Business Monitor T shirt success stories
Who would have guessed? Summer 2018 became the year when T shirts went rock ‘n’ roll and they did so with a seriously retro vibe. Marketing expert Paul Clapham provides an overview of this latest trend.
a mix of OK, wannabes and never will bes but without exception they were all mustard keen. I guess youʼd have more chance of getting business in this sector if you like the musical style or, indeed, the people in question.
But I think there is a big opportunity care of the web. Create, for instance, the Bands In Birmingham website. Itʼs a publicity vehicle for them and a revenue generator for you. Free would be nice in some ways but people value more what they pay for. It would certainly give you an opportunity to sell a range of band merchandise, T shirts being just the tip of the iceberg. If you are lucky the equivalent of Bands in Birmingham may already exist, in which case you can sell your skills there, assuming the price is right. Be ready to laugh in their faces and offer a real world price if it isnʼt (plenty of people have an unrealistically inflated idea of the value of their publicity offering).
Remember the copyright A
s a normal rule of thumb I donʼt like retro – it says to me that a business has no new ideas so has just riffled through the old pattern book. The motor industry is a classic case.
But the truth is that John T Public disagrees. Retro is popular and so itʼs big business. Of course the question is, was this summerʼs enthusiasm for old rock iconography just a fad, as fashion can well be, or does it have legs? Quick answer: who would have guessed that over-sized white T shirts with a printed message would have lasted? But they did, by fashionʼs standards. So rub your hands with glee. The business potential for turning summerʼs fun item into autumn and winterʼs earner is definitely there. On the simplest level aim to reproduce the T shirt success stories in winter weight products – sweatshirts and rugby shirts classically. Heavyweight T shirts and polos are just as relevant.
Look at me This appears to have been driven by the
ʻlook at meʼ Instagram fans. Note that I did not say ʻInstagram generationʼ – because it doesnʼt really exist. I recently heard a teen say ʻmy grammaʼs a grammerʼ which I thought rather witty. (Translation: my grandma is active on
| 28 | October 2018
Instagram). I could tell he was rather proud of her.
The point is that fans of Instagram come in all ages both genders and all levels of affluence. For sure there is a disproportion of young users but it is apparently evening out as older generations get involved. Itʼs a big constituency and growing.
In any case retro music works with just about everybody – consider how many millions of fans the Rolling Stones have who are far less than half the age of Mick ʻnʼ Keef. Consider, too, how many peopleʼs music collection is 100% retro (Iʼm personally in the 90s).
Oddly enough children are a valuable sector of this market. They donʼt buy their own clothes, thatʼs down to mum and dad and two often competitive grandmas. Buying retro for kids is apparently called nostalgia projection. Itʼs also an excuse for dad to buy himself that shirt he wasnʼt allowed/couldnʼt afford back in the day.
A connection between generations As a personal opinion I think that father and son wearing the same rock memorabilia shirt is what the word naff was coined for. But I suppose Iʼd have to say that anything achieves a connection between the generations is virtuous. Think local. I have never lived anywhere where there wasnʼt a fair number of local bands. They have been
Be aware of the issues of copyright. As a rule of thumb, if a design exists, someone else created it and has the copyright. That person or business may be relaxed about enforcing copyright or they may be as tough as teak. So the rule is to ask first.
Retro has become popular for several reasons. First a number of celebrities have worn it and been copied. Second, a lot of consumers appear to have decided that the high streetʼs products lack distinctiveness and are too generic. Retro, meanwhile is perceived as being the opposite to those two weaknesses. People definitely want to stand out from the crowd and perceive retro as a fine way to do so.
As a result customers are keen on one-offs and so-called investment purchases. Printwear has the potential to make that seriously valuable for the producer, ie you. Wow, thereʼs a radical concept, the producer getting rich from his skill and expertise! (This could catch on, you know). Viable short run production of printwear makes the potential of producing investment pieces all the likelier. So what do you produce an extra one of for your pension pot? Or is that wide-eyed lunacy? I donʼt think so. If you had a complete set of all Apple printwear (because youʼd produced it), or even just the early years, what would that be worth? For Apple read any number of big brands.
www.printwearandpromotion.co.uk
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