who are kind of on the cusp of, I'm not sure if I'm ready to launch my own apparel line. 

Bret Schnitker 18:54 

I would say realize it's an undertaking, make sure that you have good factory partners, or partners to carry you through the whole process, frankly, you know, the manufacturing is just part of that. The final thing that at least for Stars and our partnership with a company that we've acquired with partners out of New York INSPR, you know, for the right, for the influencer, that it's, it's at that right level with the good engagement that's looking to do that there are options out there like INSPR that can, in some cases greatly reduce the risk of launch. And we've got full support services, great experience on the backside, helping them walk through design development, production, fulfillment, shipping, and all of that and, and if those options might be something to explore, we're not the only one. We certainly believe that we were doing it right but but there are these kinds of partnerships that are picking up on some of that risk which may be a good first step or ultimate long term partner, you know as you walk down this next step and in creating your own brand, 

Emily Lane 20:11 

Those are great thoughts. Thanks, Bret for joining me in this conversation once again today and everyone out there make sure to subscribe and stay apprised of upcoming episodes of Clothing Coulture. 

‍

‍