Fitness Branding, Manufacturing
GymFuse vs Manufacturers
15
Jan
Jan
Gym Clothing Manufacturers
When we first set up GymFuse people often asked us questions such as, ‘so are you a manufacturer?’ ‘do you just print on Gildan shirts?’ ‘are you a clothing brand or a supplier?’ the list went on.
This was clearly an error on our part – our real value proposition was evidently not clear on our initial website. If we were struggling to define our position how could we expect our audience to ‘get it’.
More recently we’ve been asked questions such as ‘why should we use you rather than go direct to a factory somewhere?’ This is a better question and signals to us we are getting better at clearly displaying our product and service offering but there is still some way to go.
Our service offering is quite differentiated in comparison to the thousands of wholesalers and OEM factories you will see on site such as Alibaba. We are writing this blog post as a point of reference for all prospective customers who have the above question.
We will break the GymFuse vs Manufacturers analysis down into the core areas that affect both your experience in sourcing gym clothing and your business:
Lead Time
You have your brand in place, the website is live, now you just need the products to sell. By stocking our core range of products in plain at our facility we are able to customise and finish your garments in 10 working days.
We understand that every day that passes without stock to sell you are missing potential sales, growth and progression. Creating efficient order queuing and processes allows us to get finished products on your shelves in 2 weeks.
An OEM gym clothing manufacturer naturally has a longer production cycle. From sourcing the fabric, creating a sample, finishing the garments to shipping them to the recipient.
We experience this cycle when developing and creating our products with lead times averaging 90-120 days from start to finish. This process becomes more manageable as the business matures and order volume becomes more predictable, for an early stage business long lead times can kill momentum.
Cost
From time to time a prospective customer will question why we are more expensive than quotes received from an overseas manufacturer. Our cost structure naturally follows a different trajectory which I will explain in more detail. Quotations from overseas are, as a rule without the following costs:
- Transportation (sea or air)
- External QC
- Import Duty
- Import VAT
- Customs Clearance
- Delivery to Address
Looking back to our first ever stock order of 6,000 stringer vests I can still remember the nasty surprise we had when receiving an invoice from our freight forwarder due to our naivety over additional fees, duties and charges (ouch).
Cost also comes under the assumption that all items will be saleable, we will discuss this under ‘Quality’.
By having the products in our facility we have absorbed all above costs and can therefore offer completely clear and transparent pricing with no hidden costs.
GymFuse is certainly not a budget option, however by providing a blend of quality, speed and trust our customers have provided us with amazing feedback. We’ve began to gather case studies from our current customers, feel free to listen to Denzel’s thoughts in the video below.
Trust
A quick google regarding sourcing from overseas is guaranteed to bring up a myriad of horror stories, we’ve witnessed this first hand. Referring back to that initial order of stringer vests I mentioned…. after ordering 1,500 pieces of ‘Charcoal Grey’ we were excited to open them upon on arrival. ‘Charcoal Grey’ turned out to be ‘Green’ and that turned into 1,500 pieces of sloooooow moving stock.
A big lesson was learned here, we decided to book a flight out to China to meet face to face with suppliers and develop relationships that were real. Take a look at our post regarding our most recent visit: Manufacturing Blog Post.
Rather than reel off more examples,weI will discuss the touch points we put in place to prevent incidents such as the above.
- Let’s get coffee! We love meeting our customers, by understand our customers and their needs we are in a better position to assist with the brand’s growth.
- Consult with us. We’ve had the pleasure of working with brands of all shapes and sizes, whilst always retaining confidentiality we are happy to discuss what tends to work and what doesn’t.
- Extensive QC process. Both at source and at our facility, we ensure every garment is as it should be.
- Afterservice. Call us anytime to discuss how things are going, we want partners not customers.
We think your quality of sleep is important.
Quality
Quality, ultimately underpins the whole premise of your brand. We recently had a meeting with a young, ambitious group of guys who were committed to creating a powerful brand.
After ordering a large stockpile of garments at a very attractive price from overseas to their horror they found the fabric had changed, print was incorrect and only 20% of garments were ultimately saleable.
We believe that the art of building a fitness brand is in the brand positioning, marketing, value created and ambition of the founders. We strive to be a foundation, the solid base that you need to flourish.
Often we get asked if samples are available, absolutely! Plain samples can be ordered via our online store, if you’ve read this far you deserve a discount code, here it is: SAMPLE20.
Order Volume
Ordering 1,000 pieces per garment style is a big ask even for fairly established brands, gyms or supplement companies. Manufacturers work at scale, orders of 120 pieces are simply impossible to be produced with any profit. Economies of scale really come into play with fabric and pattern cutting even for the smallest factories.
By taking away this financial burden of large order volumes you have the chance to test the market, experiment with new designs and ultimately shorten your stock turnover cycle. Our packages start at just 40 pieces, enabling you to allocate resources on brand growth, rather than boxes upon boxes of product.
We’d love to hear about your clothing requirements and springboard your brand, feel free to get in touch via the link below.
Excellent post! We are linking to this great post on our
website. Keep up the great writing.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts. I truly appreciate your efforts and I
am waiting for your next post thank you once again.
Hey Kanwar,
Great to hear from you and so glad you enjoyed this. We will be posting more content very soon!