How much does it cost to start a pet collection? A women’s freelance fashion designer co. who also designs for pets is here to help you a lil’ bit…:)
Thinking of starting a pet clothing/accessories collection for the pet industry market? We personally have first hand experience with this & I’m personally happy to share some very important experience & info for your new pet collection. Who better to design a fantastic pet collection than a fashion designer!
The first thing I’m sure people want to know is how long will it take & how much will it cost for your pet designs. Again, that’s like asking a house builder how much to build a family house without telling them WHAT kind of house or even how BIG the house is! I’m personally a working women’s fashion designer so I can tell you this much real quick……it’s a tiny fraction of what it costs to start a HUMAN clothing collection! That is the good news, the bad news is, you still have to go through basically all the same steps for your pet design collection. Seriously, it took us over 5 months to perfect our patterns, find the best fabrics & metal hardware & find the best people to actually sew these tiny garments!
- Pet Collection Development ~ Fabric/hardware research etc. 6. Pet fittings
- Pet sketch ideas 7. Pet product photography
- Cad Flats ~ Technical drawings 8. Pet package design
- Pet pattern development 9. Pet marketing & PR
- Sewing first samples 10. Pet production of multiple units
Pet Design Behind The Scenes :
- Figure out your pet collection’s first items. Are they going to be clothing, harnesses, pet sweaters? Are you going to design them yourself? Can you make a pattern or can you sew? If not, you will have to hire a sufficient freelance fashion designer to make the patterns, a home sewer or a sewing factory to sew them for you. Being different & unique is the best way to start as there are tons of people buying already made pet items overseas & trying to resell them in the U.S. It’s getting more & more competitive in the pet world & tougher to stand out. Do you like little dogs, or big dogs? Narrow it down to start.
- 1B) Figure out your customer. Narrow it down. Don’t try to appeal to all pet owners, you’ll regret it. Pet owners have their own unique personal vibe. They usually like to dress their pet’s the way they dress themselves. Are they super girly, manly, utilitarian, vegan, or totally down to earth? There will be a niche pet group to to follow you!
- Figure out the name of your new pet collection company & get your online URL… .com set up asap. go to Domain.com….or GoDaddy.com. COST ~ $12~15 per year.
- Trademark your name yourself online, it’s about $260 ish dollars. Don’t pay a lawyer to do it. You can fig. it out by yourself, trust me. COST ~ $275 for 6 years.
- Start small. Design & produce 6-8 styles/samples to start. You want to test these out first before you start spending too much money only to find out nobody wants to buy your new pet collection. Less is more when you are new…:) Having 6-8 different strong designs which are perfect is much better then having 30 so-so designs. Start small & smart. you will find out in time which are your best selling items. COST ~ this needs to be broken down much more depending on item~ clothing is different then collars, leashes, sweaters, coats, toys, bowls. etc.
- Before you spend tons of money & time setting up your own website to sell on, try something like ETSY to test out the popularity of your pet designs. It’s much easier & cheaper, only $0.20 per listing and a tiny percentage of any sale. People will see your designs & rate them. They will edit your collection for you! This is very vauluable info. There are over 8 million people coming to the ETSY mall 24 hours a day from all over the world to buy these type of items. Most people shop on Etsy right after work & Etsy sellers sell the most right after working hours, late @ night & over the weekend too!
- You will need to figure out your sizing for dogs for example. Did you know there are over 200 different doggie body shapes!? I suggest choose between tiny, small or large dogs to start. Otherwise, you will have to provide too many different sizes.
- SHIPPING ALL YOUR ORDERS ***You need garment tags designed & printed AHEAD of time. hang tags, labels, biz cards, tissue wrapping, shipping envelopes, printed return labels, tons of shipping tape, thank you cards, cello envelopes, etc……
- This is part one of this article….part 2 will be coming soon on how to start /design a pet collection…:)
- I hope you find this info helpful!….xx