Venture Concept
Opportunity
As someone who has always been into fashion, I have noticed
a serious lack of options when it comes to male clothing. Most popular male
clothing brands fit in two categories; the one that over-brands themselves and
puts their name and logo anywhere they can, as big as possible, or there is the
brand that is so simple that where you can’t distinguish it from any other
brand. To illustrate my point more, examples of the former type of company I
mentioned would be like Hollister, American Eagle, and The Hundreds. Examples
of the latter would be H&M, Gap, and Old Navy. The one brand I have noticed
incorporate both of these methods is Ralph Lauren. You could buy a plain color
polo with nothing on it but a small logo or you could buy one where the logo
covers a fourth of the shirt and “Polo” is written in bold letters across your
chest.
With that said, it is not very
easy to find unique and tasteful clothing when you are a guy. This is market that
can be greatly explored since there are men everywhere that feel this way.
Currently people need to go out of their way to find clothes that are distinct.
One of the few ways to do so is to find stores that don’t follow the business
model these commercial brands are using, although that is not as easy as it
sounds. I would say there are two brands that stand out in my mind that don’t
fit the generalization stated above, Urban Outfitters and Cotton On. While
these to companies may be successful, it doesn’t compare to widespread
availability of the other brands I mentioned. You can almost guarantee that
there will be a Hollister or a Gap in any mall you go to but you can’t say the
same thing about Urban or Cotton On. Because there are such few alternatives,
this remains a big opportunity for anyone with fashion sense and it will last
until there is equal representation for this niche of clothing. I know this is
a market in need because ever since I discovered the limited alternatives, I
have never once gone back to those tacky or simplified brands as well as many
of my friends.
Innovation
While I am a huge fan of Urban and Cotton On, I believe we
can go a step further. What I am proposing is a brand that lets the user design
the clothes. I would start with just shirts but would hope to transition this
idea to all articles of clothing. The way it work is like this: you walk in to
a store and see a template of all the customizations you can make. First would
be the type of shirt:
·
T-shirt
·
Collar shirt
·
Henley
·
Button-up
You would then be able to design practically every aspect of
that type of shirt:
·
Material
·
Pocket(s)
·
Buttons
·
Trims
·
Collar (color)
I plan on having a sort of mini factory where there are
people on display making these customized shirts and when they are ready you
could have it shipped to you or come and pick it up yourself. Although the
price is not finalized, I think the plain shirt would be $20 and there would be
a price from $5-$10 for each subsequent you added on depending on what it is.
Venture Concept
The innovation mentioned above will provide something
completely different to the clothing industry. I believe many people will get
hooked to this idea once they walk into the store and see how much control they
have over their clothes. No clothing brand is doing anything near this idea so
I don’t think it will be too hard to get customers. I suppose my strongest competitors would be
Urban Outfitters and Cotton On since we are tending to towards the same people
but they lack something fundamentally different, and that is the customization
of clothes. If my store is placed in a high fashion mall or a shopping center,
I have no doubt it will do well. I would
need to create a store and website where the customization can be done and I
would need employees to make and sell the clothing. Each store would probably
need around 15 employees if I went through with the mini-factory idea. I plan
on being on the designing end, choosing what can be customized and what the
options are.
The Three Minor elements
1.
My most important resource is the sheer amount
of control the user has in designing his clothes.
2.
I plan on carrying this idea over to more
articles of clothing and eventually for women as well.
3.
In 5 years I want to have my own clothing line
and pursue an individual career in design. My first venture will give me
experience in clothing industry and knowledge on the best ways to go about
making clothes.
Unfortunately, I didn’t do my first Venture Concept or What’s
Next so I didn’t change anything and don’t have any feedback.
