Like a lot of people, I started exercising outdoors when COVID hit; returning to mountain biking after a 25 year hiatus. It’s become such a passion of mine that I want to start a MTB apparel line.
I have the opportunity to purchase the designs, patterns and tech sheets from a MTB apparel company that recently went out of business (great products, bad mgmt). My question is, can anyone tell me an estimated cost to reverse engineer a men’s technical apparel woven shirt? Technical knit shirt?
I get that it would be impossible to get an exact number. Instead, I’m looking for a “back of the envelope” estimate so that I can do some macro calculations.
Not to worry, StyleCareers.com isn’t going away. We are looking at this line as being a side project and besides, if Elon Musk can run 4 major companies at one time, I might be able to run 2 small ones.
Hmm, I don’t know the numbers part, but if you have the sizing/grading, pattern & construction, the development part is pretty much done. All you need to do is lock down fabric and trims (although the BOMs should lead you to the mills and trims the company used, so again, a lot of that work is done for you). Theoretically it should be smooth sailing from here!
Past that it’s just finding a manufacturer and sending them the tech pack to give you a cost estimate. Of course the cost will depend on units, fabric, & location.
As long as that company did a good job with their tech packs and patterns you shouldn’t have to do much… although when I worked at an apparel manufacturer and we got “transfer styles” and things like you’re describing, there were times that the tech packs & patterns were not aligned and were total nonsense- it was clear the people at the company were inept and the factories were dealing with conflicting info they just had to make the best out of. Hopefully not the case for these TPs!
… But even if that is an issue, if you find a good manufacturer who will do full package work and let them fix the issues, it should still be pretty simple.
I do know this world, and a lot about technical cycling wear! Love the products too… can be a good niche if you have excellent fit and fabrications that work to build a loyal fan base.
