making the take your time sweater
Welcome to the first instalment of our new journal series: abundance ~ always.
This series dishes up the information that I wish I knew when starting out.
Since diving into the vortex that is creating and manufacturing physical products, I’ve been wrestling with how much I want to share. Should I give up my suppliers, after spending countless hours hunting them down? Should I recommend brands that I’ve tried and tested? Should I give the answers to the questions that I once asked myself?
Initially, I wanted to keep things pretty close to my chest. I felt protective of my work and a part of me was resentful towards the randoms who would drop in my DMs after a product launch asking for the name of my supplier (I still don’t advocate for that behaviour, it’s gross).
After a lot of reflecting, testing the waters, changing my mind and tuning into what feels good, I’ve decided to shed my scarcity complex and lay it all out on the table. It’s what I wished someone would do for me. Not necessarily provide a step by step tutorial, but simply offer a name or point me in the right direction of where to begin.
So, in celebration of me fully embodying an abundance mindset I’m going to walk you through how I made Rust’s latest product, the take your time sweater.
season 1: the idea
Like all of my ideas, the idea of the take your time sweater came out of nowhere. I think I was sitting on the couch, probably watching Sex and the City or Gossip Girl for the twentieth time. As per usual, I wrote it down in my phone notes and let my mind wander with possibilities.
This idea came off the back of the you are creative t-shirt collection (full creation breakdown coming soon) which was a joy to create, but didn’t sell to my expectations. It was the biggest stock order of apparel I’ve made for Rust, so I was hesitant to dive into another garment project so soon after dropping big bucks for the t-shirts.
I let it sit for a couple of weeks, occasionally researching blank sweater suppliers, before creating a mockup file in Photoshop on the 25th of April (at 9:13pm to be exact ~ I seem to get my best creative bursts right before bed).
season 2: the design
Despite having a graphic design diploma, designing funky text is not my forte. So instead of trying to conform or learn an entirely new skill, I’ve decided to stick to what I know and adore: times new roman, italicised. It’s sleek, classic and looks bloody good screenprinted.
I mucked around with a few placement options and sizes before landing on the above mockup. At this point I had tentatively decided on the sweater supplier and style. My original idea was to get white sweaters screenprinted with black text so the customers could tie dye or colour them if they wanted to but grey was the only picture available so I used my imagination etc.
For design, I generally use Adobe Photoshop or Illustrator depending on what I need. Because it was a simple text design I went with PS and just used a shitload of layers in the one file so I could test sizes / placements. Once I was happy with the design I shared it with my Instagram community so I could start creating hype around the launch.
season 3: the suppliers
This project forced me to dive deep and get really fucking clear on my values. Because I had two very distinct options. Option A: I could continue with my slow, ethical movement and choose a sweater manufacturer that is made in Australia ~ costing more for a quality product. Option B: I could jump on the bandwagon of mass produced blank apparel and get sweaters made overseas (potentially in unsafe working conditions) for a fraction of the cost.
Typing it out like that seems like a no brainer, but I was swimming in confusion for weeks. Or rather, bouncing between the two. Before I continue, I want to point out that I don’t think manufacturing overseas is a bad thing. Millions of humans rely on the wages they make at garment factories to provide for their families and themselves. Only supporting Australian made isn’t the answer. However, if I’m going to support an international manufacturer, I need to know details: how much are the garment workers paid, what are the working conditions, are the workers receiving all the benefits and support they deserve? It’s when we fail to ask these questions that things become messy.
I could talk about that all day but for time’s sake I’ll spare you further spiralling ~ eventually I came to the conclusion of sticking with a Melbourne-based clothing manufacturer that I know, have used in the past, and love. I’m talking about Qualitops.
Qualitops has a few sweater and hoodie styles, but I instantly fell in love with their Mens Box Fit Sweatshirt which ticked all my boxes (they are ready made meaning you buy them like regular store stock). It retails at $43.40 AUD (wholesale pricing kicks in when you purchase 25 units or more). I ended up choosing the white marle colourway as it was the only one that had an abundance of stock across the sizes I planned on offering. Once I’d locked in the style, I bought a sample to test and wear for a week or two.
season 4: the preorder
Once I was happy with the fit, wear and washability of the sweater, I launched the preorder. I decided on a preorder structure for the initial print run as I had no idea how many people would actually invest. When it comes to “higher” ticket items I’ve had some hits and misses, so for this round I wanted to play it safe and see who was actually putting their money where their mouth is.
I opened the preorder for two weeks with a 2-3 week lead time for manufacturing. This was divine timing as Melbourne went into lockdown during the order window. For photography, I had the actual sweater but it wasn’t screenprinted so I had to do some grade a photoshopping. It wasn’t ideal, but it was the most cost effective option for the first round.
I also decided during the preorder that I would do another round in a month or so, so anyone that missed out or couldn’t invest now had another opportunity. Dancing between generosity and scarcity selling is like I imagine ballet to be: ruthless but rewarding. The more I share and sell my art the clearer my values and boundaries become.
season 5: the production
Once the preorder was complete (I got two orders!) I drove over to Qualitops, picked up the stock and drove it over to Too Far Gone Screen Printing. I love that I can physically visit each supplier and pick up / drop off my products. Yeah, it’s a little extra time on my end but it feels a more personal than having it all mass produced. TFG are absolutely incredible, and because I’d worked with them before I reached out via email with the new project request.
If you’re working with a supplier for the first time, give them as much notice and details as possible. Because this was my second job with TFG and I knew their approximate turnaround time, I waited until I had my final sweater orders in so I could give them exact numbers for the invoice. (Another hot tip: be a nice human and pay your suppliers in full asap!)
Once the sweaters were dropped off there was a few days of back and forth with job details and invoicing (again, I wasn’t worried about this as I’d budgeted it into the turnaround time I communicated in the preorder info). Then once everything was clear, the Too Far Gone team smashed through the order in like a day? It was fast, much faster than I estimated (which was a nice surprise ~ but don’t expect this to be the standard, especially for larger orders).
Something to note: TFG’s usual minimum order quantity (MOQ) for screenprinting is 25 (from memory ~ most screen printers have a similar number) so because I had a much smaller job the cost per print was higher than usual, but again it was something I was expecting and was happy to pay for because I knew the quality would be 11/10. If you ever want to produce a smaller order than a business’ MOQ it’s always worth asking about. Some are a hard no, but that’s why I love working with independent, locally owned businesses. They get what it’s like to be scrappy and running lean and are usually happy to help.
season 6: the shipping
I fucking love wrapping presents, so sending off your orders is often more exciting than any of the seasons leading up to it (coming in second to actually receiving the orders, of course). I packaged and sent off the sweaters today so this lesson is fresh in my mind: always check your packaging sizes and weight!
Check the sizes of the satchels / boxes because all of mine were too small. Luckily I had two perfectly sized boxes (dimensions are roughly 30x23x10cm) hanging around from past packages I’d received. I often like to keep tissue paper, bubble wrap and boxes that I can reuse in Rust’s packaging to save me a few bucks and mama earth one less piece of landfill. It’s a no brainer, really.
To package the sweaters I lined the recycled boxes with recycled tissue paper (yes I’m bragging, this is what I mean about getting scrappy) and added in the sweaters, a thank you card that doubles as an art print, some stickers, care instructions and a surprise A5 drawing by moi.
Then I sent them express using MyPost Business (Australia Post’s business platform) and this is where I buggered up ~ I estimated the weight and was completely wrong so I had to refund the shipping and start from scratch with the correct weight (I was off by 400g ~ oops). Not a huge issue but I’m including it so you can learn from my mistake! After getting turned away at the post office I went straight to Kmart and bought a kitchen scale. It works a treat, and will no doubt save future heartache.
voila!
I think that just about covers it. I hope you found this saga helpful and that it acts as a launch pad for you to create your own magic. Creating physical products is definitely a process but it’s bloody rewarding and deeply satisfying to type journal articles about them whilst wearing them (that’s me right now, in case you couldn’t tell).
I’ll be back again soon with another abundance ~ always article. Until then, if you’d like to support my work or express your gratitude monetarily then you can donate what feels good via PayPal below or invest in some magical art from the Rust Store.
With love and art,
Viv
Creative Mentor & Artist