As I posted on FB this week I’ve been digging through the clearance stuff and having a think about how that reflects what i’m doing and how i’m doing it. This definitely signals a change that started earlier this year when i started migrating my clothing to more environmentally friendly stock.
When i’m left with excess stock its either one or a combination of a few of these:
Totally missed the mark on the design/didn’t resonate;
Getting stuff printed by a 3rd party often includes minimum numbers (perhaps too high for me);
Too enthusiastic about stuff - particularly if i’m printing. I enjoy the process so much i can get carried away;
Not asking people what they think before going for it;
General anxiety to ensure i have enough sizes/colours of designs.
So pre-orders seem to be the way ahead. I’ve always done informal pre-orders - no money exchanging hands until i have the product ready. But that’s left me stung on a few occasions when folk change their mind/lose their job or just ghost me - no criticism there, shit happens.
The Stallan pre-order worked really well although due to shortages i’m still waiting to fulfil 4 orders. But overall it seemed to be a good way to gauge interest and only produce the tees that i needed with a few extras for the website. Decks are a slightly different proposition as for ones i get printed there are minimum orders and for the ones i print it takes a great deal of effort so i have to do a decent amount to make it worthwhile (in terms of time).
But for clothing i can be in much better control. Some of the new tees i’ll be launching soon will be printed DTG (direct to garment) by a local printed Grey Area Ink. Pete used to be a screen printer so knows his onions in the print game.! It also means i’ll be supporting another local business on a more permanent basis. Doing this should give us more control to produce what we need, when we need it. My tiny wee loft space is only so big.! I’ll also be working on a more formal basis with a local designer soon - more news on that later this month.
So hopefully in the future i won’t need to do too many clearance type sales. That means less of those “MEGA SALE GRAB A BARGAIN” type posts which i’m sure we are all sick of and reduces the amount of future landfill that i’m directly contributing to.
This year we’ve missed about 4 pop ups due to the global crisis so its reduced our capacity to sell. But the upside is the website sales have been much higher than before (thanks for that!). And i’ve spent less on stock - mostly because i’ve had no choice with places closed for a while. At the start of lockdown I held off on “selling” posts and did a bit more sharing of other local businesses which I feel like I’ve always done and still do. But after a wee while I felt like it was time to go again with my own stuff. And that’s when we kicked off the Stallan colab.
I’ll stick the link below to the clearance page on the website. Some gems in there for good prices.! : ) Have a look see. Maybe give it a share with someone you think would appreciate it.
Thanks for reading and thanks for the support. Always appreciated and never taken for granted.
www.doricskateboards.com/clearance
