December 17, 2005
$300 shirts
As I've said before, the trouble with English Cut is that making hand-made ("bespoke") suits doesn't scale. We can only make 5-6 suits a week, tops. Even if we find more customers, there are only so many sewing tailors on Savile Row, and they're all already busy.
And we don't want to make cheaper, mass-produced suits, either. If you're making "the best suits in the world" for $3000, and suddenly you're cranking out $400 ready-to-wears, suddenly your suits are no longer "the best".
Big. Scaling. Issues.
So we decided to not touch the suits. We'll keep making them the way we always have- by hand, bespoke, with a 3-6 month delivery time [Heck, we're even thinking we'll have to eventually impose a six-month waiting list on top of that, just to get an appointment etc, if business keeps growing at the current rate].
We're scaling the business in other areas, namely, shirts.
A lot of our customers want shirts. So we'll sell them shirts. I've just gotten off the phone with one of the major Jermyn Street shirt wholesalers, who supply all the major London shirtmakers- Turnbull & Asser etc. They want to work with us.
So... anyone want to buy a $300 shirt with an English Cut label?
Before you give me the "this will never work" treatment, here's a story.
One of our customers had his suit fitted last week. He wanted some shirts to go with it. You know, the full-on, fancy, bespoke, hand-made kind. Retailing for about $300.
We're not in the shirt business, so we referred him to a shirtmaker friend of ours.
He placed an order for 117 shirts with our shirtmaker friend that very same day.
One. Hundred. And. Seventeen.
At $300 a pop.
Yeah, I was up all night, just thinking about the possible opportunities.
Watch this space.
[UPDATE:] English Cut's next visit to America is in late February/early March 2006. We launch the shirt range in time for that. Official.
Posted by hugh macleod at December 17, 2005 9:47 AM | TrackBackLove the idea! Ascot Chang is my brand of choice today.
Posted by: Solomon Folks at December 18, 2005 2:08 AM117? Holy shit!
I don't think i have 117 pieces of clothing even if i count my socks as single items!
But Yeah I can see shirts. Big Time...
Posted by: the head lemur at December 18, 2005 2:38 AMHugh, have you thought about the Indian market? Especially since many are already aware of Savile Row et al due to history, shall we say? Just got back from a week in New Delhi and if they can find a market for Cartier and Gucci, why not bespoke suits and shirts? Let me know if ever you think Thomas maybe interested in a visit and I can introduce you over email to local people to help set up introductions. I have a cousin who only wears $1200 suits, why not take it up a notch ?
Posted by: Niti Bhan at December 18, 2005 4:10 AMHi Hugh
Armani brand already infected me, Last week I
bought 2 pairs of armani jeans with 900$..damn
One should realize that the stupid overpricing is nothing but a " Reverse Psychology "..got it?
So you try to do the same with English cut? I can guarantee you that keeping it overpriced is more profitable since there are infected customers.
Nice idea Hugh - it's called distribution or agency. A few questions seeing as how you're in the realms of business advisory:
1. Stock/space?
2. Margin?
3. Cash flow management
Tiresome I know....
1. Stock/Space. Not a problem. The shirts are handmade, with the customers leaving an upfront deposit. No real added infrastructure needed (for now).
2. Margins. None of your damn business ;-)
3. Cashflow. Our job is made easier by both Thomas and I generally preferring low-key, frugal lifestyles.
4. ROI. Just kidding.
Posted by: hugh macleod at December 18, 2005 3:44 PMAre we talking very good shirts who happen to have an English Cut label on them, or are we talking The Best Shirts Money Can Buy, the exact quality and fit equivalent of EnglishCut suits?
Posted by: Nia at December 19, 2005 12:09 AMWe're talking about the latter, Nia. Uber-high-end stuff.
Posted by: hugh macleod at December 19, 2005 1:06 AMI thought you were saying there was some wholesaling deal available? Now you're saying handmade. Confused. When I said margin, I meant reduced by virtue of having a wholesaling arrangement. Not being tiresome, trying to understand the model. As a semi-recovered accountant! I'm sure the ROi is wonderful :)
Posted by: Dennis Howlett at December 19, 2005 2:16 AMWhat's the next step down in fancy shirts?
If you're selling for $300, does that mean basically you have the same customers you'd have for the fancy suits?
Sorry, I usually buy pretty cheap shirts (under $50), so I'm just curious where $300 fits in to the overall fancy-shirt scene.
For example, I have a friend who mostly wears t-shirts and jeans, but spends $300 on the jeans because his favorite brand costs that much.
Posted by: frosty at December 19, 2005 4:02 AMDennis, we can have shirts hand-made at wholesale prices, then sell them to our existing customers at retail prices. Profit!
Posted by: hugh macleod at December 19, 2005 4:07 AMFrosty, for cotton, handmade business shirts, $300 is pretty standard for Jermyn Street. Anything more and you're either paying for the designer label, or some exotic fabric.
Though yeah, it's aimed at the same kind of customer that currently buys our suits.
They buy an English Cut suit, next thing you know thay want a shirt to match. So it's all demand-driven. We're not trying to create a new market, just better serve our existing one.
Posted by: hugh macleod at December 19, 2005 4:16 AMHmmm...
If you can sell a lot of $300 EC shirts, most of them presumably to current/future EC suit owners, wouldn't the next logical step be to have a shirtmaker do his/her own blog/brand?
EnglishShirt.com or whatever. If handmade shirts scale so much better than handmade suits, what about a blog-marketed shirt people will want as much as they want EC suits? Except not so expensive (ergo, more folks can buy one) and not so limited (lots of people don't have any use for a suit, no matter how great it is).
...just thinking out loud...
Posted by: frosty at December 19, 2005 5:33 AMGo for it Hugh - while I currently wouldn't spend 3k on a suit - I like quality shirts and Thomas Pink seem to be one the best (in Ireland) at the moment.
Presumably you'll need to get measured for the first one, but I'd love to see a great web site after that stored my details and let me pick material / style on-line.
Ed, that's a corker of an idea =)
Posted by: hugh macleod at December 19, 2005 10:57 AMEd,
Yeah, Pink's are good... they're more the £100 mark.
The funny thing is, we got a lot of requests for shirts from the US West Coast... they don't dress up so formally as the Europeans, but a nice bespoke shirt goes well with jeans.
And the bespoke shirt look hasn't been exploited fully in the USA, IMHO.
Posted by: hugh macleod at December 19, 2005 11:01 AMSo what happens when the Jan sales come along - when they do, can I pick up a TM shirt for c£45-55...the same as I probably could from others in and aournd Jermyn Street?
Posted by: Dennis Howlett at December 19, 2005 9:39 PMWord association... shirts...ties, cuff-links, image, look, sophistication, shoes, formal, classic, innovate. Nothing too cheap, not mass produced, sophisticated, individual. Perhaps you are looking for a stable of associate artisans in these fields. Or designers and a good factory.
Googling around, I found Ascot Chang shirts online in the $150-400 range, not bespoke but you can put in your measurements. (And a really crappy website.)
And I found some fancy east-coast USA custom-shirt guys whose prices start at $650, minimum order 3 shirts, who also have a super-crappy website but once you find the relevant info make an OK pitch.
I agree with the West Coast USA sentiment - I'm in SF and there's just no way I'd ever need a fancy suit here. But I would at least consider a fancy shirt, if you can make it seem as nice to have as the fancy suits sound.
Posted by: frosty at December 20, 2005 1:50 AMSelf-correction: I know fancy suits aren't about what you *need* but in California I'd be hard-pressed to find an occasion to even wear one if I had it.
Posted by: frosty at December 20, 2005 1:51 AMHugh,
The bespoke, quality shirt market hasn't been tapped anywhere that I can see!
Of course being a web marketing person I see the great opportunity to meet people once for measurements and intro - and then through a really great web interface let people pick their shirts - from material and design - through to 'current fashion in London is:...; currently recommended for East Coast USA is:..'
Posted by: Ed Byrne at December 20, 2005 11:33 AM