Is Seamlyne back open..?
Jul. 18th, 2010 20:15![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mapsedgeIs Seamlyne back open..?
The answer is a guarded, "Yes." To quote a friend's question, "Is this flashback on behalf of filling in the financial blanks, or was it a wave of fresh, Rennie-loving inspiration?"
Let's start here, and many of you who know me well already know this: I have no love of "rennies" as a group or a type. I view them as I view all potential customers: as checkbooks with my name in the "Payable To: " field. So, in direct answer to that question, we have financial blanks to fill.
There's more to it than that, though. Word has gotten out that I'm making tights with what's left of the cotton/lycra. I'm burning through it at a pretty good clip for having "retired", and the appreciation I'm receiving as a result is very gratifying.
So, there is some narcissism to it. I like being liked, and I like having my product liked. There's one other piece to this, though.
I ran into one of my better customers yesterday while out shopping. He told me to expect an order, which I thanked him for. He went on to say that he tried a pair of T'Ger tights* last year and that they fit very badly. I said, "Let me guess: they wrap around your leg?" Yes! he exclaimed, how did you know? "Because two years ago I had to 'fix' another pair of tights with the same issue."
This tells me two things of significance. First, it tells me that T'Ger doesn't care anymore. Whether this is born of ignorance or arrogance I do not know. If ignorance, I can only imagine that it is willful. If arrogance, it speaks to a disdain for the people that keep him in business. Two years (at least) of selling ill-fitting product is more than long enough to get feedback and adjust your process, which to my knowledge he has not done. This makes me ashamed as a professional.
Second, it tells me there is a HUGE gap in the market, a gap that I am more than equipped to fill.
And that's the story.
The big challenge now is finding a supplier for fabric. I need a place where I can get cotton/lycra fabric on a consistent basis, where the red I order a month from now is the same red I ordered last week. I've found some options, but in most the offering is catch-as-catch-can or is hideously expensive or comes on 600 yards rolls.
* For those of you who do not know, T'Ger is short for T'gallen Stone (neé Hugh Hardiwell). He was the first to introduce tights with codpiece to the ren faire market 1990 or so and is my only local competition (if you interpret the word generously). He has been farming out his tights work for at least two years, and so far as I can tell, exercises no quality control.
The answer is a guarded, "Yes." To quote a friend's question, "Is this flashback on behalf of filling in the financial blanks, or was it a wave of fresh, Rennie-loving inspiration?"
Let's start here, and many of you who know me well already know this: I have no love of "rennies" as a group or a type. I view them as I view all potential customers: as checkbooks with my name in the "Payable To: " field. So, in direct answer to that question, we have financial blanks to fill.There's more to it than that, though. Word has gotten out that I'm making tights with what's left of the cotton/lycra. I'm burning through it at a pretty good clip for having "retired", and the appreciation I'm receiving as a result is very gratifying.
So, there is some narcissism to it. I like being liked, and I like having my product liked. There's one other piece to this, though.
I ran into one of my better customers yesterday while out shopping. He told me to expect an order, which I thanked him for. He went on to say that he tried a pair of T'Ger tights* last year and that they fit very badly. I said, "Let me guess: they wrap around your leg?" Yes! he exclaimed, how did you know? "Because two years ago I had to 'fix' another pair of tights with the same issue."
This tells me two things of significance. First, it tells me that T'Ger doesn't care anymore. Whether this is born of ignorance or arrogance I do not know. If ignorance, I can only imagine that it is willful. If arrogance, it speaks to a disdain for the people that keep him in business. Two years (at least) of selling ill-fitting product is more than long enough to get feedback and adjust your process, which to my knowledge he has not done. This makes me ashamed as a professional.
Second, it tells me there is a HUGE gap in the market, a gap that I am more than equipped to fill.
And that's the story.
The big challenge now is finding a supplier for fabric. I need a place where I can get cotton/lycra fabric on a consistent basis, where the red I order a month from now is the same red I ordered last week. I've found some options, but in most the offering is catch-as-catch-can or is hideously expensive or comes on 600 yards rolls.
* For those of you who do not know, T'Ger is short for T'gallen Stone (neé Hugh Hardiwell). He was the first to introduce tights with codpiece to the ren faire market 1990 or so and is my only local competition (if you interpret the word generously). He has been farming out his tights work for at least two years, and so far as I can tell, exercises no quality control.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2010-07-19 00:04 (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-07-19 15:47 (UTC)I'm going to post your supplier conundrum on a couple of the message boards here - since we're in the apparel/footwear biz and have literally tens of thousands of working relationships with factories and suppliers of various kinds, maybe there's one that could shake out for you.
Might not, too, since we order in somewhat bigger batches than you would but worth a shot.
- J
no subject
Date: 2010-07-19 16:04 (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-07-19 16:14 (UTC)"The big challenge now is finding a supplier for fabric. I need a place where I can get cotton/lycra fabric on a consistent basis, where the red I order a month from now is the same red I ordered last week. I've found some options, but in most the offering is catch-as-catch-can or is hideously expensive or comes on 600 yards rolls."
I will tell you that lab dip testing/management is a huge part of what our product developers/colorists/materials management people do in each season; so color consistency is a common issue for the small scale tights producer and the $1.6bn company.
- J
no subject
Date: 2010-07-19 16:52 (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-07-20 02:15 (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-07-21 15:35 (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-07-24 23:34 (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-07-20 17:31 (UTC)