Useful Guide for Starting a Sustainable Fashion Brand

Starting a fashion brand and making it a successful business will be an adventure. Especially if you are someone with no prior knowledge of how a fashion brand works. On top of this, you want to make sure that the brand you are building follows the most updated sustainability and ethical compliances. But how does one do it?

In this article, you will learn the basic framework required for making the right decisions while starting your own fashion brand. For better understanding, this article will be divided into two sections.

In section 1, we will look at the 10 steps that are required for starting a successful fashion brand, and in section 2, we will dive deep into sustainability certificates that are available in the textile industry to ensure that your brand purchases are sustainable and ethical.

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SECTION 1

10 Steps to Start Your Own Clothing Brand

1.???Decide your niche

In fashion, there are a huge number of niche markets available for someone to get into. A niche is a specialized segment of the market for a particular kind of product. Men's casual wear, premium wear, activewear, yoga wear, etc. are some of the niche markets available in the fashion industry.

It is ideal to select a niche that you are passionate about and there is a gap in the market for the same. Building a product based on your requirement can also be a great start. Imagine if you are a yoga practitioner and you wish for a certain type of product to be available in the market but no one has made anything yet. Then it is high time that you build one.

If you are unsure about this strategy, just follow the social handles of celebrities who are in your targeted audience category. (A target audience refers to the specific group of consumers most likely to buy your product.) Make a list of all the clothes they are wearing in their latest uploads. There you have a possible collection.

Without a niche market, it will be difficult to focus on brand building as you grow. That is why this step is crucial.

2.???Choose a Brand name and create a digital presence

Brand name plays an important role in the success of a fashion brand. It literally sets you apart from others. Just think about how you feel when you hear the name “Nike” or “Apple”. If you do not have a name in your mind, you can take inspiration from generating a name easily using this Business name generator.

Once you have a few names that you are planning to finalize, check for the availability of the domain and social media handle. I really do not want you to register your brand name and both domain and social media handles are taken. It would become a disaster. I want you to avoid it.

Only finalize a brand name that has domain and social media handles available. If you wish to check for domain availability, visit here.

3.???Finalize designs

Before you panic about your lack of knowledge in fashion designing, let me assure you that you don’t need to have a degree in fashion designing to come up with a collection. All you need is a bunch of photos of your desired clothing item.

An easy way to come up with a collection is to go through popular brand websites that are in your niche market and select a few items out of them. One amazing thing about websites is that it will also have size guides and material composition and other information about the product. It will be more than necessary for anyone to create a collection.

4.???Finding a manufacturer (Where sustainability comes into play)

Did you know that most of the apparel in the world is manufactured by a handful number of countries? Countries like China, Indonesia, Vietnam, Pakistan, and India are at the forefront of apparel manufacturing.

If you are in one of these countries, then you can easily find manufacturers with an easy google search. In case you want to minimize risk while dealing with manufacturers, you can use sewport to find apparel manufacturers of various MOQs (Minimum order quantity)

It is better to approach 2-3 manufacturers at once. Share the product images with them and ask them to send you samples. Samples may have certain flaws, but with iteration, they can be perfected. Go with the manufacturer that suits your budget, quality, and other factors.

5.???Creating a website

There are numerous ways in which you can develop your website/e-commerce site without knowing to code. Integrating payments, shipping, and inventory management only takes a couple of clicks.

If you want to get a website made at a low cost, you can find freelancers from around the world via Freelancer.

For developing a website by yourself, check out:

-????????Shopify

-????????Woocommerce

-????????Wix

6.???Pricing and positioning

Pricing plays an important role in the number of sales you receive. The lesser the price, the chances of making sales is higher. Depending on the type of people you want to target, you can set prices accordingly. The golden rule is to start with a profit of 20% - 30%.

Pricing strategy also helps you in positioning your product in the consumer's mind in a certain way.

7.???Packaging and labeling

For eCommerce/D2C business, the packaging and labeling have a direct impact on the customer experience. It is the top emotional interaction with the brand. Go for personalized packaging and labeling as it increases the value of the product. Add something extra to please your customer.

You can make custom packaging and labeling here.

8.???Setting realistic goals

Once you have the above steps executed, it is important to have set realistic goals. It means creating a roadmap for a coming couple of months. It should have detailed goals and how to achieve them. Some goals should sound like this.

-????????Make at least one sale a day

-????????Post new content every day on social media

9.???Marketing and promotion

When it comes to fashion, marketing is crucial for success. Marketing helps to share the brand story and helps you connect with the audience in a much deeper way. There are two types of marketing. Paid and organic.

Paid marketing is where you pay media channels to deliver your marketing content to a large targeted audience whereas organic marketing is using existing free channels to put out your message.

If you are on a tight budget, it is better to start off with a small marketing budget and scale as you grow your business.

10. Scale

If everything goes well, you will start receiving consistent orders for your products. During this stage, it is recommended to diversify and include various products to increase the chances to make sales.

For example, if you start with yoga wear, try to include yoga mats and nutritional supplements to complement a purchase. Thus increasing your chances for higher sales volume.

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SECTION 2

Beginners Guide to Sustainability Certificates in Fashion

Now you know exactly how to launch a fashion brand. But we want the brand to be sustainable. In order to achieve this, we have to ensure that the parties involved in the entire supply chain are also following sustainable models and practices. This will include yourself. Or the raw material used for making the product should be naturally sustainable, like hemp.

Sustainability is defined in ‘n’ number of ways. There is no universal definition for sustainability. Hence we need to depend on third-party certifications that have the highest credibility in the market.

What are sustainability certifications?

Sustainability certifications are nothing but guidelines used by businesses that demonstrate their commitment to a good environment, social and ethical practices. There are more than 400 types of such certifications available. This indicates that the market defines sustainability in more than 400 ways.

It is important to choose the certifications that align with our products. Most of them are provided by NGOs and other independent third parties. We have to admit that some certifications are shady as their auditing process is not thorough.

Sustainability certifications have certain features attached to them. They are:

1.????Independent: Sustainability certifications are provided by independent organizations.

2.????Standard Based: There are always some guidelines or standards to be met in order to qualify for the certification. This prevents measures against companies that try to outdo their competition by spurious claims.

3.????Verifiable: Certifications and products can be verified against practices. It is done by independent third-party organizations.

4.????Voluntary: Obtaining these certifications are not mandatory for companies. It is a voluntary act.

5.????No government regulatory requirements: These certificates don’t come under any government making them adaptable and flexible. The guidelines are often market-driven.

In this section, we will look at the most popular and widely used sustainability certifications by the fashion industry and apparel manufacturers.

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What is the most popular sustainability certification?

Here is the list of some of the top sustainability certifications available in the world. They are popular because they are authentic and can be traced. Many multinational fashion brands use these certifications to establish them as sustainable brands.

1.???GOTS

Global Organic Textile Standard is an internationally recognized certification that certifies for organic products. They ensure the use of organic materials at every stage of the production cycle, GOTS conducts on-site auditing. It checks the entire supply chain from harvesting to manufacturing and labeling. If any chemicals are involved, then it should also meet the strict environmental and toxicology criteria to become a GOTS supplier/brand.

How much does it cost to get GOTS certified?

GOTS certification costs differently to various businesses depending on their annual sales. But the basic certification cost for a business having up to $25000 in organic product sales will be charged around $1100 + travel cost (If more than one plant is there for inspection) + licensing fee ($165)

For more information: https://www.global-standard.org/

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2.???Fair Trade International

Fair Trade International is a certification given to small and medium businesses and traders to certify that they follow its guidelines. The foundation of fair trade international is price. As per the certification, the companies are paying farmers a minimum price to protect them from market price falls. It makes sure that farmers are not exploited in difficulties. When farmers benefit, their whole community prospers.

Fair Trade international cost is calculated per kilogram of items sold. It varies from 6 cents/kg to 13 cents/kg depending on countries.

For more information:

https://www.fairtrade.net/standard/fairtrade-standards

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3.???OEKO-TEX

OEKO-TEX is a popular certification that analyses and certifies every part of a finished piece including threads, buttons, or other accessories, has been independently tested for “harmful substances and therefore is harmless to human health”.

The average cost of OEKO-TEX certification is $6500. All the certified businesses are listed on their website for other people to explore buyers with its certification. This acts as a source for manufacturers to find buyers.

For more information: https://www.oeko-tex.com/en/

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4.???BCI Cotton

Better Cotton Initiative reduces the impact cotton production has on the environment by using better crops and fewer pesticides. It focuses on improving the livelihoods and economic condition of the cotton-producing areas. It ensures better pay for the farmers. It is the largest cotton sustainability program in the world.

The BCI certification cost includes two parts, membership fees + variable volume-based fees. The membership fee is calculated on lint footprint and the volume-based fee is calculated on how much better cotton is sourced.

The membership fee starts from 6000 Euro and Volume based fee starts from 11 Euro if the volume is less than 200 Million tonnes.

For more information: https://www.bettercotton.org/

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5.???OCS

Organic Content Standard certifies that a product is made up of 5%-100% organic material by tracking the flow of raw material from its source to the final product. The cost of certifying with OCS starts from $1100 + $150 as a licensing fee.

For more information: https://shorturl.at/opGO6

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6.???GRS

Global Recycling Standard is an international, voluntary, full product standard that sets requirements for third-party certification of recycled content, chain of custody, social and environmental practice, and chemical restrictions.

The cost of acquiring this certification starts from $1100 + $300 licensing fee.

For more information: https://shorturl.at/dyR01

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These are only a handful of sustainability certifications in the textile manufacturing industry. While developing your products, makes sure that the factories that are involved in the production of your products have any of these certifications. It is also to be noted that these factories also acquire raw materials from certified sellers. This way you can make sure that your latest fashion brand is sustainable.

I hope that this article was helpful for you to have a general idea on starting a fashion brand from scratch that is sustainable and organic. Now it’s your turn to take action. Good luck!

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