How to Start a Made to Order Clothing Line in 2024 (9 Steps)

In this e-commerce and dropshipping business era, the most asked question is: Which business niche earns more profit, or how do they plan or start their own? Well, we’ll discuss this in another article. But today, we’ll cover why made-to-order clothing lines are the next most profitable niche with the least expense.

So, without more intros, let’s walk through how you launch your made-to-order clothing brand in 2024, develop your brand identity, and much more.

What is a Made-to-Order Clothing Line?

A made-to-order clothing line refers to a specific fashion industry business model where garments or apparel are made when an order is placed. Rather than mass production, the model prioritizes customers’ customization demands to fulfill their specific styles and measurements.

In short,

• Made-to-order clothing manufacturers or brands produce exact quantities of garments after getting customer confirmation.
• It offers consumers flexibility in choosing fabric, color, and other details (buttons, pockets, etc.).
• Help to reduce waste and overproduction.

But should you start doing it? Or does the business model help to fulfill your apparel dropshipping business goals? For in-depth details, let’s go through the next section!

Is Starting a Made-to-Order Clothing Brand a Good Idea?

Online clothing business without stock is a win-win for dropshippers and those who plan to start their own. So, yes, starting a made-to-order clothing brand is a good idea. Want to explore for more in-depth details? Check out below:

Advantages:

• Reduced waste: As we mentioned earlier, made-to-order minimizes fabric waste, and encourages sustainable and ethical fashion.
• Higher profit margins: You can avoid costly upfront inventory investments and can demand personalized prices.
• Sustainability and flexibility: By producing garments on demand, you can easily adapt to ever-changing fashion trends, which helps you stay on the top priority list in the fashion landscape.
• Satisfied and strong customer relationship: The personalized apparel business model fosters closer relationships with consumers and increases fashion brand loyalty.
• Unique and creative idea: Made-to-order clothing helps your clothing business stand out in a crowded market (off-the-rack or mass-produced clothing). Also, it catches customers’ attention instantly.

Downsides:

• Requires longer production time: Dispensing on clients’ or consumers’ designs requires, sometimes personalized garments take longer time than mass production.
• Demand higher operational costs: Sometimes made-to-order individual orders and customizations can be more complex which requires extra labor compared to traditional garment production methods.

However, you can overcome these downsides effectively after acknowledging how to source material for a clothing line and effectively managing the complexities you face through customization, marketing, and production.

So, what’s your plan now? Convinced enough to create a clothing line and build a successful fashion brand! Before starting, follow the next seven hacks that will increase your chances of building a profitable clothing brand.

How to Start a Made-to-Order Clothing Line in the USA

For designing your own clothing line, firstly, one thing appears in your mind: where do you find trendy wholesale clothing vendors? Before that, the most important part is identifying the target audience that constantly holds your business rise tier. 

So, without more talk, let’s begin with the first tip now!

1. Find Your Ideal Customer with Target Market

Niche, target audience, and potential customers – all these three factors balance your business growth. You can ask yourself some questions to find out your target audience:

• Do you plan to produce luxury clothing or sustainable ones?
• What are your customers’ demands, and how does your product meet those?

You can conduct online surveys and focus groups of people’s information to ease the process. Also, research fashion trends through Google Trends or others to align customers’ product demands. Monitoring competitors is another effective way to acknowledge product pricing, marketing, and distribution strategies.

However, to analyze your target market, you can check out several factors, including:

• Consumer demographics
• Fashion industry purchasing habits, and many more.

2. Choose Your Clothing Niche

After finalizing your target audience and market, the next step is choosing your fashion niche. For this, you need to ask yourself which type of made-to-order clothing you offered, like:

• Men, women’s clothing manufacturers, or both
• Kids made-to-order wears
• Occasional wear like gowns, corporate or others

However, the choice is yours. But always consider focusing on your creative and unique skills through apparel designs.

3. Finding the Right Made to Order Manufacturer

Made-to-order clothing manufacturing selection plays a significant role in your fashion business’s success. At this stage, you need to ask yourself some questions:

• Do you want to source quality fabrics from a reputed manufacturer?
• Are you planning to source and tailor outfits from manufacturers?
• Or do you want to collaborate with fashion brands to offer made-to-order clothing?

You’ll easily get the required manufacturers to produce your made-to-order apparel by going through these queries.

4. Choose What Type of Manufacturing You Will Use

Are you looking for a local line? You can search manufacturers in your area through “Google Search.” But for building your own clothing line or hiring a fashion brand, you need to choose manufacturing types, such as:

• Custom and sew: The designer is responsible for custom cutting and sewing garments. They’ll help you in both designing and fabric selection. Your online fashion store can be beneficial because people love customized clothing designs more.
• Private label: If you want to add your brand logo to your unique apparel design, you can choose a fashion supplier who offers private labeling without taking credits. For example, Trendsi offers both custom packaging and private labeling.
• Print-on-demand: Another cost-friendly solution is to hire manufacturers who will print your clothing as per customers’ requirements. For personal brand creation and e-commerce sales channels, this clothing line is the best one.

5. Register your clothing line business

After finalizing your fashion manufacturers and completing the necessary background research about your garments, and target demographic, your next step is to focus on important paperwork, such as:

• Select a business entity type: Do you go with LLC, Scorp, sole proprietorship, or others? Consider the pros and cons of your selected business entity type. Also, give priorities on the best suits of your plans and goals.

Pro Tip: If you have a small budget, you can start with a sole proprietorship and then switch to creating an LLC or corporation, considering your ROI.

• Register your apparel business: Depending on your business entity type, you may have to register your business officially as per state law. If no registration is required, you might at least file a DBA (doing business as) to register your unique business name officially.
• Business licenses and permits: At the very first step, you’ll need a general business license to officially start your clothing line business. But for online business, you may need a sales tax license, home occupation permit, or others as per your state law. So, it’s ideal to consult your state and local governing agency to get and acknowledge details for proper licenses and permits.
• Employer identification number: For online to offline clothing businesses, registering for and paying business taxes is important. That’s why you might apply for an EIN (IRS). Though an EIN isn’t required for every type of business, getting one helps you both maintain your taxes and open a business bank account. 

All of these factors are a must-have thing before diving into your actual and profitable clothing line production. 

6. Build a Clothing brand identity

Plan to establish one of the best made-to-order clothing brands to compete with your competitors? Developing your clothing brand identity helps your business to build trust and loyalty among your target audiences. With this, you highlight your creative visual elements and encourage audiences to buy yours. As you know, the millennial generation prefers those apparel that offers an experience.

Considering these facts, here are some key questions that will help you to create a long-term business strategy as well as develop a brand identity.

• What is your brand’s key role or identity, and how do you relate them with garments?
• How do my made-to-order products differ from existing clothing lines?
• Which made-to-order clothing niche helps you to stand out from the crowd?
• Would you request a sample from the manufacturer before confirming bulk production? 
• What challenges might you face in the starting phase, and will you overcome them?

7. Promote Your Clothing Line

Social media branding (Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, etc.) and influencer marketing, promotions, and discounts –  all these mediums help to promote your fashion brand, reach a wider audience, and gain credibility. But first, you need to maintain consistency in posting and building a website. Also, follow other hacks, including:

• Blogging: Statista states that the social media advertising market is projected to earn $219.8 billion in 2024. On the contrary, 56% of marketers state that business blogging is more effective, and 10% admit it generates the biggest ROI. So, you can share informative and engaging blogs related to your clothing line on your business site. 
• Use visual marketing: You can share high-quality images and videos to highlight your brand and product details. People love beautiful visuals and details that give them a real-life experience. 
• Offer discounts: You can provide discounts and promotions on their first purchase or for referrals. If you want, you can invest in email marketing, which is needed.

8. Upgrade Your Fashion Design Skills

For designing a clothing line or adding a creative touch, you can follow popular fashion designers, or you can share your idea with your chosen retailers who help to create yours, like Trendsi. With YouTube tutorials or following other designers, you can learn and hone your design skills effectively. 

Here are some ways you can apply to enhance and expand your clothing lines:

• Experiment with different materials, fabrics, textiles, and many more.
• Develop skills through trend analysis, market research, and fashion forecasting to adopt styles, patterns, and designs. 
• Take advantage of global fashion trends, industry insights, trade shows, exhibitions, and many other resources. 

9. Find Creative Inspiration

Do you want to immerse your clothing brand in various cultures, traditions, and global fashion trends? For this, you need to adopt smart textiles, wearable tech interaction, tech-infused clothing styles, and many more. Also, get connected with social media fashion influencers, and follow other tactics, including:

• Visiting the established and popular brick-and-mortar designer stores. 
• Follow newsletters, magazines, and podcasts of top-notch fashioners, i.e., Pinterest.  
• Collect trendy and demanding clothing styles from fashion brands that help to speak your unique brand speciality.
• Observe textures, lines, color combinations, and shapes to create your creative clothing line.
• Research vintage fashion trends, iconic or significant events attire, or classic ones to add a modern twist.

Pro Tip: Don’t forget to get suggestions from your family and friends, i.e., what they love to wear, What is their favorite fashion brand, do they like made-to-order clothes and many more.

However, after going through several tips, you might plan to start your own clothing line. If so, let’s check out some pricing factors that you need to consider to achieve long-term business success. 

How Much Does it Cost to Start a Clothing Line?

The most asked question from startups or small businesses is: how much does it cost to start my own clothing line? Well, there is no one-size-fits-all answer. Generally, the cost depends on your business model, size, the type of clothing you want to sell, and others. It is said that a small business line cost will be at least $500, a medium line will be between $1000 to $5000, and a larger one will be between $25,000 to $50,000. 

Other considering factors are:

• Production: These costs refer to creating patterns and sample garments. Also, specific instructions and a list of materials costs are included for constructing each garment.
• Machinery and labor: Other production costs are considered machinery and how many co-workers you need to craft your garments. 
• Materials: From fabrics to other relevant equipment or materials, they are needed to start a clothing line and fulfill clients’ demands. 
• Customization: If you plan to offer a customized and personalized clothing line, you need to plan manufacturing costs, design development, testing, and many more. 

However, the payment processing and shipping need to be counted on your lists. In a nutshell, the clothing business’s primary expenses are design creation and marketing, while others extend to production and inventory. So, it’s a must-have thing to consider all of these factors for balancing your budget and achieving your fashion market goals.  

FAQs About Starting Your Own Made-to-Order Clothing Line

Now that you acknowledge all the hacks required to start a made-to-order clothing line let’s take a look at some of the most asked questions about the process below: 

Conclusion

We hope you enjoyed our guide on how to start a made-to-order clothing line in 2024. However, we have to repeat: Starting a made-to-order online clothing store is not different from starting a real business. 

So, take every step wisely and choose the best manufacturers who fulfill your and your consumer’s demand. If you want to leverage private labeling, open pack wholesale, made-to-order, or dropshipping facilities in one platform, you can go with Trendsi.

Also, you can request a free sample to recheck apparel quality and match your predefined styles. Thanks for sticking around till the end. If you have further questions, we would love to hear from you in the comments below.