Chapter 12: Initial Launch Blueprint - The Bulletproof Basics

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INITIAL LAUNCH BLUEPRINT.

Here’s the blueprint for launching a new brand, or new designs within an existing brand.

1. How many designs to start with.
2. How many units to order of each design.
3. How many colors to order of each design.
4. The importance of the sales data from the launch.
5. How to identify patterns in the “good” designs for repeatability.
6. How to recover cost on the designs that didn’t sell well.

Creating new designs is a super fun process and an exciting time in an apparel brand!

However, it’s important to maintain perspective and objectivity as you go though the creative phase, and move into the production process.

Remember that it’s normal for YOU as the owner to think that ALL your designs are awesome, because they’re yours, but the reality is that the market may feel very differently about it, and at the end of the day, they’re the ones buying the product, not you. So it’s important to test things first, pay attention to the sales data, and listen to market feedback. 

Speaking from the experience of launching multiple brands of our own, and more importantly, seeing the data on literally hundreds of our client’s brands, the best strategy we’ve seen for this is two fold.

Start small with any new design, order the minimum quantity, invest the lowest amount to test the design in the marketplace. If it sells fast, reorder in higher volume to get better margins.

Our standard launch suggestion is to start with 3-5 designs across a broad sizing ratio, with a minimum order of each. 

What usually happens is out of those initial 3-5 designs you’ll have 1 or 2 that sell great, and 1 or 2 that hardly move at all.

Total guide is 4 pages long and includes a Checklist Worksheet on Page 4.