What I learned by watching the Apliiq Print on Demand Process
Creating at The Compound. This was a cool experience we all had about a year ago. An impromptu Saturday afternoon photoshoot in one of the rooms at the studio. It was the culmination of months of work behind a fashion brand called OSO that has been the brainchild of a Compound Kingz partner. It was more of an experiment really, trying out different avenues of clothing design and e-commerce. Up until now it had been sending designs off for digital print, low end quality heat transfers onto blank shirts, graduating to vinyl cutting and heat pressing ourselves, to eventually trying the Print on Demand services.
I honestly just had a front row seat to watch and learn from their experiences during this process and here is what I observed. Print on demand is an interesting and viable option for those looking into developing a clothing line with little to no start-up capital. There are a few options online but they eventually chose a company called Apliiq. This and linking to an ecommerce platform such as Shopify, you're essentially in business. There are no shortage of YouTube videos going into detail about this process, but this is what I observed.
Apliiq allows you to select from a wide variety blank clothing options from pants, shorts, hoodies, t-shirts, etc...that you can design based on your brand and creative vision. They have some cool features like printing on the inside of a hoodie, multiple places around a garment to add a brand logo (rather than the typical center square), and the ability to customize your label and tag. Once you have the items you like and design complete, you link this to Shopify to control the actual sales process. You can set your retail price to whatever you want based on the margins you desire and ultimately the audience you're targeting. In a perfect world, you simply promote your website, the customer purchases the item and Apliiq process the order before shipping it to your customer. The advantage is you have zero inventory and minimal start up costs. However, from what I saw, there is far more into this than what people think.
Cons, or challenges.
If you are not someone who has graphic design ability, I highly suggest having someone on your team that does.
The Apliiq website is very clunky, or at least was last year. There is a lot of trial and error fine tuning every last detail. If web/technical abilities and overall patience are not your strong suit, I recommend having someone on the team that does.
The cost of your selected garment can rise very, very quickly. No question its sexy to have that custom label and hoodie liner, however, every add on is an extra cost. I think for the hoodies they designed, which were dope, the cost was around $40 give or take the add ons, so now you have to set a retail price of $60 and up to make any sort of profit, and this doesn’t include shipping. You really need to have a clear understanding of your target market if you're going to sell a hoodie for $70-$100.
Shipping takes forever. In a world that’s accustomed to 24-hour delivery, waiting 3 weeks to get your expensive clothing item could be a turn off to potential customers.
All in all, I have to say I learned a lot watching this process from start to finish. The final product was of good quality, my wife still wears her OSO hoodie and loves it. I have mixed feelings about this choice for building a fashion brand. Yes, you can be up and running with the appearance of being a legitimate clothing company in a short amount of time, and if you watch any of these YouTube videos, many have been successful at it. However, I think like any other business, the key is to have a clear vision of what you want your brand to be and accurately identify who your audience is. This is merely a tool to help you achieve that.
Everyone has ideas but putting them into action and learning in real time is what separates the successful from the dreamers and wishers. I applaud the guys for making it happen and look forward to what comes next.
This was another amazing creative experience at The Compound. OSO blessed.